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Beginners Oil Painting Tips – About Brushstrokes and Such

A question: Is there a secret way to hold a brush so every stroke is a stroke of genius?

The answer is unfortunately no. Best is to hold the brush towards the end of the handle. This gives you a little more space and a better view of your canvas.

If you want more control (e.g., to paint details), you should hold the brush closer to the head. Other than that, there are no secrets. Just experiment and find your own way.

How do you develop style and technique? The answer is: Just practice and further don’t worry about it.

Your style is in your brain while technique building is a matter practice. The manner in which you become fluent in these techniques actually becomes a part of your unique style.

You can also learn a lot from the masters. Don’t copy their moves but, in time, give them your own twist.

Hold the brushes in different ways, put the paint down in different ways, and observe what happens and repeat what works for you.

A brushstroke generally implies four separate actions:

Cleaning the Brush – The main thing to remember here is to always pull your brush, never push it.

Shaping the Brush – If you clean a brush correctly it should be shaped and ready to go. However, for delicate work (e.g., thin lines) you can chisel-shape the brush. That is, you hold the brush at a 45 degree angle to your horizontal palette, push down on it, and then slightly forward. The brush tip should now have a straight chisel-like edge.

Loading the Brush – Now you can load the brush with paint in several ways. Shovel-loading a brush means lowering it onto your palette and pushing it at a low angle into a pile of paint. The paint is only on one side of the brush.

To tip-load a brush, you first smooth out the front of the paint pile. Then, you pull a chisel-shaped in a slight arch across the front edge of the pile. The result is a thin line of paint at the very tip of the brush.

If accuracy is of no concern you can pull-load your brush. Pull a brush at an angle through the upper layer of the paint pile. The more paint you want the deeper you should go into the pile. The brush-to-palette angle determines how far down the brush will be covered with paint.

Body-loading is a form of pull-loading but with a small brush-to-palette angle at a thin paint pile. The goal is to cover the entire brush head with paint.

Application of the Paint – A shovel-loaded brush makes precise strokes of varying thicknesses and almost functions as a writing tool.

A tip-loaded brush can be held perpendicular to the canvas and, while lightly touching the canvas, create very thin lines.

A pull-loaded brush is useful to create run of the mill strokes that don’t require too much precision.

A body-loaded brush is good for applying impasto strokes and heavy highlights. Impasto is a painting style in which the paint is laid-on very thickly.

Much more can be said about this but just remember, the ease with which you apply brushstrokes depends on how you load your brush.

Learn also how to draw with pencil.

For the tattoo art lovers, read useful tattoo tips here.

In this article I will detail the tube colors of a starter palette for beginning artists – sort of beginners oil painting palette guide. These are in fact the colors I personally use most often. Here is the proposed 6-color palette:

1. Lemon Yellow

2. Cadmium Yellow

3. Cadmium Red

4. Permanent Rose (Alizarin Crimson)

5. French Ultramarine

6. Phthalo Blue

7. Titanium White

8. Ivory Black

Note that White and Black are generally not classified as colors.

A color is often known by different names depending on the manufacturer. For example, Permanent Rose is more or less the same as Alizarin Crimson.

The above palette has the capacity to produce very clean secondary colors, i.e., colors that are a mixture of just two tube colors.

Notice that there are two versions of each primary color (yellow, red, and blue). One is a cool version (i.e., leaning towards the blues and greens) and the other is a warm version (i.e., leaning towards the reds and yellows).

First learn to completely understand how the six colors together with black and white interact in their numerous mixtures.

Here are some of the more important properties of the palette colors.

Lemmon Yellow – Lemmon Yellow is a cool, greenish leaning, and opaque yellow. Opaque means solid or not-transparent. This yellow is a medium-to-slow drier with medium to low tinting strength. Low tinting strength means that you need to add a lot of this paint to see its effect in a mixture.

Cadmium Yellow – Cadmium Yellow is a warm, orange leaning, and opaque yellow. This yellow is a medium-to-slow drier and has a high tinting strength. Its orange bias makes it an ideal yellow to use with Cadmium Red to produce very clean secondary oranges.

Cadmium Red – Cadmium Red is a warm, orange leaning, and opaque red. This red is a slow drier and has a high tinting strength.

