Oil painting is a slow but rewarding process.
Painting is a difficult but rewarding pursuit. It can take years to achieve real proficiency, but learning can still be a fulfilling process. Landscape is a classic format for painting. For beginners, start with a landscape with simple features that you can break down into larger shapes.
Paint
You will need a full range of oil colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white and earth colors such as burnt and raw sienna, raw umber and yellow ochre form a good palette. Add colors as you wish, but all the colors you need for a landscape can be mixed from this basic palette.
Brushes and Equipment
The types of brushes you use are important. Natural bristle brushes (such as hog bristle) are good for oil. You mostly get what you pay for with brushes so get the best you can afford in a range of sizes, both round and flat. Bristle brushes are not expensive compared to sable. You need something to mix your paint on, a palette for acrylic or oil paint and a mixing tray with wells for watercolor, as well as a palette knife to mix the paint.
Layout the Landscape
A good drawing, like a good foundation, is important to a good finished landscape. Use a pencil or vine charcoal to sketch it onto your canvas. One trick is using a piece of cardboard with a rectangle the same relative dimensions of your painting surface cut out of it; use this to help you visualize the landscape and decide what will go into the painting and where the points on the landscape will meet the edges. Start with large shapes like the sky, horizon, a field or mass of trees and work into the smaller shapes. The drawing is the foundation not the finery, so save the details for the painting.
Painting
Start with thin washes of paint (diluted with mineral spirits) in colors close to the landscape colors. Mix a color on the palette or in one of the wells, thin it and apply with a large brush. Fill in bigger shapes. Thicken the paint as you go, taking your time and getting more specific with the color. The thicker, or impasto, paint should be saved for last. A painting may take just one, intense session or you may want to work on it over a long period.
Clean Up and Drying Time
Wash your brushes and tools directly after your painting session with soap and water. Store brushes upright in a jar or can so the bristles are not damaged. Oil paint takes at least overnight to dry, and usually a few days to dry completely, although very thick impasto can take weeks to dry thoroughly.
