chapter 1 - learn to oil paint with darrell cro · and anybody with enough practice can sign ......

The Basic Techniques of Oils, Chapter 1 1-1 Preparation

Chapter 1

The Basic Techniques of Oils

PREPARATION

Art Supplies

Workstation

Canvas

Yourself


The Basic Techniques of Oils

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Preparing For Oil Painting

Preparing Yourself……………………………………………………………… 1-2

The Workstation…………………………………………………………………. 1-6

My Portable Workstation Setup………………………………………….. 1-7

Paints………………………………………………………………………………….. 1-8

Preserving Paint On Your Palette………………………………………. 1-9

Working With Old or Drying Paints…………………………………… 1-10

What Brand of Paint Is Best?......................................... 1-11

Water Mixable Oil Paints…………………………………………………….. 1-12

How Much Water Mixable Oils Can I Mix Into Oils/Acrylics.. 1-15

What Does It Mean To Be Green………………………………………… 1-16

The Paint Colors I Use (Chart)…………………………………………… 1-17

Paint Layout………………………………………………………………………… 1-18

Oil Painting Brushes & Knives…………………………………………… .. 1-19

The Forked Liner Brush Cure………………………………………………. 1-23

Water Miscible Oil Painting Brushes & Knives……………………. 1-24

Medium And Its Purpose……………………………………………………… 1-25

Black, White & Gray Gesso………………………………………………… 1-29

Under-painting A Canvas With Gesso……………………………….. 1-31

Under-painting A Flower Vase With Gesso…………………………. 1-33

From Cave Walls To Canvas………….…………………………………... 1-34

Easels……………………………………………………………………………………. 1-37

Painting Accessories…………………………………………………………….. 1-39

Protective Sprays For Painting……….…………………………………... 1-42

Cleaning Brushes…………………………………………………………………. 1-43

Oval Setup For A Rectangular Canvas…………………...………….. 1-47

Transferring A Pattern To Canvas……………………………………….. 1-48

Using Reference Materials…………………………………………………… 1-49

Preparing Outside Wood Surfaces For Oil Painting…………….. 1-51

What If I Can’t Finish A Painting In A Single Session…………. 1-52

Keep Your Thinner Bucket Clean…………………………………………. 1-53

Transferring A Portrait Drawing Or Pattern Onto Canvas…… 1-54

What Age Is Best For Teaching Kids To Paint……………………… 1-56

Art Supply Shopping List……………………………………………………… 1-57


Preparing Yourself "I know absolutely, positively, without a doubt that I cannot paint."

There is one basic concept that must be altered in order for this book to be of value. In order for this book to suc-

cessfully guide you in learning to paint, you must first believe in yourself.

You must believe, without a doubt, that you can learn to paint.

I know this because back in 1991, I was you. I knew without a doubt that I had no artistic abilities whatsoever.

Nothing, nada, zilch. I even sweated drawing stick people.

I know that sounds like I'm over stating the facts, but the truth is I knew nothing about art. I knew what I couldn't

do. So I didn't even try what I knew I couldn't

The man who broke through my wall of disbelief is Jessie Martin, an artist in E. Freetown, MA.

At a flea market Jessie personally spent 45 minutes talking me into just TRYING. I simply did not believe in my-

self. I knew that I couldn't paint. I was rock solid in my disbelief. I had no faith in me.

I remember my disbelief!

I'd seen the fuzzy headed guy on TV now and then. Although I knew he was talented, I didn't believe him either

when he said he could teach me to .

Come on. We all know that one has to be born with talent in order to paint.

And many of you will believe me when I tell you that birth is long over with for most of us. And we were not born

with any talent for painting.

Throughout school my teachers reaffirmed this fact. They even told me there were people who had talent and peo-

ple who could appreciate art. Fortunately, I was one of those who could appreciate art.

But Jessie said something to me that day I've never forgotten.

His words got through my thick-headed engineering mind.

First thing he said was signing one's name is an art form. We spend more time in school teaching people how to

write than how to paint. And anybody with enough practice can sign their name.

The second thing Jessie said that hit me like a ton of bricks was that learning the fundamentals of oil painting was

simply learning the techniques. He could teach me the techniques and all I had to do was simply practice, practice,

practice.

In fact he went on to explain that I could practice anything if "I mentally understood what I was doing". Jessie

made it clear he would help me to understand mentally the concept of the painting techniques.

It's all history now, but let me tell you.....I sat down with Jessie, took a class with a lot of disbelief, but still faith in

myself that I could learn technique.

I asked Jessie about having talent and he said talent was nothing more than techniques second natured.

I walked away differently from that lesson.

The difference, was that now I truly knew "I could paint". I'd learned so much from the first free lesson he gave me

to become convinced that I could oil paint." I now had tons of faith in me. With enough practice, I could turn tech-

nique into talent.


Today, I'm so amazed by all the people who tell me how talented I am. I owe it all to Jessie's comment, "Darrell,

anyone can paint, even you. Learn the techniques. Practice them until they are second nature and never quit prac-

ticing. When the techniques become second nature, than you'll be amazed at how the world opens up to you and

you literally will want to paint everything you see. You'll look at the world with different eyes. You'll be an artist."

Jessie was right.

That's why today I offer one of my full, 2-hour instructional oil painting video as an incentive for you to take that

first step. So that you can believe in yourself. No matter how disbelieving.....no matter how doubtful, sit down with

me for a couple of hours at http://www.darrellcrow.com/videos and the experience will totally transform your con-

cept, your belief in you. You will walk away with absolute faith that "Yes! You can oil paint."

My Very First Painting with Jessie Martin in a flea market in the summer of 1991. The four hours it

took me to paint this little seascape changed my belief factor in me and my whole way of life. YES! You

Can Paint.


In this chapter we’ll begin our study of the Basic Techniques of Oil Painting by reviewing the paint brushes,

paints, mediums and accessories you’ll need to acquire, how to set up your private art studio and some methods of

preparing the canvas to paint.

Our discussions on preparing to paint with Gesso is a bit advanced for you right now. We discuss how to under-

paint landscapes and floral images on canvas with gesso as a preparation step for tackling a painting later. Just

review this material initially to gain an idea of the different avenues available in preparing a canvas. After you’ve

learned the techniques for water, trees, bushes, grass and rocks, return to those sections and practice the exercises

discussed.

