vijay asked:

A Quick Introduction to Oil Painting Models

You will need:

Brushes

Turpentine

Palette

Oil Medium

Paints

Brushes – Good quality sable brushes. Don’t withhold on the quality here. Brushes would last longer with Oil paints than any other medium if you take good care of it.

Modern synthetic brushes could be even more excellent in quality, so don’t restrict your self in choosing only those brushes that are made from natural hairs such as sable. Look for painting brushes where the hairs swiftly spring back up when you bend them. Be careful about cleaning your painting brushes as if acrylic paint dries in a brush, it could be extremely difficult to clean it up.

Turpentine – Turpentine is used for lessening and cleaning brushes.

Palette A palette is a surface on which a painter mixes it colour pigments. A palette might be made of wood, glass, plastic, ceramic tile or even inert material and could vary highly in size and shape. The most usually known type of painter’s palette is made of thin wood board designed to be held in the artist’s hand and rest on the artist’s arm.

Oil Medium – These would speed up the process of drying the paints and also give slight gloss sheen. Turpentine could be used with some of the same effect.

Paints – It is suggested to use “Artist’s” oils. These are the top quality available in any variety with better pigmentation and permanence. Tubes come in different sizes but oils have good covering skill and would even last a long time.

Opacity – Sometimes marked on the tube, opacity shows how transparent the oil is. Red/Yellows are commonly the least opaque.

Permanence – Usually marked on a scale of 1 to 4 (often marked in stars), 4 being most enduring, and (longest lasting).

Hue – Could be exactly described as the Shade of the colour. Can sometimes relate to Opacity

Oil Painting: Making it Simple

Oil painting is simple, far simpler than drawing or even watercolor painting. If you could see something, you could paint it in oils. To create something memorable, however, you need to:

1. Formulate what you hope to attain, and plan a workable way to that objective.

2. Research the market if you desire to sell the work.

3. Approach the painting process in rational steps, which generally entail:

* Drawings to examine compositional possibilities.

* Blockedout charcoal/pencil/oil sketches to place tonal value

* Oil sketches to trial with various color schemes and harmonies.

* Preparing canvas and paint for the probable tasks.

* Varnishing, framing and hanging the work.

Ralph Serpe asked:


Oil painting brushes come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes and this can sometimes overwhelm a beginner. This article will provide you with an overview of the various oil painting brushes available and help you decide what kind of brushes you should invest in.

BRUSH TEXTURES

Oil painting brushes come in two different textures basically, and they are classified as hard and soft. Hard brushes are generally referred to as “bristle brushes” and they are quite resilient. Hard brushes are made from hog’s hair and they are strong and stiff. They will hold a good amount of paint and can handle the oil painting medium quite well. I personally prefer working with bristle brushes exclusively as I tend to paint rather rough and direct.

Soft oil painting brushes are made from softer hairs that come from animals like sable, squirrel, or mongoose. Softer brushes will generally give your painting a softer smoother appearance and are more often used for finishing or detailed work. Sable brushes are the most expensive usually but there are synthetic brushes made of nylon that are very good substitutes for sable. They are more resilient and cheaper than sable.

BRUSH SHAPES

There are five shapes to brushes that are generally used and each is meant to have its own function. I prefer to paint with flats, brights and fliberts of various sizes, and only occasionally make use of the other shapes. This is my preference and you will certainly develop your own the longer you paint with oils.

Flats

Flat oil painting brushes have a wide square end with medium to long hairs. Flat brushes generally have a lot of spring to them and can hold a lot of paint. You can use these brushes for broad sweeping strokes or you can turn the brush on its edge to create fine lines. Flat brushes are great for earlier stages of a painting when you are blocking in large areas.

Brights

Bright oil painting brushes are similar in shape to flat brushes but the hairs are shorter. They are best used for making shorter controlled strokes. They do not hold nearly as much paint as a flat brush.

Filberts

The filbert is also similar to the flat brush only the edge of the brush comes to a rounded shape. The hairs of the filbert are medium to long in length. This rounded shape will give you more control then a bright. The filbert is great for blending and figurative work.

Rounds

A round oil painting brush has a round or pointed tip. They hold a nice amount of paint and are great for making thin or thick lines. Use this brush for dabbing on dots or blotches of color. Round brushes are also good for washes, fills and detailed work. They are not suited for creating hard straight edges.

