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I know a good workman never blames his tools but...
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Message
Posted
Hi guys, I am a real beginner and as such bought an all-in-one oil painting tutorial set for beginners. I have done one painting using this but was already frustrated by my inability to be able to do fine strokes or "points", and when I tried to sign my masterpiece(!) well it was just a big blurred splodge there was no way I could do my signature with even the thinnest round brush in the set (probably doesn't help its a very small A5 canvas to start with so was trying for a very small signature).
Anyway long and short of it - are these brushes likely to be very cheap and therefore causing my issues or is it purely down to technique, or a combination of the 2? I literally could not get the tail feathers of the rooster I was painting to anything like a think point at the end whatever I tried.
I did read even a great painter would really struggle with cheap brushes so that gave me some hope. Would you guys recommend splashing out a bit on some good quality brushes, in order for me to enjoy my journey more? And if so any recommendations? If it helps I am mostly aiming to do portraiture (eventually) and would like to be able to do fine detail better.
Thanks for any advice
James
Posted
I had some really nice brushes a long while back and these have got a little long in the tooth so while I was picking up some paints online I bought a cheap set of brushes to go with them. I am not even going to get these out of the packaging because I can see they are useless.
I think you don't need too many, but you do need decent brushes... I have only a couple that seem to have survived in good condition and plan to take good care of them. One is a chisel shaped thing which is good for putting in large blocks of colour and the other a standard round one which comes to a nice point, has some stiffness to it (horse hair I think) and can paint a very fine line if gentle with it or a much wider line with some pressure. If you want sharp lines I also find you need to load up the brush with paint, with less paint on the brush you cannot go as lightly or as fine.
I may add an even finer brush eventually, if so maybe I will try some miniature portraiture.
Posted
James,
I've been in your situation once - many moons ago - and have to confess to being tempted more recently.
The 'gift' set, the 'you don't need to buy anything else' tag line, the 'everything you need to get started' set. And while they have their place, yes, they usually contain inferior brushes, inferior paints and inferior canvases or boards.
But guess what, that doesn't really matter IMHO if it sets you on the course of painting.
I also have to suggest, and politely, that painting isn't easy and if you're in your first foray, then it will be something you look back on and realise it was far from a masterpiece. Yes, I know all the stories about Mozart et al, but painting is a journey.
I'm in my fifth incarnation as a dabbler in oils and I swore I would not waste money on decent supports, brushes, paints or anything until I knew I could do them justice.
If I look at what I painted when I started, compared to what I'm capable of now, there is a huge gulf of difference. I'm still not very good, but I enjoy the process and the results much more.
So, have a rummage on Youtube for painters (not the Bob Ross kind) and see how they hold a brush, attack the canvas and approach a painting.
But enjoy the process of playing with the paint, getting used to the feel of the brush on the support and don't give up.
I've recently invested in artist quality paints, artist quality brushes and artist quality supports.
But I still paint with my Georgian oils, on bog-standard cotton canvases and with cheap brushes from the local emporium as I try to improve, find my style and waste fewer pennies on my journey.
I hope this helps,
Mark
Posted
Just a quick add - these are my brushes. Cheap and nasty, expensive, middle of the range - everything. I've a fair number picked up over the years.
The bottom four throw a different light on this, for me at least. The black handled stippler cost about £12 IIRC. The three synthetic haired stipplers on the left cost £2 from a local Cornish emporium - so, for the cost of one good quality brush, I've bought several cheaper sets as may be visible from the photograph. I use them more often than the good quality brush and they never fail to disappoint. It's one example I can use of 'money spent' or 'qiuality' not necessarily being the goal to aim for.
Now, I'm a hobby painter and others may disagree, but it is down to what works for you.
Mark
Posted
You don't need to compromise on cheap and horrible brushes - Rosemary & Co (as mentioned by Sylvia) will offer you hog-hair, always useful in oil, and a range of synthetics (see the Ivory range in particular, and there's a new one the name of which I forget). Also the Shiraz range. They're good, but not expensive. For the fine lines you're after, an Ivory rigger plus plain Linseed oil, until the paint flows, will do that for you. Provided you don't try at this stage to achieve fine lines over very wet paint - it can be done, but isn't easy. A sable rigger might be a good purchase in due course
I would not, with all due respect to Sylvia, use a fine liner on oil paint - I did know someone who signed his oils in green ink for a while, but don't recommend it, on the grounds that oil and water don't mix. Scratching into paint is also quite feasible, if it's thick enough and the layer underneath light or dark enough for the signature to be seen. Use the rigger for this, with a slosh of oil.
If you really do have a horse-hair brush - and I have a couple - as opposed to hog, it's good for roughing in large areas, but a touch scratchy for anything more subtle. Amazing what you can get away with, though, if you have a light touch. If you continue to have a lot of trouble with fluid lines, and the Linseed oil doesn't seem to give you the results you want, Winsor and Newton Oil Painting Medium is as good as anything else; but go easy on things like Turpentine and Mineral Spirits: don't use White Spirit, other than to clean brushes; and you don't actually need to use these harsh solvents at all - the more you do, the weaker the paint film.
Avoid pony hair brushes - far too often included in beginners' paint sets, and useless in all media, or almost so. And keep goat hair for your watercolours. You can of course also use painting knives - the flexible sort, not rigid palette knives. And finally (for now) don't use any more medium (oil or oil mix) than you really need to: a lot of paint is perfectly workable straight out of the tube.
Posted
Thanks for all the advice and tips and suggestions! I have strated working at A4 on a pad of canvas like paper which is great for me practicing and saves buying loads of expensive canvases to waste! And yes it's already easier not being so small! I've also bought a few more brushes to experiment with and I'm enjoying the whole process a lot more already.
Going to attempt a portrait soon as this is the area I would most like to get in to... oh and landscapes too xD
I'm painting only with oil paints for whoever asked... so messy and so much prep and cleanup!!!
Posted
Oil painting paper is good - and if by chance you do produce a masterpiece on it, you can always glue it to an archival support (and keep your fingers crossed). There was an art college professor who wouldn't allow students to use a canvas until he thought they were ready: possibly the same one who would throw disorganized palettes, which didn't have the colours squeezed out in logical order with mixing space in the middle, out of the window.... He'd have a field-day with mine.
Posted
Your confusion is entirely understandable. I have sat on an oil palette - my pet rat, the late Rogan, waddled over a palette, then panicked when I squealed and trod Prussian Blue (of all colours, it's a dye!) over the carpet - I have ruined a pair of corduroy trousers by spilling masking fluid on them - I have prodded myself in the chest with the end of a paint-brush handle, forgetting I'd used it to scratch out paint: the polka dot pattern on my shirt was less than appealing - and I have come within millimetres of guzzling a can of white spirit, while more than once thrusting a fully laden brush into my coffee. The transfer of paint from palette to canvas can be peculiarly hazardous.
Posted
Actually robert i only ever use cheap brushes. To be exact they are wash brushes. A pack of three costs me £2 from the works. I rarely use any brush apart from these. Some artists would say i need a stiffer set of brushes but for the style ive developed and that hazy smoothness i like to try and achieve each time i paint a landscape, these cheap wash brushes are ideal. For impasto work they are naturally not so great but then i rarely use thick paint.
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