Just simply focus now on the supplies, setting up your art studio and the process of painting.

Let’s begin with the workstation.


Workstation Setup I like setting up my workstation so I can always minimize the amount of time to begin

each painting session. I have two basic set-ups; With a Tabletop Easel, and with a

Standup Easel. It took me a long time to figure out what makes sense for the way that

I paint. And that’s the main thing you’re going to decide.

I use four different table top easels as shown in the Easel section. The nice thing about

multiple easels is that I can put a different canvas on each easel and work on four different

painting projects simultaneously. I just pick up the easel with the painting project that I’d

like to work on that day (or hour). When I’m done, I just exchange the easel with a new

project. The wet canvas is out of the way and drying until I’m again ready for it.

I like to practice daily. So one of my easels always contains the practice session. Each

morning, all I have to do is put the practice easel onto the table top, paint for 5-15

minutes and set it aside until the next morning. I must confess that sometimes I get so

involved in my painting and before I know it, 2 or 3 hours have slipped by.

With a standup easel I set it up next to the work table along with my brush cleaning buck-

et and a trash can as shown below.

Do I have one spot in my house where I can go back to

paint or do I move my supplies from spot to spot?

In this configuration, all of my accessories are set up on

the outer edges of the work table. I used to use an old

microwave cart to hold the paper palette, supplies and a

brush cleaning station. But now I use a rolling 5-drawer

toolbox with a flat top. I store the paints in one drawer,

brushes in another, accessories & mediums in the other

drawers. One full set of painting supplies is kept in a

this rolling toolbox for instant, daily use. This set up al-

lows me to always be working with the same organiza-

tion.

A beautiful accessory for your workstation area is an air

filtering system. I just went to the local hardware store,

explained the painting station I was setting up and

$125.00 later I had a good studio air filtering system.

I use one of three or four tabletop

easels here. Photos are in the Easel

section. The key to a great work area

is organization and comfort. Notice

the very comfortable chair. And make

sure you always have a lid on your

cleaning bucket whether you use baby


My Portable

Workstation Setup I’ve found one of the best workstation setups is using a wheel-a-round

tool box.

The top serves as a painting platform for the palette and other supplies

like medium and cleansers. I’ve placed a folded paper towel to temporar-

ily store wet paint brushes while I’m working.

A trash can with liner is to the right of the tool box and I place dry, par-

tially finished paintings to the left. The masking tape dispenser is a

prized possession and located for immediate access.

I selected a wheel-a-round tool box so I could easily move the one set-up

to any of my easel workstations

I’ve organized the 5 drawers below as follows:

1. Paints

2. Soft Brushes

3. Bristle Brushes

4. Mediums and Liquid Accessories

5. Dry Accessories.

\

Spring Dream, an original painting by Darrell was the outgrowth of fool-

ing around with some students after a class in 1998. The students listed

all of the elements in a painting, location and essentially challenged me

to paint this new composition .

Once you know the fundamentals, you can concentrate on composition.


Paints On chart 1-1, you’ll find the list of paints I use.

I lay all of my paints onto palette paper when I’m paint-ing in the studio. Out in the field, or in the classroom, I’ll use a wooden palette because its such a versatile carri-er/holder of paints. And they clean easy with Baby Wipes or similar products.

Palette paper has a shiny surface on one side to hold paints. The size I use is 12”16” pad. This size is appro-priate, because I use big brushes. You can just imagine how much space is required in order to mix paint with these large brushes.

One procedure I would en-courage you to follow religious-ly is getting in the habit of put-ting your paints down on the palette in a specific location. If you’re doing portraits a lot, put them down in a way that makes sense for painting por-traits. If you’re putting them down for florals, than in a way that makes sense to paint flow-ers. The same is true of tall ships, landscapes, seascapes and any genre you like to paint.

When painting landscapes, its best to use thick, very firm paint. So choose your brand name wisely. I chose one of the more popular brand names. You will learn to adapt your painting style to whichev-er brand names that are out there in the marketplace.

Now does brand name really make a difference?

If you’re a manufacturer, your answer is “Yes.”

If you’re a student, the answer is, “It depends…” We explain this in the next couple of pages.

The one thing that I found to be extremely critical is the white paint that you choose. Some manufacturers are very specific in having a very thick white paint. You may need to go to some sort of a zinc white. I like using the Titanium White manufactured by the Martin F. We-ber Company, that is very thick.

This is my setup for the paints

I use. In the studio, I use pa-

per palettes. They’re availa-

ble in pads and have many

different sizes. While on loca-

tion or teaching a class I’ll use

a wooden or acrylic palette.

When putting the colors onto

the palette press down on a

corner of the paint pile to

force it to stick to the palette.

This prevents the colors from

sliding off the palette.

One tool I use regularly is the

“Tube Wringer.” Available in

either plastic or metal, I’ve opt-

ed for two heavy duty metal

wringers. I believe I bought

these from Dick Blick’s on-line

store. This will save you count-

less time and frustration in

squeezing out the last bit of

paint from your tubes before

declaring that tube empty.

How do I preserve unused paint if I

am unable to finish painting?

1. IF you’re not finished with

your painting and believe you’ll be back the next day, than cover the palette with Saran Wrap. Just peel it off when you’re ready to paint again.

2. You could put a paper pal-

ette into a ‘sta-wet’ container (designed to keep acrylics wet overnight) when you paint and then when you’re done for the day, seal up the air tight container.

IF you’re done with the painting and simply want to save your paints, put each color into a sep-arate sandwich bag. Squeeze out all of the air and rubber band seal it good. You can even store the bags in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use. To use, simply poke a small hole into the bag and squeeze out the paint.


Preserving Paint On Your Palette

When the day’s painting session is over, wouldn’t you like to preserve the paints on your palette? I hate losing

paint as it is so expensive. Here are a couple of suggestions that should help you immensely ...

For oils, I recommend two or three approaches.

1) If you’re only leaving for a few hours or one day at the most, place your palette into a very large zip lock bag.

2) 2) If you’re leaving for a larger period of time, wrap your palette in cling or another clear plastic food wrap.

This will preserve the paints for 2-3 days.