Fans

The fan oil painting brush is a flat fan shaped brush. The fan brush is a specialized brush. It is either used very often by the artist or not at all. It really depends on your style of painting. This brush is not suited for holding paint. It is used more often for blending colors and you should keep this brush clean and dry if you plan to do a lot of blending during a session. The brush will begin to lose its effectiveness when it becomes filled with paint. You may want to keep a few extras on hand.

BRUSH SIZE

Oil painting brushes come in a variety of sizes indicated by numbers as in 1,2,4,6,8,10; size 1 being the smallest and 10 the largest in this example.

BRUSH MANUFACTURERS

Oil painting brushes are made by a number of different manufacturers. A few of the more popular brands are Winsor & Newton, Silver Brush and Robert Simmons. Some artists prefer one brand over another. Other artists like to have an assortment of different brands available. The only way you will know what you like best is by working with the brushes yourself.

CARING FOR YOUR BRUSHES

No matter what brush you buy, whether they are top of the line expensive brushes, or cheaper ones, you will definitely get more life out of them if you care for them properly. There seems to be a difference of opinion when it comes to brush care, especially when it comes to drying your brushes. I personally have two products on hand for cleaning and conditioning my brushes: Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver and Mona Lisa Pink Brush Soap. I have found that the Masters Brush Cleaner works great on brushes that are deeply stained and hardened with paint, that I would have otherwise thrown out. I use the Mona Lisa Pink Brush Soap to clean my brushes right after a painting session. These cleaners will also help condition your brushes.

After washing my brushes with either of these cleaners, I then attach a clothes pin to the handle of the brush and rest the clothes pin on the edge of a counter or table so that the brush is hanging with the bristles pointing toward the floor. Gravity then pulls the moisture from the brush so that it does not collect in the ferrule, which can damage a brush over time.

I hope this article has helped. Best of luck and happy painting!

Remi Engels, Ph.D. asked:


Today, oil painting brushes are made from many different types of materials. Each material has of course advantages and disadvantages. Beginning as well as advanced painters should have some familiarity with the properties of these hair-making materials. Here I present the most used and widely available of these brush hair materials together with some of their properties:

* Badger Hair – Badger hair brushes are used for blending and have a long tradition. The hair can be found in many parts of the world but varies greatly in quality. It is thickest at the point and quite thin at the root and has therefore a distinctive “bushy” appearance.

* Synthetic Hair – Synthetic hair is of course man-made from nylon or polyester. The hairs can be tipped, tapered, flagged, abraded or etched to increase its paint carrying ability. The filaments are often dyed and baked to make them softer and more absorbent.

Some of the advantages of synthetic brushes are: 1) They are durable in the face of paints and solvents; 2) They are easier to clean than animal hair brushes because they are less likely to trap paint.

* Raphael Kevrin Mongoose Hair – Raphael Kevrin Mongoose hair is strong and resilient. It combines the strength of a bristle with the control of sable and makes a long-wearing, medium-to- high quality brush.

* Kolinsky Sable Hair – Kolinsky sable does not come from a sable but from the tail of a mink species found in Siberia and North-East China. In these regions, hair from the winter tails of males grows long and strong because of the extreme weather conditions. It is the best material for oil brushes because of its unusual strength, spring and snap (i.e., its ability to retain its shape). A Kolinsky sable brush can hold a very fine point or edge and a professional grade of hair. If properly taken care of, Kolinsky sable brushes will last for many years.

* Hog Bristle Hair – Hog bristle hair comes from hogs with the most sought after coming from China. Bristle hair forms a unique V-shaped split or flag at the tip and tends to have a natural curve. A brush with “interlocked” bristles, with the curves formed inward to the ferrule, has a natural resistance to fraying and spreads medium to thick paints smoothly and evenly. It is also a less expensive alternative to other good-quality hairs.

* Red Sable Hair – Red sable hair is obtained from a red haired weasel and not from sable. Quality and characteristics can vary greatly. A good quality pure red sable brush is a good alternative to the more expensive Kolinsky sable brush, with similar performance and durability. Note that weasel hair is often blended with ox hair to make a more economical brush, but, in the process, the fine point is sacrificed.

* Ox Hair – The best quality ox hair comes from the ears of oxen or cattle. It has a very strong body with silken texture. It is also very resilient and has good snap. However, it does lack a fine tip. The hair is most useful in flat shaped or medium-grade wash brushes. Ox hair is often blended with different natural hair to increase its resiliency.