Starting With a Concept or Vision for Your Painting

oil painting masters

If you want to learn to oil paint and not sure how to start, then the following article will prove very useful in your quest to become a good painter.

Before you read, you’ll have to try to forget everything you have learned about oil painting and look at your painting from a new perspective. A recent art class I attended, taught by a master painter, has completely changed the way I approach painting and has opened many new doors creatively for me. I hope they do the same for you.

Start with a concept

Up until recently, I was a very frustrated oil painter. I have 10 or so incomplete paintings gathering dust in the corner of my small studio. I would try completing 10 or more paintings over and over again, until finally I had to take a step back and try to understand what I was doing wrong.

The reason I lost interest and was unable to complete these paintings, was because I didn’t have a concept in mind before I began. I wanted to start painting at random without a clear vision of what I really wanted to accomplish with my oil painting.

Concepts are methods to solve problems in a painting. I bet you never saw painting as a series of problems. Me neither, but this way of thinking really made learning how to oil paint more interesting.

What do you want for your picture in question?

Instead of thinking: “My painting is about trees in a field “, start thinking in terms of:” My painting is the light that falls on the trees in a field. ”

You should have a road map in mind before starting to paint.

MASTER YOUR BRUSH

One very important part of painting is learning to control your brush. Without good brush control and technique, your effectiveness as a painter is truly limited.

You should have the best brushes you can afford. Although you can save money on paint and canvas, you should never work with cheap brushes. In my experience, cheaper brushes are simply not worth it. The biggest problem with cheap brushes is the hair falling off and becoming embedded in the painting. It is quite annoying.

One of the biggest mistakes artists make, including myself, is not reloading the paint brush sufficiently. Not sure if this is an act of laziness or fear of lose paint. Whatever the reason may be, make sure you always have enough paint on the brush so you always have paint from brush to canvas. Do not attempt to scrub the paint on the canvas. Paint your strokes and leave them be. Let the brush do the work.

MASSING

A great way to get major oil painting ideas is a technique called Massing. Massing is to see your object as a whole and not focus on all the fine details.

For example, lets say it’s a pineapple theme. Instead of trying to get all the textures and details about your pineapple, think in terms of “flat” light and shadow.

Add at the first and then later you can put in its finer details.

COLOR

Nothing in my opinion, can confuse a painter more, than working with color. I know that one of my weaknesses in the beginning was to work with many colors in the same table which resulted in a nightmare of mud.

I never really took the time to understand how colors related to each other.

Here are some tips to consider when working with color in your paintings:

- If you add white to another color, that color will become cooler and more opaque.

- Instead of adding white to a color to be brighter, try adding more color instead.

- Do not be afraid to use black. Many teachers recommend staying away from black, but I beg to differ. Did you know you can make some greens by mixing ivory black with some blue and yellow?

About the Author:

Want to learn how to oil paint today and create professional quality paintings? Visit http://www.creativespotlite.com and http://www.artinstructionblog.com today for free step by step painting demonstrations, one on one artist interviews and more!

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Learn How to Oil Paint – Tips & Techniques From a Master Painter