3) 3) If you’re done with the painting and not sure when you’ll be using that color or that mix again, use air tight

sandwich bags. Place paints into the sandwich bags and seal. If you have one of those vacuum sealers, that

works as well. When you go to use the paint again, simply take a needle and poke it into the bag and squeeze

out the paint you need. When done, reseal the hole by covering it with masking or scotch tape.

For Acrylics, I recommend that you use a wet palette system. There’s a product on the market called Sta-Wet pal-

ette. It’s essentially a 12×16″ plastic box that has an airtight lid you can put on it. The trick is always getting the

lid off.

Remove the lid from the Sta-Wet tray and place a piece of double strength glass on the bottom that fits the tray.

Fold paper towels in long strips of no more than 2″ wide. Soak the towels in water and place them saturated with

water along the outside edge of two sides of the tray on top of the glass. Place your acrylic paints on top of the wet

When I lay out white paint, I always place 3 piles of paint on the palette.. And the reason is TQ can become contaminated quite easily. With three separate piles of white paint, I generally ensure I’m al-ways able to have pure white paint that’s clean, when I need it. So if I have three separate piles, at least two-thirds of my paint will always be white, and the other third could become contaminated be-cause it’s so easy as white is one of the most mixed colors on the palette. A slightly dirty brush or pal-ette knife will contaminate TW. The recommended practice is to always use a clean palette knife when grabbing some TW for mixing. Dirty contaminates and wiping the knife prior to each use ensures purity.


Working With Old Or Drying Paints This is a problem generally caused by one of the following:

1. (1) Your paint is drying out, or

2. (2) there’s insufficient oil in the tube to push out the soft oil paint.

If the oil within your paint is drying out, then after you squeeze some out onto your palette, simply take a mix-

ture of 50% turp and 50% linseed oil and with a palette knife work it into your paints. Use a small amount to

begin with and gradually add more until the paint is at the consistency you like.

Without getting into a lot of detailed explanations, there’s two kinds of oils in a tube of oil paint. There’s the

oil mixed into the paints which keeps it nice and soft. Then there’s the oil that is used to line the tube to help

‘push’ out the oil paint when pressure is applied to the tube itself with your fingers. This oil will not mix with

the oil paint. I’ll just call it tube oil for right now.

If your tube oil is dry and you cannot get the paint out of the tube, then you’ve got to cut the tube open and

transfer your paint to several small freezer bags. The smaller, the better. Seal them tight making sure you get

all of the air out. If you have a vacuum sealer that’s even better. Key is small bags or vacuum pouches. When

you need the color, take a small bag and poke a hole into it with a pin, squeeze out what you need and cover

the hole up with packing tape.

Dream Cabin by Darrell. This is an early painting Darrell has taught in hundreds of classes.


Students who are learning to paint should use a student grade paint, or a TV Artist brand named line of paints. But

my top suggestion is for students to use the same brand their instructors are using so you can learn color and the

mixing of color.

There are typically two types of oil paints, student grade and artist grade. The first clue as to which you have is the

amount of money you’re paying for your paints. Professional grade or artist grade is more expensive than student

grade. And most manufacturers list on their websites which of their products are student grade and which are artist

grade.

Student grade is less expensive as it is ideal for teaching people how to paint. Student grade quality level varies by

manufacturer. In some cases, fillers may be used that compromise the permanence of the resulting paintings and

less pigment is used per tube than in artist quality paint.

The effect is you use more paint to achieve color mixing. With less pigment and more filler, than mixing any spe-

cific color will take considerably more paint to achieve than with artist quality paints.

Another consideration is the brushes you’re using. If you’re using big brushes like I do for my landscapes, than I

prefer to use all student quality paints. I’m using a lot of paint anyway, so long as I use all student grade I should

be fine. Since I make up for the lack of pigment and over-use of fillers by using more paint. Even though I’m using

more paint, its still less expensive than artist-grade for the style I’m using. And in a way, its conservative.

Be careful when using TV artist brands. Most of them are student grade, but priced at or just under artist grade.

Generally, you can achieve the same results with generic brands.

Most TV Artists have certification programs which typically means that they have certified instructors to teach

their “STYLE” but only when using their products. So if your instructor is adamant about certain such brands,

chances are they’re bound to a certification/trademark agreement. There’s nothing wrong with this agreement, its

just a fact of life.

When first learning to paint, any brand will work for you, TV Artist brand, student grade, artist grade. The im-

portant thing is painting. Painting everyday. As you gain experience, you’ll gain preferences. So its also important

to experiment as well once you’ve gained some proficiency. Then you’ll see what grades you like and what brands

you prefer.

Often we’ll see paints labeled as “hue”. This is a tube of student grade paints using less expensive substitute pig-

ments. For example, its not uncommon to see a tube of paint labeled “Cadmium Yellow Light Hue.” This is essen-

tially the same color as cadmium yellow light but contains a less expensive substitute for the more expensive cad-

mium yellow pigment. Just because a pigment is less expensive does not mean it is inferior. As long as you are

aware of its behavior, you should be perfectly happy with what you purchased.

Artist grade paints are rich in pigments, have well behaved and predictable properties and you use considerably

less paint to achieve your desired color. Whereas their price tag is staggering when purchasing your first full set,

the replacement costs for paints is quite modest when purchasing single tubes.

I was at a local art supply store the other day and bumped into a professional artist. He had four or five tubes of

Winsor-Newton Winsor brand paints. I told him I was surprised to see him holding student grade. He said he sells

his works just fine with this level of paint, and he was quite happy with the results.

That’s the answer…..what makes you happy?. What works for you? That’s the brand you should use. Most of my

paintings in oils are student grade paintings. And yes, I know the probability of my paintings yellowing after 100

years is probably pretty good. But, I’m going to enjoy them that the first 100 years.

If your preference is the least expensive, than student grade will do that quite nicely for you.

What Brand Of Paint Is Best?


You’ll be able to lightly spray

your oil paintings with a fine mist

spray to enhance blending, much

like we do today with acrylic.

Water Mixable Oil Paints About two years ago, I introduced a 4-DVD se-

ries on the brand new, green series of paints, W-

Oils from Martin F. Weber. This new series of

paints is planet-safe. Manufacturers claim three

primary benefits for those of you who are con-

verting the products we consume to being envi-

ronmentally safe.