Permanent Rose – Permanent Rose is a cool, violet leaning, and transparent red. This red is a medium-to-slow drier and has a medium tinting strength. Its violet bias makes it an ideal red to use with French Ultramarine to produce very clean secondary violet.

French Ultramarine – French Ultramarine is a warm, violet leaning, and semi-transparent blue. This blue is a slow drier and has a high tinting strength. Its violet bias makes it an ideal blue to use with Permanent Rose to produce very clean secondary violets.

Phthalo Blue (Red Shade) – Phthalo Blue is a cool, green leaning, and transparent blue. This blue is a medium-to-slow drier and has a very high tinting strength. Its green bias makes it an ideal blue to use with Lemmon Yellow to produce very clean secondary greens.

Titanium White – Titanium White is an opaque white and covers up just about any color. There are other whites such as Flake White and Zinc White. As a beginning artist you may want to avoid using Zinc White because it tends to crack when applied thickly.

Ivory Black – Ivory Black is the cleanest of all the tube blacks and is extremely constructive in lots of mixtures. Other tube blacks include Lamp Black and Mars Black.

This simple palette is amazingly versatile and many minimal-minded professionals use nothing else.

You are welcome to read more about how to draw with pencil.

P.S. For the tips on the color and other issues in tattoos, please read tattoo tips.

Pagans or believers of Earth-based faith systems are more open to the idea of getting tattoos than some other faith systems.  When they do get a tattoo, they often lean towards tribal tattoo designs — designs based on the traditional art of the Celts, the Native Americans and occasionally Vikings.  These peoples had a healthy respect for nature, which a modern Pagan hopes to live by, too.  Not only that, but tribal tattoo designs look really cool.  When David Letterman asked one of his staff to get a tattoo for a comedy skit, the staffer chose an Aztec sun, even though she herself was not Aztec and her faith system was uncertain.

What Is Old Is New Again

Tattoos were very popular in ancient cultures like the Celts, where they were taken very seriously.  The designs on their flesh (usually blue, from the ink of the woad plant) mimicked the designs prevalent in nearly all aspects of their lives — on their weapons, cooking utensils, sacred objects and even personal grooming equipment.  These tribal tattoo designs were considered powerful magic in and of themselves.  To have a tattoo of a sacred symbol was to take the symbol’s magic and put it permanently upon yourself.  Tattoos were not only on limbs, but placed all over the body, especially the head.

Pagans know the inherent magic in a tribal tattoo design isn’t in the tattoo itself, but what your personal association about that tattoo is.  The tribal tattoo design serves as a sigil — a  focus for certain thoughts.  For example, perhaps a Pagan has a tribal tattoo design of Celtic knots around the upper arm.  The wearer looks at the design and is reminded that his or her arm is blessed and will do good works.  The tattoo reinforces these positive thoughts and helps the wearer get done whatever needs to be done for the day.

Why Get A Tattoo

Some Pagans get a tribal design tattoo as a reminder and none-too-subtle display of their faith system.  Some get one to celebrate their personal ancestral heritage.  Some get it to celebrate recovering from a bad patch — the tattoo serves as a reminder that you can survive.  Some Pagans might have seen a specific design in their dreams or vision quests and this symbol has a deep personal meaning that they probably would rather not explain.  And some Pagans just like tribal tattoo designs just for the look of them.

Beginners Oil Painting Tips – Know Your Oil Painting Brushes

Let us begin with the standard type of brushes used when painting with oils. Here they are.

The Flat – The flat brush has a flat ferrule, is square-ended, and has medium to long hairs. The ferrule of a bush is the metal sleeve used to join the bristles and handle of the brush.

The flat brush able to carry a lot of paint and can be handled fairly easily. It can be used to produce bold sweeping strokes or when used on its edge it can also draw fine lines.

The Filbert – The filbert brush has a thick, flat ferrule and is oval-shaped with medium to long hairs. It has long handles. It is a compromise between a flat and a round brush. With its soft rounded edges, the filbert brush is often used for blending and drawing.

The Bright – The bright brush has a flat ferrule, short-length hairs, and is usually set in a long handle. The width and length of brush hair is about the same. The bright brush is suitable for short controlled strokes with thick or heavy color.

