oil painting for beginners: a step-by-step tutorial to start painting

Oil painting for beginners is easy!

Learn how to use oil paints while painting a brilliant Baltimore Oriole with Dogwood flowers.

Oil paintings have been a preferred painting medium for centuries. They last for years. Your grandchildren will enjoy your paintings years later.

Paint an Oriole 'n' Dogwood

Oils display an unsurpassed richness. They can be painted with a variety of techniques, from smooth portraits to highly textured landscapes.

what do you need for oil painting?

We can start painting with paint, a palette, brushes, a surface to paint on, solvent and paper towels or rags.

What is the best oil paint?

Professional, artist paints are recommended. They contain more pigment, so they cover better.

The paint is laid out on a palette before painting. A palette paper works well. In a pinch you can use a glass or Styrofoam plate.

How long does it take oil paintings to dry? Oil paintings may be handled in a few days, but they take months to dry thoroughly.

Alkyd paints look and handle like oil paints and they dry completely overnight. All my 'oil' paintings are done with Griffin Alkyds made by Winsor & Newton.

View the answers to oil painting questions.

brushes and canvas

Natural hog hair brushes are the first choice for oil painting. Synthetic brushes are also a good choice.

In this painting I used Winsor & Newton synthetic Galeria brushes, #4, #8 and #12 flats. Any bristle brushes of comparable sizes would be just fine.

Beginning oil painters may use any canvas, canvas board or canvas paper. This painting is on a gallery-wrapped stretched canvas.

Learn more about oil painting supplies.

solvent and paper towels

Solvent is used for thinning your paint and cleaning your brushes.

Gamsol, odorless mineral spirits is recommended for studio use. Store the solvent in a container with a lid.

How do you clean the oil paint brushes?

Wipe the excess paint off with a paper towel. Then swish the brush in the solvent and wipe it on a paper towel. If you see color on the towel, repeat.

light and ventilation

The perfect light for painting is a north light window. When you are learning to oil paint, any natural daylight is good.

The next best option is using daylight light bulbs to light your painting area. Fluorescent bulbs will skew your painting colors so they don't look good in natural daylight.

Make sure you have good ventilation in your painting area.

oil painting for beginners

Artists may paint out of their memory, imagination, life or photos.

This painting used two photographs, Dogwood flowers and an Oriole hanging on the bird feeder.

Dogwood Flowers

Baltimore Oriole

your paint colors

Lay out your colors on a palette. Disposable paper palettes are very handy for oil painting for beginners.

We don't have to clean a palette after the painting is complete. We just throw away the used sheet of palette paper.

I laid out my colors plus white on a
disposable paper palette.

Mixing blue and green for the background.

A warm and cool yellow - Indian Yellow and Lemon Yellow
Orange
A warm and cool blue - Ultramarine Blue and Phthalo Blue
Titanium white

This painting uses an analogous discord color scheme.

What color schemes do professional artists use?

Put a line drawing on the canvas. Use paint that is thinned with a little solvent or an ordinary pencil.

You may do the drawing on paper first and transfer it to the canvas with graphite paper.

start oil painting

Use a #12 flat brush to paint the background.

Paint the sides of a gallery wrap canvas.

Start painting the background.

Paint a variation of warm and cool blues mixed with white.
Make some greens by mixing yellow with the blues.

Mix your colors lightly on the palette. More mixing occurs on the canvas while you are painting.

Gallery-wrap canvas is stapled onto the back, so the sides of the canvas can be painted. Continue the colors from the face of the canvas over onto the sides of the canvas.

A painting on a gallery-wrap canvas may then be displayed without a frame.

Paint the background around the bird and flowers.

Paint around the bird and flowers.

Use a variation of greens and blues throughout the background.

It's a good idea to repeat colors in a painting. So, occasionally put in some orange or yellow to indicate light and warmth shining thru the background.

The orange and yellow help warm up the cool background. That ties it together with the warm colored bird.

Softly blend the background colors together.

The various background colors suggest things in the distance without having to paint any details. This makes oil painting for beginners easier.

the rules of oil painting

There are two rules in oil painting.

Paint "Thick over Thin" or some people say "Fat over Lean".

Start a painting with colors thinned with solvent or medium.

As the painting progresses, use straight paint, which is thicker. Oil paint is made with linseed oil, so unthinned paint is fat.

We also paint "Light over Dark".

It's easy to paint light colors over the dark ones. It is difficult, but not impossible to paint dark over light colors.

Our paintings go smoothly when we just follow these easy rules.

paint the Baltimore oriole

We paint the bird with various yellows and oranges. Refer to the reference photo.

A close-up of the Baltimore Oriole

Use a #8 flat brush to paint the bird's body. Make the colors brighter and warmer on the sunlight side.

We will let the paint set a bit before doing the left leg and eye.

The bird was completed after the flowers, but I moved the photo up here to put the bird steps together.

Mix thick, black with blue and orange. Paint the head over the thin background.
Use the #4 brush to paint the beak and toenails black.

Always mix your dark colors with the colors used in the rest of your painting. When you mix your own black, it will harmonize with the rest of the painting.

How do we master mixing paint colors?

the oriole

Mix a thick grey with blue and orange, plus white to lighten it.

Paint his legs with the unthinned grey paint. The thick paint easily covers the thin background colors.

Complete the Oriole

Touch a bit of color in the eye. Use a very pale-yellow white on the top of the eye. Put a bit of pale blue-white on the bottom of the eye.

Oil painting for beginners is fun when we don't stress out by trying to be perfect.

Just have fun!

paint the flowers

Always use the largest brush possible. This keeps your painting loose. A #8 brush worked for the flower centers.

Paint the centers of the Dogwood flowers.

Paint the flower centers

Mix a brown from Ultramarine Blue and orange for the centers.

Casually dab on the flower centers. They are not round circles.

Vary the centers, some are more yellow, others are darker or a mixture of dark and light.

Highlight the flower centers with yellow.

Next paint the petals

Mix a grey by adding white to the brown you used for the flower centers.

Paint the petals a soft grey. Add more blue if necessary to keep the grey on the cool side.

Mix yellow or orange with white to make a warm white.

Paint the sides of the petals that would be catching sunlight with the warm white.

Start the leaves and stems.

Mix some thick green and paint a few leaves with light and dark areas.

Spot out where you will paint the branches and leaf stems.

Use the old trick of how to do oil painting for beginners. Turn the painting over and look at it upside down.

It will give you a fresh look to see any mistakes.

The background was a bit light, so I darkened it for more value contrast.

Painting white daisies uses similar techniques on painting flowers.

paint the branch and stems

Paint the Dogwood branch the Oriole is perched on.

Mix light and dark greys with Ultramarine Blue and orange plus white.

In doing oil painting for beginners, it's important to note the light source. The light is from the right. So, the branch is lighter on the right and dark on the left side.

Giving the branch a light and a dark side to make it look rounded.