1. The materials used in the manufacture of the

paints and mediums are non-toxic, non-

hazardous, and safe for our planet.

2. The water-mixable solvents and mediums

used with the paints are also non-toxic, non-


3. The materials used to clean the paints out of

the brushes are non-toxic, non-hazardous,

and safe for our planet.

Green has a very definite meaning and as artists

and students, its great to have choices.

Unfortunately, these choices mean we have to

alter our approach in painting. But rather than

being an incontinence, its actually fun.

I love this particular brand of water mixable oils.

I can get all of the colors I need. They’re green

and quite earth-friendly. Their use is simple and I

can easily mix with oils and acrylics.

I had so much fun using the Water Mixable Oils…….and the one thing

the Martin F. Weber company did that I believe is one of their biggest

benefits. We can make the transition from whatever oils or acrylics

we’re currently using to W-Oils as our older supplies deplete.

What this means is we can avoid a

huge upfront transfer cost. As our

acrylic or traditional oil paints are de-

pleted, we can replenish them with

Water soluble oils.

The water-mixable oils are great for

plein-aire painting and for those who

live in apartments or confined quarters

with little ventilation.

I really enjoy going on location be-

cause I only need the paints and water.

No real fuss or clean-up mess.

We do have to purchase special linseed

There are several optional choices

with water-soluble oil paints.

These paints are water miscible --

not water-based. This simply

means you treat them just like you

would traditional oils. With one

exception, that is. Instead of using

mediums, thinners or solvents,

you use water or a water-soluble

medium. They behave virtually

the same as traditional oils

Brush clean up is simple, use wa-

ter. And best of all, water soluble

oils do not stain your hands.

Water soluble oils dry faster than

traditional oils.

Blending colors remain un-

changed.

I’ve had no problems finding the colors I used as listed in our Paint Chart. All of

the major paint manufacturers are introducing new colors each year. And in the

near distant future we’ll probably see television artists select Water-Mixable Oils

over traditional oils for their weekly art shows. The painting techniques and tools

learned with traditional oils are transferrable to water soluble oils.


I’d explored the use of acrylics and water-based oils to find something for me which would paint exactly like traditional oils but without the problems that affect people with respiratory ailments.

You see, I was on the verge of respiratory problems a few years ago, but that’s all behind me now.

As I was researching, I found that many of my students lived in apartments, rooms, and motor homes where ventilation is not that good. So I had a dual purpose in looking for a good substitute.

Water-based oils, or rather water-soluble oils, or water-mixable oils work very well with my painting tech-nique.

In fact, there is no real difference, aside from the mediums. I put together a couple of DVDs to illustrate just how easy it was to adapt my techniques to the Basic Techniques and to painting flowers.

What you primarily learn from my videos is the use of new mediums. And clean-up is much easier. I just absolutely love, love, love this medium.

When I travel, this is the set of paints I like to carry with me.

When I go plein-aire painting in my own territory, these are the paints I take along. The traditional oils are a lot messier for outdoor use. The water mixable oils, travel well.

About the mediums. There are mediums prepared especially for water-mixable oils and then, of course, one can use plain old water. I’ve used both extensively and have found that I like the water and the modified linseed oil from the Martin F. Weber company.

The mediums and paints have worked superbly for landscapes, seascapes, florals, tall ships, wildlife, portraits and just about everything I’ve tackled..

I have not found any commercially available medium white on the market. However, you can easily mix your own. Mix the water with a bit of white paint and then spread it over the canvas and paint as one would normally with traditional oils. Be careful not to use too much water.

Recently, I’ve simply been wetting the canvas with water, then mixing the exact sky color I wanted, painting it on the canvas, and so forth. Essentially putting the medium into the paints and not so much on the canvas. Both techniques work well, so its simply a little matter of your preference in working with medium.

But for you, simply apply the water to the canvas mixed with a little white paint and you’ll have amazing results.

I actually like a brand of acrylics from an Australian company, Chroma. They make a brand of acrylics called Atelier and their acrylic mediums is second to none.. Great stuff. My advice is to learn to paint with the water-mixable oils and once you’re proficient and happy with the results, start playing around with acrylics. The name of the game is always …. Practice, practice, practice.

Once you learn to paint with oils, you’re essentially learning to paint with acrylics. The skills and tech-niques are very, very transferable.


Summer Love, a Water Mixable Oil painting by Darrell,


How Much Water Mixable Oils Can I Mix Into

Either Oils or Acrylics?

Common Questions I generally receive on water mixable oils include ...

Can I use Medium White with W-Oils? And still stay green?

How much other paints can I use with my Water Mixable Oils

How should I clean my brushes? Can I still use Baby Oil?

I would not use Medium White, Clear or Black or any other traditional oil painting mediums with water mixable

oils. Here’s why.

Each of these mediums are designed to mix with traditional oils. They’re not able to mix with water. Medi-

ums for water soluble paints have been chemically modified by the manufacturer so that the linseed oil and

medium will mix with oil paints.

Your brushes can be used for either water-based paints, or oil-based paints. If you’re using your brushes for w

-oils then they will reject mixing well with the solvents of traditional oil painting mediums. Your performance

will suffer as well as the cleaning of your brushes.

In general, manufacturers are suggesting you mix no more than 50% of traditional oils or acrylics with w-

oils. Sometimes, I’ll use 100% of one color, but it will generally be less than 50% of what my final mixture

is. For example, I recently ran out of Indian Yellow (IY). So I grabbed my IY from my traditional oil paints and

laid a dollop on my pallet. As I mixed different greens, I would add IY as I saw fit.

Do not use Baby Oil to clean your w-oil brushes. Baby Oil does not mix well with water and by cleaning your w-

oil based brushes in Baby Oil your brushes will bead and cause difficulties in future paintings with water mixable

oils. Clean your w-oil brushes in water, use the pink soap if you’d like, etc… Be sure to wrap your 2 1/2″, 2″ and

1″ brushes in either a paper towel or saran wrap to keep the shape of the brush intact. Refer to our section on

cleaning brushes for a detailed explanation of this process.

Butterfly by Darrell

Originally composed by Darrell

using oil paints, Darrell has redone

the painting in water-mixable oils.

