Starting the Oil painting

 How do I start my Oil painting?

I started working small to get the feel about how the oil paint flowed, values and wet into wet process or do I like it better if it dries in-between some painting techniques. There definitely is a learning curve when you start any new media. Not an absolute necessity but very helpful is your drawing and painting prep needed before starting a piece. You can find those process under the labels "Drawing" with in this blog if you have any questions. 

So I start by putting a layer of Gesso on my painting surfaces including store bought pre primed stretched canvas. It doesn't take long and I do several at once of all different sizes. After that I coat them with  an acrylic background color  I experiment with many colors and techniques. I've used quinacridan magenta, yellow orche which is common, to lime green with a brayer roller using very dark blue green color, to putting drops of fluid acrylics and rolling with the brayer to waiting a minute and using a very light spray of water and then taking my brush and very lightly go over the water. It creates a snow like affect on the paint. Have fun, oil and acrylics are opaque mediums and if you don't like it or want to repurpose a painting you didn't like just Gesso over it. 

Here is my initial set up with my Open Box M set up. I have my brushes and Jar paints set out just like I will put them on my gray palette. Also, I have a rag to wipe off extra oil on my brush or to wipe off my palette knife I use to mix paint with. To the right I have my mini iPad on a stand with my subject manner on it. I have on the window sill some thumbnails I did in this square format. My photo I can hold in my hand and on the left are 2 mini paintings of the same scene. One is in oil and one is in acrylic. Liquin is used to help dry things along today on the right in a metal clip on bowl. My walnut oil is hanging in front of the palette. This canvas is a mixture of Q magenta and Cad Orange

20x20 

Now, I will put some burnt umber & Ultramarine blue mixed with some added oil to put my initial drawing down. This is just a guideline, an advantage to this is if I don't like how I put some lines down I just wipe them off and re make them. I also at this time shade lightly my dark areas I defined in my thumbnails. Keep it very simple.

You can see here I have laid my paints out starting with titanium white in the far upper left corner. In order from top to bottom on the far left is:

Titanium white

Buff white

Paynes gray

Raw Sienna

(My own) mixed gray with left over paints from previous paintings kept in a plastic jar with lid.

Across the top:

Hansa Yellow

Cad yellow medium and below it is Cad yellow deep

Yellow Orche

Cad Orange

Cad red medium

Rose Madder

On the right side top to bottom

 Ultramarine blue

Cobalt blue

Pthalo blue

Chrome green oxide

Will I use all these? I'm not sure but I might in some form. Mixtures I keep because I don't want to mix them, but use them often enough is the Cad Org, Chrome Green. I also have dioxide purple but didn't put it out for this painting. It's good to keep plenty of white on hand. I find that it's a color used a lot to lighten passages in a painting. The Buff white is used to lighten and gray a color down if needed. In the end if a skin develops over the paints, I take it off with a palette knife and use what ever is left. If not much is there it goes into that gray pile I keep at the bottom left of my palette. 

Here are my references for this painting including thumbnails

So I got my sketch out on the canvas. I've kept it as a ghost image. I happen to start this painting with the sky. Why did I pick that? Well, its a pretty big shape so why not. I can use the color to key off of with the rest of my painting and its darker than the clouds. I can always adjust but the clouds I know will be light but I don't want to use white straight out of the tube for them for sure. 

Do I like all the shapes? Do I have a good base for local color I want to use? Are my values where I want them? Notice, there is no real detail anywhere at this stage of the painting. This is a key concept  to keep in mind. Good habits to start with will lead to greater successes. Some of this painting will be slightly dry by morning (because of the Liquin). You don't have to use that, the paints will still be  workable for blending the next day if you don't use the Liquin. The palette will also stay wet along with your brushes. I put them in the Turpenoid Naturals over night anyway, but you don't have to. I place my rags I use outside just because I don't like the smell ( I'm working in my living room until my studio is done). But my methods are non toxic. 

That's it for today. I will continue to update the process of this painting. It's not a bad idea to have several paintings or drawings going at once. Especially if you work in other mediums. 

Any questions regarding my process or on content please feel free to ask. Anything special you would like me to cover just let me know. To improve on your drawing skills check out my posts under the drawing labels for more information. Have a great day!