First oil in 20 years

An excellent start, Alicia - love the colours.  Oil does take such a long time to dry - I found the problem was trying to find somewhere to leave it when it was drying that didn't cause problems.   I've not tried keeping my brushes in solvent for more than short periods during use - largely because of the fumes - I always try to wash the brushes thoroughly instead.  However, I'm not an expert - haven't done many oil paintings.

I don’t keep my brushes in solvent.  If I know I’m going to paint again in the next day or so, especially if I’m away from home, I’ll bundle them tightly together and wrap in cling film. Mostly though I rinse in solvent and wash each brush in soap.

I do the same as Alan. Firstly, I wipe off excess paint and rub against kitchen roll. Then I work in some solvent ( could be the odourless kind, that solves the horrible smell but I do use white spirit and quickly put the top back on ) and finally I soap up the brushes and rinse. Some people only use soap but I've never found this to be really effective. I did try liquid soap especially for cleaning brushes but , after a while, I found there was a build up of paint. Lovely painting by the way, nice light. Re the drying time...sometimes this depends on your painting surface. Gesso is quite absorbent and I think paint dries a little quicker on this. Also, you could invest in a tube of Alkyd white - white is mixed with a lot of your other colours and this speeds up the drying. Plus, don't lather the paint on like I did when I first used oils. Lastly, I've just invested in a set of Alkyd colours, to be used when I want speed of drying.

You can’t rush oil painting Alicia, use the slower drying time to your advantage like I do.  Build up your painting in thin stages, this may mean five or even more stages. Work thinly at first, increasing this towards the final stages, and of course work from dark to light. The secret is to have several paintings on the go, I generally have three, and rotating these daily or so. If you’re new to oils I would suggest that you buy a copy of ‘Vibrant Oils by the well known artist Haidee-Jo Summers ROI. It covers everything that you need to know about oil painting, materials, brushes, mediums etc, it’s  a must, lots of us on here bought it when it was published a year or two back.

I wouldn’t leave my brushes soaking in anything Alicia, certainly no longer than a few hours, and that’s normally if I’ve forgotten them! As regards drying time, I’ve been painting on mdf boards with three coats of gesso and that certainly seems to speed the drying time. I bought a box of 30 A3 boards from a firm called Daisymoon Designs online for £20 so very reasonable, and I like the firm surface for painting on. Your oil painting is a very good start, moody and dramatic! Enjoy your oils, look forward to seeing more.

Don't leave your brushes soaking in solvent, no.  It denatures natural bristles, seeps into the ferrule and weakens the glue, and makes synthetic brushes curl (the cheaper ones anyway).  I don't use solvent at all now - just wipe the brush on a good quality kitchen roll (the best ones absorb more) then use plain soap and lukewarm water.  Never hot.  I shall look up Tessa's Daisymoon Designs - always on the lookout for good surfaces.   Oil paint is messy, I suppose - we've all done daft things with it: ranging from sitting on a wet palette, as I did,  to, as you did, cheerfully thrusting the brush in the coffee (or what's even worse, taking a glug of white spirit - I only did that once, and it wasn't a glug: realized I was in imminent danger of a trip to Accident and Emergency when the smell hit my nose).  But you do develop tidier habits over time: best investment is an apron, or overalls are even better: I wouldn't even despise the traditional artist's smock - you might look a bit of a poseur, but at least it'll keep your clothes clean.  And put your tea, coffee, or ham sandwich well away from your painting area - wash your hands before eating: you're unlikely to actually poison yourself, but a) better safe than sorry, and b) sinking the teeth into a ham and oil painty baguette is not an experience you'll forget in a hurry.   You'll develop techniques over time to help you deal with the problem of adding fresh paint onto wet paint - e.g. leaving the cloud shapes to be painted round and in, as it were, rather than laying an overall blue or whatever and then adding the clouds on top.  Keep the paint lean - doesn't necessarily mean thin, but not gurgling with added oil.   I certainly recommend Haidee Jo Summers' book, which I bought as a download (and will buy as a proper book, so much pleasanter to read); and I could suggest an e-book on the Amazon Kindle Store, entitled Oil Paint Basics, by, um, well, me.....  It could do with an update, but I know it's helped quite a few people.  There are much more thorough, 'deeper' books out there, but they're for reading when you're past the early stages (though I think you are through those) and ready to move on.