Students love the transferrable tech-

niques of learning to paint with oils

which allows one to be as equally

proficient with water mixable oils.

Darrell has put together a complete

series of the Basic Techniques of

Painting With Water Mixable Oils.

Water Soluble paints are great for

students living in close quarters and

those who have low tolerances or

allergies to traditional oils.


What Does It Mean To Be Green

To be green means being a good environmental steward of our planet. This typically involves three elements:

1. The materials used in the manufacture of the paints and mediums are biodegradable, non-toxic, non-


2. The solvents and mediums used work with the paints are non-toxic, non-hazardous, and safe for our planet.

3. The materials used to clean the paints out of the brushes are non-toxic, non-hazardous, and safe for our planet.

There is a growing movement of environmentally conscious and well-informed artists and consumers who are

thinking about their finances, managing their money and making choices for the future in a new way that impacts

the earth we live in. They are making choices based on whether or not products and services are earth-friendly,

ethically-produced and made, recyclable and energy-efficient.

But “what exactly does it mean to go green” for the average artist or the average person? What can we do today,

right now that’s practical, affordable and economically sustainable. Especially in light of the current economic

downturn? We can’t instantly replace everything we own with Planet-Safe Green products today.

Artists and students of art have always commented on the world around us throughout the ages through the art they

create and through public forums. We, too, can make a difference in how we produce our art.

To “go green” means we’ve made a big decision to stop doing and consuming products that are harmful to Earth

right now, and to start making decisions to learn how to modify our behavior and purchase products that will en-

hance the life of our planet.

In other words, “going green” is the conscious decision to take care of where we live.

This involves looking for Planet-Safe behaviors and products.

1. We make decisions that result in more environmentally friendly behaviors over those that are less environmen-

tally friendly

2. Shopping for products that gradually replace a few things you purchase on a regular basis, with green products

that preserve our environment.

Going green is then a process which means achieving the goal of an environmentally friendly relationship with our

planet through small steps one at a time. I cover the use of water mixable oils to help those who have made the

“green” decision.


The Paint Colors I Use

Paints (Oils, Acrylics or Water Miscible)

Item Bas

ic T

ec

hn

iqu

es

Se

as

ca

pe

s

Flo

we

rs

Ta

ll S

hip

s

Wil

dlife

, P

ets

, P

ort

rait

s

Alizarin Crimson \ \ \ \ \

Burnt Sienna \ \ \ \ \

Burnt Umber \ \ \ \ \

Cadmium Red Light \ \ \ \ \

Cadmium Yellow Light \ \ \ \ \

French Ultramarine Blue \ \ \

Indian Yellow \ \ \ \ \

Ivory Black \ \ \ \ \

Orange \ \ \

Paynes Gray \ \ \ \ \

Permanent Violet \ \ \

Prussian Blue \ \ \ \ \

Pthalo Blue \ \ \ \ \

Pthalo Green \ \ \ \ \

Raw Sienna \

Raw Umber \

Sap Green \ \ \ \ \

Titantium White \ \ \ \ \

Yellow Ochre \ \ \ \ \


Paint Layout Across The Top

Sap Green

Alizarin Crimson

Burnt Umber

Burnt Sienna

Ivory Black

Prussian Blue

Pthalo Blue

Pthalo Green

Purple

Paynes Gray

Titanium White

Right Bottom

Cad Yellow Light

Yellow Ochre

Indian Yellow

Cad Red Light

Across The Top

Purple

Alizarin Crimson

Cad Red Light

Cad Orange

Yellow Ochre

Cad Yellow Light

Titanium White

Down Left Side

Burnt Umber

Burnt Sienna

Sap Green

French Ultramarine

Blue

Ivory Black

Turquoise

I’ll often use other

of my colors, but the

ones listed above are

always used in flow-

ers.


Oil Painting Brushes & Knives It seems artists are always ending up being ‘paint junkies’ or ‘brush bunnies.’

I’m always in search of the perfect brush. It really doesn’t exist, but I’m constantly searching for brushes that will

help me to accomplish a tricky task or make difficult painting subjects easier to paint.

Its not a search in vain. I’ve been fortunate twice now in finding a great brush for painting animal fur as well as a

brush for helping in wildlife, pets and portraits.

Below I’m going to review each brush I’m using for oil painting and for water-mixable oil painting. My objective

is not to suggest a particular brand of brush, but what brush to use and why I use it.

I only use a few brushes. Therefore I can store

the brushes in a travel carrier that also serves as

a brush caddy when I’m painting on location or

teaching a class. This is a great bonus as it

means whether on location, in the classroom, or

my studio, I always have all my brushes.

First, two cautions.

#1. Always make sure you clean you brushes properly either

when you no longer need the brush in a painting, or when the

painting session is over. Waiting even just a little bit is bad.

You run the risk of being two tired, or worst yet, the brush dry-

ing and of no further use.

#2 Learn to load your brush properly with paint.

Many, many beginning to paint problems are a direct result of

either #1 or #2 above.

Right now, resolve to never leave your painting station without

all of your brush being clean and conditioned. We’ll talk about

the proper cleaning techniques later in this chapter, but for

now, resolve you will not complete painting for the day without

cleaning all dirty brushes.

2” BRUSH

I use this size brush from 2 different manufacturers.

The brush is made with natural horse hair and is

used for applying to bare canvas and for blocking in

huge areas like sky or lakes, etc…

Although this brush looks like you’ve come to paint

the barn it’s a great instrument for highlighting and

detail work.

1” BRUSH


The brush is made with natural horse hair and is

used for bushes, trees, grass, foothills and much,

much more

The 1” brush is quite similar to the 2” brush but

allows greater versatility in painting details and

different objects


Tree Brush (Black Handled Oval & Mop)

I’ll highlight bushes and trees easily with these.

Load the brush at a 45 degree angle and pull the

brush through the paint toward you. Once satisfied,

than (while still at the 45 degree angle slide the

brush forward to load up a slim bead of paint.

The brush is made with natural horse hair and

Great for blocking or detail work.

Soft Blending Brush (Hake)

Soft, soft clouds. That’s my first reaction when I

see the Blender Brush. Either of these brushes work

great.

#3 & #6 Bristle Fan Brushes


The brush is made with natural bristle hair and has

an infinite number of uses. I use it for details, gen-

eral painting and blending.

