Oil Painting Tips and Techniques: List of Topics and Links

When I was an art student, there were times when I felt frustrated by a lack of specific information. This frustration led me to comb the internet for answers to my questions. However, even that was frustrating. Sometimes I didn't know the right question to ask, and answers I did find were usually strewn over multiple sites.

And so, in order to help you avoid the same time-consuming, frustrating searches, below is a list of topics, organized into primary subjects, so that both you and I may have the information we need all in one place. If you have a topic that you would like me to cover and that isn't listed below, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment.

Note: I will be linking each Topic Post back to a page called "Painting Tips and Techniques" that can found attached to "Blog" in the site menu.

About Oil Paint

• Learning How to Oil Paint, Step 1: Choosing Paint Colors

• Learning How to Oil Paint, Step 2: Understanding a Paint's Opacity, Temperature, and Tinting Strength

• Learning How to Oil Paint, Step 3: Understanding a Paint's Label

• Learning How to Oil Paint, Step4: How to Pick the Best Paint Brand, and Student vs Professional

• Are Oil Paints Toxic? Yep

Paint Colors 

• Characteristics of an Oil Paint: A Guideline to Purchasing the Perfect Paint Every Time

• Which White should I Use: Lead, Zinc, Titanium, etc?

• Which Black should I Use: Lamp, Mars, Ivory, Payne's? Or No Black at All?

• Yellow Oil Paint: Pigments, Basics, and How to Pick the Right Yellow

• Orange Oil Paint: Pigments, Basics, and How to Pick the Right Orange

• Red Oil Paint: Pigments, Basics, and How to Pick the Right Red

• Purple Oil Paint: Pigments, Basics, and How to Pick the Right Purple 

• Vantablack: Can an Artist really own a Color?

Mediums 

• Types of Mediums: The Simple Option

• Types of Mediums: Oils, Thinners, Questions, etc.

• How to Keep Solvent Odors to a Minimum while Painting 

• How to Avoid and Fix a Yellowing Painting

Brushes 

• Types of Brushes: Hog Bristle, Sable, Synthetic, etc.  

• Brush Brands and What to Purchase: Level 1, 2, 3, what?

• Saving your Paint Brushes: How to Remove Old Dried Paint and Reshape your Brushes

• Going Green: Cleaning paint brushes without Turpenoid

• Cleaning your Brushes with Turpenoid 

• Decanting: How to make your cleaning Oil or Turpeniod stretch 

Painting Supports/Palettes 

• Types of Palettes: Wood, Glass, or Paper

• Color Palettes: How to Make your Own Glass Palette

• Color Palettes: How to Organize your Paint 

• Types of Supports: Board, Canvas, or Paper and How to Make Them 

Painting Methods 

• Three Oil Painting Rules: Fat over Lean, Thick over Thin, and Slow over Fast Drying 

• Direct vs Indirect vs Combination Painting: Differences, Terms, and Artists

• Colored Grounds / Imprimatura: What is it, What colors to Use, and Who Used Them

• Indirect Painting: The Flemish Technique or Classical Approach

• Indirect: Underdrawing

• Indirect: Underpainting and Dead Color

• Indirect: Overpainting

• Indirect: Glazing, true glazing vs color correcting

• How to Correct Dull, Sunken Colors: Oiling Out Vs Creating a Couch

• Direct Painting: Alla Prima vs Wet-on-Wet vs En Plein Air

• Direct: Impasto Painting

• Direct Painting: 10 Simple Guidelines to Colorful and Clean Paintings

• Tonking: How to Smooth Paint Strokes or Paint Thickness without Disturbing the Paint

• How and When to Varnish

• How to paint Convincing Shadows: painting the colors that you can't see 

• How to Avoid Mixing Muddy Colors

• Flesh Tones: Warm and Cool

• What you need in order to copy an Old Master or Modern Work

Color Theory 

• Hue vs  Color vs Tint vs Shade: What they are and How to make them

A small caveat: There are differing opinions all over the internet about each of these topics. The opinion I am putting forth is my own, but only after extensive research. I normally only decide what to write on a topic after I have found two or three agreeing opinions that stand out from all of the differing ones and I will be citing them when possible.

An addendum: Several of these posts originally appeared on my old blog, phin42.blogspot.com. The posts that appear here are updated and/or completely rewritten.

#arttips #arttipsandtechniques #howtopaint #oilpaint #katherinegriffinstudio