This is a demonstration of oil painting by ……
Learning Oil Painting: How To Paint A Puppy Dog
This video is an oil painting demonstration revealing to you how you can paint a puppy dog in oil paints whilst working from a photograph. This art tutorial is aimed at the beginner artist who wishes to know more about oil paint and traditional art and the format of the video makes this easy to understand with a mixture of time lapsed sections and real time art techniques in the field of oil painting.
The artist begins by explaining how you must not get into bad habits when you begin oil painting for the first time and has provided you with a list of good habits to adopt prior to your oil painting. These are: Treating the surface, preparing the paint, the proper use of brushes and thinners, how to paint what you see (strategy), the process of ‘sculpting’ a painting and the process of glazing.
He begins by demonstrating how to treat the surface of your canvas by applying gesso which acts as a protective layer which will prevent the oil paints from being over absorbed. There are a few sayings which artists use when they are describing how to use either gesso or the actual oil paints which describes the ideal consistency which you should mix up and apply whilst painting. ‘Like butter’ is used as a term which translates to the consistency of the oil paint as not having enough thinners or mineral spirits, whereas ‘like milk’ is the opposite and means you have applied too much mineral spirits to the paint oil paint mix leaving a very watery consistency. You are looking for a happy balance which falls between these two consistencies and with practice this becomes second nature. To make the oil paints creamy in texture and consistency you will need to add 3 to 4 drops of paint thinner using a palette knife on your palette (usually made from acrylic plastic or glass).
Oil painters use mineral spirits as well as for mixing the paints to clean out their artist brushes and their palettes after they have finished painting. A handy tip to remember when cleaning your brushes is to ‘wipe, dip, wipe’. The final wipe takes off the remainder of the mineral spirits and is particularly important for you to not further thin down your nice consistent pre mixed oil paints.
The artist refers to his strategy for painting in oils as the ’jigsaw puzzle strategy’. It is called this because when you are painting from an image you can pick shapes from it and paint them down much like a jigsaw puzzle. This takes away the laborious element of oil painting which some artists find and instead adds an element of fun to the painting. When you paint and visualise the shapes and manipulate the paintbrush to fit them accordingly laying down your oil paint confidently and deliberately. You will soon form a recognisable image with your paints. The artist also says of the importance of looking at your reference picture once every 5 seconds in this initial stage of painting in oils. Work by paintinjg the bigger shapes first working your way down to the smaller shapes and if you find you cant work your paint anymore on the canvas then simply allow it to dry and reapply with fresh oil paint. Oil paints are opaque so when you have allowed them to dry it is easy to re render and rectify your initial mistakes should you have made any. It is important to take your time on this step as it serves as a foundation for the finer detailing later on.
In the next stage of the oil painting you are looking to add your finer details with the paint brush and create textures by working very closely with your reference material. If you feel the consistency of your paint is not working quite right then you can easily add some more turpenoid to thin down the paint or alternatively add more oil paint to the mix to bring it back to a more natural oil paint consistency. The oil painting of the puppy dog took the artist about 1 hour in one sitting.
The artist describes whilst painting the puppy that painting is somewhere between drawing and sculpture and so with the use of opaque oil paints you can easily put down your paint brushes and come back to it the following day. This is also useful if you are taking on multiple paintings at once like most oil painters will do to save on any downtime. Throughout this part of the painting tutorial you see the artist using a variety of paint brushes to add a variety of strokes and textures to the different areas of the puppy. He uses highlights and tones to bring the puppy’s more prominent features out and is making sure he checks his reference photo every 5 seconds like he discussed previously.
This is part of a series of videos he uses to teach oil painting to beginners and the novice painter and I will be downloading the other videos and attaching them to this one to form a playlist. In the other videos he discusses further mediums to use with the oil paints to improve their qualities and also shows the aspiring oils artist how to use the glazing medium to its true potential and help further preserve their paintings. There are few areas which aren’t covered in this art tutorial so as an educational tool for learning how to oil paint I would highly recommend the viewing of this video. Remember, don’t rush your art work and bare in mind that the most important thing in art is to lay your foundations correctly so you have a solid platform to take your painting right through to the end with ease, confidence and enjoyment. Oil painting can and most likely will take a long time to master and as time goes on you will learn new and interesting painting techniques to create art work you never would have imagined possible. You can find the artist who has presented this video at www.merrillk.com to further your skills in oil painting. How useful was this art tutorial? Feel free to leave your artistic critique at the bottom in the comments box.
Bill Alexander: Step By Step Oil Painting Lesson Of Holiday Mountain
Oil painter William (Bill) Alexander was born in 1915 in East Prussia. From a young age he painted, and quite frequently painted murals for wealthy aristocrats on the run up to the war. With a supportive family of Bill’s talent they all immigrated to North America where his dream was to build a house and share his oil painting talent with the world.
As with a lot of artists it was a struggle to work and support a family with art alone but he persevered and developed his famous wet on wet technique and developed a range of palette knives and brushes to help other artists mimic his talent with oils. After the hardship it paid off and Bill Alexander hosted and developed a TV series to expose himself to millions and is now respected the world over.