It’s especially suited for landscapes and seascapes.

#2 Script Liner Brush

I use this brush whenever I need lines such as tree

branches, twigs, bush stems, tall ship rigging, hair,

fur, and signature.

The brush is made with sable and is loaded by thin-

ning the paint with medium or thinner to the con-

sistency of ink and applying to canvas

#6 Filbert Bristle Brush

A Work horse for painting trees, waves within a

seascapes as well as rocks and boulders.

Also useful for the under-painting step for wildlife,

pets and portraits


Scrubber Brushes (#2, #4, #6 Bristle Flats)

One can almost paint entire paintings with these

three brushes.

I use for mountains, rocks, boulders, cabins and

other buildings, lighthouses, foam patterns for the

sea, portraits, pets, wildlife and tall ships.

They’re so inexpensive, I use them to really scrub in

color to the canvas.

Paint Eraser

Known by many names, this paint eraser will allow

you to lift paint off of a canvas so you can correct a

section that’s unsatisfactory. Notice the flat, angled

edge on the top. This rubber edge will let you

scrape paint to the bare canvas, if desired. The op-

posite end has a point which is great for drawing in

wet paint so that either the underneath color or can-

vas will appear through giving the illusion of a line.

Great for signing your painting as well.

#5 Palette Knife

I love this knife for painting fencing, pylons, small

cabins and small boulders and rocks.

There are two different #5 palette knives I enjoy.

One has a rounded edge and the other has a sharp

corner angle instead. Both are equally useful in

painting and also function well to mix paint.

#10 Palette Knife

This knife is the best I’ve ever used in painting

mountains, trees, rocks, boulders and buildings.

The biggest trick is knowing when to apply pressure

and when to apply no pressure whatsoever.

It was also the hardest painting instrument for me to

learn, but it proved to be the best instrument to use

after paying my dues.

5/8” & 3/4” Badger Filbert Brush

Used predominantly for painting floral leaves, dai-

sies, sunflowers, wildflowers, tall ship sails... One

must really concentrate on the amount of pressure

applied when using this brush as well as the amount

of medium mixed into paints. Just think of 4 con-

sistencies with 4 different pressure levels. Soup,

Cream, a drop, and no medium.


#2 Badger Round Brush

This brush is super for painting sticks, twigs and

wiggly things in floral composition. It also can be

used to paint small buds.

In wildlife, pets and portrait paintings, I use this

brush to paint different portions of the face during

the color phase. I use it to underscore face lines,

ears, nose and eyes.

Mixing Knife

Known by many names, this knife is used for mix-

ing paint.

Its thin, very long and easy to mix paints by com-

bining two or colors together. Can also be used to

mix a 3” trail of color. Mix 2 colors together in a 2”

long strip. Than at different points along the trail

add more of one color so you can spot the color

you’re looking to mix.

Mahl Stick (Presentation Pointer)

I chose to make a Mahl stick out of an ordinary col-

lapsible presentation pointer. ($2.00—$3.00) Easy

to use, just carry around with your brushes and

whenever you need a long stick to rest your hand on

as you paint, grab the presentation pointer. Extend

it and rest your hand as you paint.

Storing Your Brushes

After cleaning my brushes thoroughly with Baby Oil (or odorless thinner or

OMS), I will dip each brush into baby oil and gently (that’s GENTLY) slide the

brush through my forefinger and thumb to remove excess oil. Then I store them

in a flat container until the next time I’m ready to use me. I store my brushes

like this if I believe it will be three days or more before I use them again.


The Forked Liner Brush Cure

Liner brushes come in all sizes. Often called script liners, I’ve seen them from size 4 down to 3, 2, 1, 0, 00,

000, …. ten zeros. They also come in different lengths as well. A script liner is longer than a liner brush,

which is longer than a round brush. So what size should we be using?

That depends upon you more than anything………….and the condition of your brush.

I use a #2 script liner which is a fine, fine brush perfect for just about any kind of detailed work PROVID-

ED we adhere to three basic practices.

1. Keep the brush clean. I use scr ipt liner s that are typically made of sable hair s. After each use, I

carefully clean my brush with either Orange pumice cleaner or the Chroma brush cleaner. I’ve used several

brands of brush cleaner with equal success. By gently massaging the brush with the cleaning solution be-

tween your thumb and forefinger, you’ll work out all of the paint deposits, solvents and chemicals that have

accumulated in the hairs and under the metal ferrule binding the brush hairs. Once thoroughly clean, I rinse

out the cleaning solution using baby oil and lightly dry with a paper towel As I dry, I reform the brush tip

so the brush will dry coming to a perfect point.

2. Develop a light, light touch. To be able to paint fine detail, you’ve got to develop a light touch. A

hard touch forces a lot of paint off the brush onto the canvas in a very short amount of time. This generally

results in lines that are much, much thicker than we’d like. Our first inclination is to get a thinner brush to

compensate. Try developing a lighter touch. Heck, I don’t care if I make straight lines, I just want very,

very thin crooked lines.

3. Use a large quantity of thinner or medium. When using a liner brush you want your paint mix-

ture to be as thin as ink. Otherwise, the paint will not transfer from your brush to the canvas without pres-

sure. So if you do not see a line when you glaze over your painting surface and have to apply more pres-

sure, add more medium or thinner to the paint. When loading the brush to be paint, begin with a clean dry

brush and roll just the tip of the hairs in the paint. Then go to the canvas.

4. Finally, if you find your liner brush separates at the metal ferrule and will not come to a point, you’ve

got a couple of options. Clean the brush. The reason the hairs are separating is that there is dried paint

inside of the metal ferrule that is forcing the hairs to spread out. Winsor Newton makes an excellent

‘soaking’ brush cleaner. Leave your liner brush soaking in this solution for 1 to 2 hours and re-clean as

directed in step #1. If this fails, than load lots of paint into the liner brush to force the hairs to a point. It’s

almost like caulking, if you will. Then you can load your brush as described in step #3.


Water Mixable Oil Brushes &

Knives When you look closely at the set of

brushes I use for Water Mixable

Oils, I can just hear your comment.

“It doesn’t look any different than

the oil painting brushes!”

That’s true.

