Start up set - oils

Hi Dawn. I started painting by going on a 2 day oil course and the rest is history! Are you going to be using traditional or water-mixable oils. I used traditional and I bought the Georgian range of oil colours. A lot of artists say you should get "artists" range which are costlier but I found Georgian extremely good. They are made by Daler Rowney. Don't get huge tubes in case you don't enjoy using oils. I would buy a couple of reds, yellows and blues and a Titanium White and Paynes Grey. A small bottle of original Liquin, which is a medium. I didn't use any linseed oil. and a bottle of white spirit to clean your brushes. You could use turpentine but it can be expensive at this early stage. A couple of rags. I used a small table easel. And I would buy a couple of canvas boards. If of course you are using water-mixable oils, then the colours range would still be ok but you would need a medium suitable for this type of oil and no white spirit. Nearly forgot the brushes, a personal choice but I rarely used hog brushes and preferred ordinary acrylic/oil types. Try and get decent ones, perhaps a small, medium and larger. Enjoy your course.

Welcome to the forum Dawn .I would recommend getting Artisan water mixable ois in a cold and warm for each colour plus white and bunt umber.For brushes get jacksons black hogs 4 and 8 flilberts and round 4 and 8. buy a cheapish pad of oil painting paper from Daler Rowney and get a piece of plywood cut to a bigger size than the pad. As I would advise you to start oils in ones you can dilute with water and easily clean your brushes and cheap plasic palette with water and no smelly turps etc. I can tell you that I worked for years with ordinary oils and inmy opinion I found changing types very advantageous. Oh and get a clean jam jar for the water..Many famous firms offer the water mixable oils now so you are getting the same quality as the less expensive. "oily . ones . Any more questions just ask and I will answer to the bast of my abilities and my sixty years of experience. The oily oils are old hat. Syd

Thanks for enjoying my "fibre art" painting. It's really good that Syd has given you details of the water-mixable oils, I know he and a lot of other artists do prefer them. However, I did try them and they didn't feel the same as trad. oils and I know some other artists feel the same, again it is personal choice. Yes, oils are very sensual and I always drool over them. Sad isn't it? Beautiful to use - the only downside is that they and water-mixable oils take time to completely dry when finished. Hope you get on ok with them.

Oh, by the way, the charcoal painting is looking great, and one of my favourite subjects. Well done.

There's an e-book entitled Oil Paint Basics on the Amazon Kindle store, by a chap called - what a coincidence! - Robert Jones. Knows what he's talking about, he does - and a great read at only a few quid..... All right, it's mine. But you might find it helpful if you're using traditional oils. I don't use water miscible ones for a variety of reasons, but a lot of the advice offered there will be applicable to them, and the bits which won't be will be obvious. So far as colours and ranges are concerned, I'd probably repeat what Syd had to say - a warm and cool tone of each primary (red, yellow and blue) plus a larger tube of Titanium White, and an earth red, like Burnt Sienna, and yellow, like Yellow Ochre and/or Raw Sienna. I'd throw in Naples Yellow, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, and Viridian too, but opinions differ. Viridian, and to a lesser extent Pthalo Green, are good for mixing - positively loathsome if used on their own. Linseed oil should be your medium, which you can mix with Low Odour Thinners, or Turpentine, but don't mix it with White Spirit, which is good for cleaning the palette but not for painting with. And add oil only when you really need to, in the final layers of your painting. Georgian oils are good, and plenty of professional artists use them; there's also the Winton range, at budget level - and Lukas, if you can find them; and two ranges made by Royal Talens, the cheaper one the van Gogh, the somewhat more expensive the Rembrandt. There are far more expensive - and frankly better - brands (Michael Harding, Old Holland, W & N Artists' quality, Daler Rowney Artists) and several more, and you could add the top-notch paints to your basic collection gradually, if you get on with painting in oil and want to progress further in due course. I would avoid ultra-cheap paint - you won't get the colour intensity from it, and it'll be too thin; the sensuousness of the experience arises from manipulating thick, rich paint and strong colour - ideally, you want a paint that will give you good colour and goes a long way - this is where the most expensive brands score heavily: you don't want to be scrubbing away with a cheap tube of Ultramarine which just sits on the canvas like a sullen brat and refuses to move unless heavily diluted - and then just gives you a blue-ish stain. You'll want a palette, an easel, containers called dippers for your medium and any solvent, a couple of painting knives would be useful, and a palette knife for scraping paint from the palette, and a set of brushes which you should reserve just for oil paint. And the rest we can leave to your tutor, or any further questions you may have.

PS - it's the solvents that give you headaches, or that's the case for most of us. White Spirit in particular is dangerous stuff, and there are alternatives - genuine Turpentine doesn't affect me, but I know others don't like it. Take a good look at the Jackson's and Ken Bromley websites, both offer a range of mediums and solvents.

Just a quick addition to Syd's note; Keep a look out for offers on Jackson's black Hog brushes. I got a BOGOF (Buy one get one Free) offer on them, so I got 2 sets (one for acrylic and one for oil.