The Round – The round brush has a round ferrule, is round or has a pointed tip. It is used to produce fills, washes, and thick to thin lines. A pointed round is good for fine detail.

Then, there are also a number of special oil brushes that are used to accomplish specific tasks. Here are some of them.

The Fan – The fan brush has a flat ferrule and has hairs spread out in a half circle. It is used for soft blending, smoothing, textures, and specials effects. For soft blending, natural hair is best while synthetic works well for textural effects.

The One Stroke – The one stroke brush has a flat ferrule, is square-ended, and has medium to long length hairs. It has a short handle and can hold large amounts of paint. It is primarily used to paint block letters in one stroke hence its name.

The Sash – The sash has long handles and tapered bristles. Bristles are stiff hairs. The sash is perfect for detailed work on large paintings and decorative painting.

The Script and Liner – The script brush is a pointed, narrow brush with very long hair. Liner brushes have shorter hairs and are narrower. The script and liner brushed have round ferrules, short handles, and high paint carrying capacity. They are used for lettering (such as signing your paintings), outlining, highlighting, and to produce long thin strokes.

The brushes as described above are really more than you need to start painting with oils. If you are a beginning artist it may be a good idea to try out the flats and the filberts first.

For example, learn how to paint with one filbert real well. See how far you can carry your paintings with just this one brush. You will be surprised, after a few months of practice, how versatile that filbert really is.

It is better to become an expert with one kind of brush than being half an expert with many.

Wanna become a pencil drawing expert? Learn how to draw with pencil.

And the tattoo art is discusses in this tattoo tips publication.

Beginners Oil Painting Tips – The Skill of Seeing Color

Color is the central component of painting. It is what makes it a unique art form. Therefore, it is essential that we develop the skill of seeing colors as they really are. Here are some tips to help you with this.

Prejudice – The first step in learning to see color correctly is to get rid of all built-in preconceived notions about color.

The brain (luckily) has the ability to filter the myriad of visual impulses and often fills gaps with stylized memories of reality. Unfortunately, stylized color memories are often very wrong.

So, we must learn to approach the observation of each color as if we see it for the first time without prejudice.

Local Color – Each object has its own color which is sometimes called the object’s local color. It is the color of the object when seen in normal daylight.

Light – The local color of an object will be affected by the light that shines on it. We must realize that all surfaces are to some degree reflective. In other words, the local color of an object changes when subjected to light and we must be aware of those changes.

For example, let’s we have a perfectly red apple. That is, the local color of the entire apple is red. When a yellowish light shines on this apple sideways we will observe that the lit side takes on an orange undertone and that the side in the side receives a violet bias which is the complement of yellow.

Harmony – A lit scene is naturally harmonized. The light that spreads over the scene has the effect of changing all the local colors in such a way that all colors become harmonized.

For example, the colors you observe in an actual landscape will always be in harmony. This is because the light source (the sun) drenches the entire scene. This is not the case when you put together an imagined scene in your studio. Indeed, it takes a bit of color theory knowledge to produce a harmonious painting.

Nomenclature – There is also the matter of nomenclature. People tend to use special names for certain colors such as lemon green, navy blue, etc. This is not the best way to go about describing colors.

A better way is to start with the three primary color names: red, yellow, and blue. Add to these the names of the three secondary colors: orange, green, and violet.

Then, a color that looks like red but has an orange bias is called orange-red. A color that is clearly yellow but has a green undertone is called green-yellow. Or, a green that has more yellow than blue in it is called a yellow-green. And so on.

Tertiary colors often have a clear secondary nature with a bit of a third color added. For example, we can speak of an orange-red with a touch of blue or white.

This way of thinking about color also aids us with color observation. When you see a color you can start by identifying the overall primary color. Then you can try to judge if there is a bias to that primary color. And finally, you can try to gauge if there are touches of additional colors visible in the mix.

At the same time, this approach also gives you a methodical approach to mixing the observed color on your palette.

In the end, as is the case with so much in painting, learning to observe colors correctly is a matter of practice and experience. The above tips, however, should help in this endeavor.

I am also giving useful tips about how to draw with pencil here.

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