Except, they’re dedicated to the

Water-based oils.

Do not use these brushes one day

with W-Oils and then try to use

them the next with traditional oils.

The results are dismal. Use one

set exclusively for oils and one set

exclusively for water mixable oils.

Storage of the brushes are different as well. Water has a tendency

cause the larger brushes to lose their shape as the hairs seem to get a

major case of the frizzes. (hair pointing every which direction) To

prevent brush hair frizzes, I strongly recommend that you wrap the

bristles in a paper towel or something like saran wrap. I use the

saran wrap if I suspect it will be a while before I use the brush

again. If I believe I’ll be using the brush within a week I wrap the

brush bristle area with a paper towel. This really helps retrain their

original shape.


Medium And Its Purpose Medium is a liquid substance we use in

paintings to make it easier to spread paints

onto the dry canvas and to assist us in the

blending of color onto the canvas.

For oil paints, mediums are typically a

mixture of 1 part linseed oil and 5 parts of

odorless turpentine.

For acrylics, this is water or a special

‘acrylic medium.’

For water-soluble oils, this is water or a

special ‘water-soluble’ medium, such as a

modified linseed oil. Modified means that

the chemical composition of linseed oil has

been modified to allow it to mix with water

rather than oil.

Medium with color, i.e. white, black or

clear mediums, are specifically formulated

to keep the paints wet for a long time so

students and artists can finish a painting in

a single session. These are known as ‘fat

mediums.’

Mediums are classified as either fat or

lean. Fat means they extend the period of

time for a painting to dry. Lean means

they shorten the period of time for a paint-

ing to dry.

Whereas the common thought is that wet-

on-wet, or wet-in-wet by definition means

a painting must be finished in a single sit-

ting, this is not necessarily correct.

Wet-on-wet, is simply a matter of layering

paint on top of paint while its still wet. So

wet-on-wet isn’t necessarily restricted to

oils. Newer acrylics will allow this to hap-

pen as well. Choose your supplies wisely.

Mediums have a few jobs, the most common one is allowing paints to flow smoothly onto the painting surface

(canvas). If you’ve ever tried to just take oil or acrylics and apply directly to the canvas, you’ll understand what I

mean.

These are the mediums I use for all of my oil paintings.

They include for landscapes and seascapes, medium white, black

and clear. They’re available throughout the USA and many other

countries. If you have any difficulties finding these products con-

tact the websites for the Alexander Company, or the Martin F.

Weber company to see if there are distributors in your area. You

could also contact a local Alexander® or Bob Ross® certified

instructor.

For all other types of painting projects I like using the Lean Oil

Painting Medium from Chroma®.

When mixing your own medium, use less linseed oil to pro-

duce a leaner medium.

My standard formula is 1 part linseed oil and 5 parts of

odorless turpentine. This is the fattest medium you should

ever use. Never use over 25% linseed oil, or it will take

many forevers to dry. Lean is less and less linseed oil.

Winsor Newton Glazing medium is pretty lean and its fre-

quently mixed with other materials to make it fatter for pro-

jects like wildlife or portraits after the painting has been

completed.

The Medium White, Clear and Black are very fat as they

keep paintings wet for days.

The general rule I use is that most oil painting mediums are

fat unless specifically market as “Lean” or “fast drying.”


In general, medium’s purposes include:

Allow paints to flow smoothly onto the canvas

Keeping the canvas wet

Facilitate the blending of colors

When tinted with color, will permeate this color throughout

the entire canvas

Allowing the paints to dry either shinny, dull, flat, glossy,

etc….

Build structure or relief with paints

Allow faster drying i.e. Archival Lean Medium

The two primary purposes are to allow the paint to flow smooth-

ly onto the canvas and to keep the canvas wet during the imme-

diate painting session to facilitate layering of paints on top of

each other and the blending of color..

There are two types of mediums ‘fat’ and ‘lean’. Fat keeps the

canvas and oils wet longer. Lean hasten the drying time.

The following have become my favorite mediums.

1. Landscapes & Seascapes: Medium White, Clear and Black

2. All other oil paintings: Chroma ‘Lean’ Medium

3. Water-Soluble Oils: Water

4. Acrylics: Chroma Atelier Clear Painting Medium, Chroma

Atelier Binder Medium (Used to prepare the surface) and

the Martin F. Weber company’s Modified Linseed Oil.

Now one of the biggest questions I consistently receive from my

international students is how they can order these mediums be-

cause of their local art stores not carrying these supplies. If you

have any difficulties finding these products contact the websites

for the Alexander Company, or the Martin F. Weber company to

see if there are distributors in your area. You could also contact

a local Alexander® or Bob Ross® certified instructor.

Or you could mix your own

My medium Mix is 1 part

linseed oil and 5 parts of

odorless turpentine.

Be sure to thoroughly mix

your medium after mix-

ing. I always mix up a

month’s supply at once.

For fast drying mediums,

you could add 2 drops of

Japan Dryer or Cobalt

dryer.

I love the Chroma Ar-

chival Lean Oil Painting

Medium as it by passes

all the mixing.

In preparing my own

medium I’ll use 25% lin-

seed oil and 75% OMS

(odorless mineral spirits).

4. Soup consistency thins

the paint considerably

and the brush instantly

loads fully.

In florals I use 4 different

consistencies.

1. No medium.

2. One Drop of medium

3. Creamy consistency is

a few drops and paint

loaded onto 1/4” onto the

brush.


Now if you’d like a white, or black or name your own col-

or medium, simply add a very small amount of the desired

paint color to your medium and this’ll assist you in getting

a medium that’ll make you happy .

When should you use medium white or black or ‘Name

Your Own Color?’

It depends upon the blending effect you want with your

paints.

First, let’s understand the wet-on-wet technique.

When we layer Magic White onto a canvas, the white col-

or will blend any paints placed on top lighter. The colors

are brighter and more vibrant. Each layer mixes with the

medium and becomes ‘thinner’. The medium works its

way to many of the layers on top. And as we layer paint

on top of paint on top of paint, the layers essentially be-

comes thicker and the medium is dispersed through more

paint thus becoming ‘leaner’. That’s why when we high-

light, we add more medium. We want a thin paint

(highlight) to stick to a thick paint (under-painting).

