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Starting an oil painting for the first time.
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Message
Posted
Thanks Alan, I'm glad the clouds covered the church also. Fiona, I thought my name was, patience is a virtue, It was said that often to me. I find it difficult waiting but this hasn't been as bad as I thought because I've been doing sketching and other painting in between. I will leave this and continue tomorrow. I might get the watercolours out now.
Posted
That's looking great Fiona, I can really see the mixture of colours in your snow. I really dislike it when the daylight goes and you have to try and do things in artificial light. It is good following something that is structured like this. I am enjoying it. Your painting looks nearly finished now.
Posted
Lovely watching Denise, I would love to join in however haven’t got any acrylics here in Orkney, on an ever growing list of things I need. Didn’t have room to bring them with me when I moved! Never used oils but plan to try them in the future when I eventually move into my house which won’t be ready till March/April time!
Posted
Just picked something up here - I'm no great health and safety advocate, but while Turps has a smell I find quite agreeable (because I think I associate it with when I first started painting in oils) it's none too good for you if you inhale it - especially in the chillier weather, when you might have windows shut and the heating on, its effects on your chest and its potential to cause headache are things to look out for. Not that no-odour mineral spirits are any healthier - if anything they're worse, because if you can't smell them you're oblivious of the threat they can pose. Either ventilate well, or wear a safety mask (the anti-Covid ones are no good for this) and keep the top screwed on the bottles.
I only use thinners these days - i.e. solvents - for cleaning stubborn bits on the palette, or for cleaning the surface of a painting a day before applying varnish. We've been told for decades that we MUST use solvents with oil paint: but it's not true. And if you can avoid them, I would.
Posted
It must be beautiful in Orkney Gillian. March will soon be here, you must be excited. I didn't manage to do any painting today I have been so busy but plan to steam ahead over the weekend. I have enjoyed using the oils the past few days and will continue to carry on learning about them along with the watercolour and acrylics. I've really missed not being able to do anything today because I only ever think about painting these days. It's funny, when I'm watching the news and they have everyone doing the zoom discussions, I'm checking out what art work they have got hanging on the wall behind them and trying to decide whether it's tasteful or not.
Posted
Thanks for your Input Robert, These things I will take on board. It has been very interesting for me the past few days trying this new medium. I know, there will be a huge amount of learning with regards to oils. I don't know what it is to sit in an art class but having a structured demonstration like this and seeing how other people are getting on with the same piece of work at different stages, it has been great.
Posted
Well it is important that you work in a ventilated room Denise, and you definitely don’t need large containers of turpentine left open.
I use very little these days, of both turps and oil, but I do like to use a bit of both in moderation, particularly in the early stages of a painting.
I did mention earlier that oil paints already contain linseed oil (or similar) as their binding agent, but different brands of paint will vary significantly in the amount.
I use the lids off say a marmalade jar or whatever, and pour out a very small amount of turps and oil into each, which does to some extent limit the amount of odour permeating into the room.
I always press my brush into a wad of kitchen roll after dipping it into either, so there’s not a lot left on my brush before I pick up a colour to use.
Like Robert, I actually don’t dislike the smell, in fact I rarely notice it at all, but it can do damage if inhaled in any quantity and over a long period of time.
If you do take to oil painting in a big way in the future, and I know that you are experimenting with a variety of medium at present, but you could do with buying Vibrant Oils by Haidee-Jo-Summers.
Its got everything you’ll ever need to know about oil painting, in simple easy to understand text and illustrations, for the beginner upwards. A lot of us on here bought it when it was published a few years back. I believe that we all highly recommend it, I certainly do.
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
I bought Haidee-Jo's book on the Kindle app - and I just don't get on with the app, or Kindle, at all; so I hope the book's not sold out, because I'm going to have to buy a copy of the real, paper, card, and printer's ink, thing. But I have read it, and join Alan in recommending it - always remembering, there are many ways to skin a cat (if that's anyone's idea of fun... not the cat's, obviously): i.e. there are other approaches to oils than H-J S's. But what you want to do is look at her actual work - that's really the only recommendation the book needs; she can transform the most apparently mundane of scenes, and that perhaps is the greatest skill in representational painting: you're bound to make some sort of impression on the viewer if you paint the Sphinx, or the Tower of London - even if it's not done very well. But to make a painting out of a corner of the garden, a greenhouse, a few discarded pots - you've got to be good to do that.
What did Chardin say? "It doesn't matter what you paint, it's how you paint it." True - but that doesn't make it easy.
Posted
Thanks Alan, I will definitely get that book as I know I will continue on with oils now. The Turps, I am in a well ventilated room and because I'm not keen on the smell, I use it very sparingly and close the bottle up right away, once I've poured a tiny amount out. I have been wiping the brushes with a rag or should I say, my best cotton tea towel cut up. I can't wait to do the next stage today. Thanks once again thanks for your advice.
Edited
by Painful Painter