In this oil painting tutorial the legend Bill Alexander extends his knowledge with wet on wet oil painting and the techniques which accommodate this style to you, the viewer. This is a step by step oil painting lesson where Bill paints the mountainous scene (Holiday mountain) with some impressive foreground foliage.
Using a variety of brushes ranging from round, flat to the infamous fan brush Bill Alexander creates the scenery of the rolling mountains impressively quick and using his acquired oil painting techniques makes them come to life. Using the palette knife he scrapes the oil paint down the sides of the mountain to leave the impression of fresh snow which any beginner could achieve with a few practice attempts. As a professional oil painter specialising n landscapes he knows the best way to teach his art students and followers and uses a very soft approach to making sure any artist at any level can follow in comfort from their own homes.
The fan brush technique is especially effective for achieving vibrant and quick foliage which looks almost life-like on the canvas. For more of Bill Alexander videos just click on the tab section or alternatively type his name into the search box on the site. If you have found this oil painting tutorial helpful feel free to leave comments at the bottom or push it out to your friends using the social buttons on the right.
Scott Naismith: Glazing Techniques With Oil Painting
This video tutorial has Scottish oils artist Naismith showing an oil painting from around 7 years ago being reworked having been unhappy with the results back then. The painting develops using various opaque and translucent techniques. Some inspirational material is shown including videos taken in the Isle of Harris and a photo from Loch Fyne, Scotland. The final painting is titled ‘Loch Fyne Light’. All standards of oils painter can benefit from this video.
Dick Ensing: Applying Your Signature In Oil Paints
This instructional video features Tennessee based artist Dick Ensing showing you how to finish off your oil painting with the right signature. He discusses the favourite colors like cadmium red used by oils artists and how to apply it by mixing in a little bit of turpentine so its not too thick and blotchy. Finish your painting off in style.
David Shevlino: An Oil Painting Demonstration Of A Young Boy
Renowned for his loose and direct paint and brush application, fine artist David Shevlino delivers a wonderful art tutorial here where he creates a life oils portrait of his son. His paint is put to the canvas in a quick and deliberate manner which at first almost suggests he is in a rush, this however is a deliberate technique which allows him to build undertones before going on to further detail and intricacies.
Shevlino mentions the importance of a good directional natural light source when taking on portraiture so in this particular painting he has used balanced daylight photo lamps as his source of consistent light. With this you can achieve a strong sense of contrasting light and dark tones and shadowing.
The oil painting used the colors burnt sienna, orange, white and darker hues like ultramarine for the darker areas. The painting was created over a 2 day period so he used a poppy seed oil medium to keep the oil paints wet and manipulable for the second day. His style is very unique and I personally love his work. I hope you enjoy.
Scott Naismith: Sketch And Alla Prima Oil Painting
With a preliminary sketch in his book, Naismith marks out and designs his drawing from which he wants to base his oils painting. This is an alla prima oil painting of the ‘Old Man Of Storr in Skye’ It is a time lapsed video but it is a real insight into seeing how Naismith really works into his paintings with passion and a keen eye for expressive colors. He uses a variety of tools including, brushes, spatulas and palette knives. Nice inspirational work.
John G Heinrichs: Learn How To Paint Mountains In Oil Paints
This is a great video tutorial for learning how to paint mountains in oil paints with artist John G Heinrichs. He begins with explaining his paint mixture for a base coat for the mountains and it consists of prussian blue, crimson,titanium white and ivory black. It is then ‘turned over’ with a palette knife which in oil painting is a technique known as ‘marbling’ to blend all these colors together loosely. He then loads the palette knife with paint on one side and applies it to the canvas by pulling the knife down to form the tops of the mountains.
The next step is using a 2 1/2 inch Alexander art brush to feather out the bottom of the mountains in a blending style. There will obviously be a directional sunlight cast on the mountains so again the palette knife is loaded on one side with his titanium white oil paint and lightly applied with no pressure to the sunny side of the mountains.
The canvas texture helps this process to form very natural looking cracks within the mountain side. The opposite technique is then performed to the shaded side of the mountains but only with a more ample application of prussian blue oil paint. The painting is then finished with the 2 1/2 inch brush being used to drag up the white oil paint from the misty bottom to create a more natural painting. A very easy to learn from art tutorial.
Zimou Tan: Live 150 Mins Video Of Artist Painting
This is a live unedited sped up video of artist Zimou Tan painting. The painting is of young male and in my humble opinion I think it is absolutely beautiful. his technique is very block-like with his application but as the video goes on you begin to see how he applies the details with the smaller paint brushes. The music is highly appropriate also which makes for a thoroughly enjoyable 8 minutes of master class oil painting. Sit back and enjoy.
Dick Ensing: How To Use A Palette Knife For Oil Painting
In this video, Tennessee based artist Dick Ensing takes control of the palette knife and guides the viewer through a step by step process where he takes on light and shade control as well as color syncing. He also shows how there is nothing wrong with combining the brush with the knife to produce his final oil painting. The palette knife is a key tool to master within any sector of the painting arena, not just oils. So get involved and become confident in no time,