To prove this, have you ever noticed how your trees and

bushes will dry faster than say your sky in the center of a

painting? This is because the medium only mixed with

one color, one layer of paint (sky color) and essentially

stayed ‘fat.’ The trees and bushes had several layers of

paints and thus the paints became ‘lean.’ Lean dries much

faster than fat.

So when you go to mix your own color, white will make

your colors brighter, black will dull down or ‘gray’ down

your colors. A lot of time when painting a floral back-

ground I’ll want a lavender or misty gray kind of back-

ground, so I’ll mix up some special medium and apply to

the canvas. This is very effective.

In preparing my own

medium white I’ll add a

little paint color of my

choice to my medium..

Always test consistency.

Mix thin enough so that

two drops will quickly fall

off the brush handle.

Add more medium and

mix thoroughly if mixture

is too thick after testing.

This is the proper amount

of Medium White, Clear

or Black to put on brush.

If you can clearly see the

fingerprint lines, its cor-

rect. Not seeing lines

means add more medium.

Seeing a blob means

you’ve got too much me-

dium. Thin by painting

over with a clean dry

brush.

Apply medium to canvas

using crisscross strokes.

Test by lightly putting

your finger onto canvas.

Darrell’s Oil Painting Formulas:

Medium (fat)

25% linseed oil, or boiled linseed oil, 75% odor-

less turpentine.

Medium (lean)

1 part linseed oil, 5 parts of odorless turpentine


With Water Mixable Oils,

add modified linseed oil

to water.

You can also make your

own Medium White by

pouring W-Oil medium

onto paint.

Mix thoroughly until con-

sistency allows two drops

by easily fall from a

brush handle.

Place medium white into

a storage container for

quick access.

Darrell’s Water Soluble Oil Medium Formulas

The Fat and Lean Medium Ratios are the same. For Example…...


Black, White & Gray Gesso Gesso has two primary purposes. It is an acrylic based paint that can be used to prime canvas and it

can be used to under paint canvases before traditional paints are applied.

Canvas are available non-primed, single prime coat, double prime coat. I suggest you buy the double coat primed canvas. If I purchase single layer or non-primed canvas, cover the canvas with two coats of an off white ges-so (white gesso with a small amount of gray gesso to tint the white). Should you apply medium to a canvas and it dries in a few minutes, than you’ll need to prime your canvas.

One way of creating painting that has a lot of impact and drama is to use Gesso to under-paint a can-vas, can certainly help achieve this effect. The reason is that a color on top of a dark canvas with a thin coat of medium really stand out. The colors are brilliant and dry with a shiny look.

I use two types of gesso; black and white. I can also use a gray color, which is derived from mix-ing black and white. This allows me to control how dark or light I’d like the gray.

I prepare canvases with gesso on a flat surface, like a table, as opposed to using an easel. This way, I keep my easel and workstation nice and clean. Gesso can be quite messy.

After applying gesso, let the canvas dry thorough-ly. Add medium and begin your painting project.

Do note that when you apply gesso to a canvas, you must let the entire canvas dry before painting with oils.

You can only put oils over gesso. You cannot put gesso on top of oils, even if the oils are dry.

I typically use two types of gesso; black and white.

When applying to a canvas pour a small amount onto a

disposable palette. Apply to canvas using a gesso brush

as shown above or a 2” sponge brush.

I can control the intensity or value of a gray gesso

by how much black and white gesso I mix together.

We’ll see how this really adds drama to a painting.

I use a 2” sponge brush to load up the gesso and

apply to my canvas using “X” strokes. I typically

will do several canvases at once.


Also, I like to keep my oil painting area clean and free of water. Its important to keep the oil paints separated from water. Oil paints and water simply do not mix.

I like using a 2” or 1 1/2” sponge brush to apply gesso to a canvas. I’ll dip my sponge into a pile of black gesso and then using “X” strokes, I’ll cover the whole canvas. Let it dry and then repeat the process for a second coat.

When applying gesso, I constantly travel back and forth across the canvas using the X stroke with the sponge brush. You’ll see that the canvas quickly turns dark.

That’s all there is to painting an entire canvas with black gesso. The canvas will take about a half-hour to dry, or one could just go ahead and use a hair dryer to blow dry the canvas in a few minutes. You cannot paint until the canvas is dry.

You can also paint a scene onto a canvas with gesso. This is particularly useful if you’d like to have depth in your paint-ing by showing mountains, waterfalls or trees way back in the distance.

One approach I enjoy is to under-paint a nice wooded scene with dark gesso using a natural sponge. Natural sponges are fairly inexpensive and readily available at popular arts and crafts stores.

Take a fine mist spray bottle filled with water and lightly spray the sponge to get it nice and damp. Squeeze out any excess water. You don’t want water dripping out of your sponge, but the sponge must ini-tially be wet.

Dip the damp, natural sponge, with all of its little crevices, right into the black gesso. These crevices will make some of the nicest effects for a tree. Then just tap the sponge lightly onto the canvas to shape your trees. Use only enough pressure for the gesso to stick to the canvas.

Again, the stroke is a tap, lift up off the canvas, tap.

And if you like different shapes, then acquire a collection of different sea sponges. Don’t use the synthetics, use natural sea sponges. I know in some of the art stores that I frequent, they offer bagfuls of sponges that provides a great variety. I’ve even had an elephant ear sponge.

Now, once we get into the center of the bottom portion of the canvas I no longer want detail that will show through the oils, I want the canvas from the center to the bottom painted black. So I can just go ahead and grab a two-inch sponge brush and darken everything up, This will my paint-ing show off brilliant colors for a lot of impact.

In this example I’ve

turned the brush sideways

to put in a whole forest of

trees with black gesso.

Using a combination of side strokes and

lightly dabbing in far trees with a sea

sponge, paper towel and black gesso, the

under-painting really takes on shape.

Gesso is not the only paint for under painting

canvas. I like using acrylic colors as well. The

canvas above has been under painted with ptha-

lo blue acrylic in the sky area and Prussian blue

in the ocean area. The seascape will quickly

come together due to the under painting.

You can also use a crumpled paper towel instead of a sea sponge to accomplish the same results. But the sea sponge works better.


It is suggested you first read all of the basic tech-

nique chapters prior to doing this exercise.

Gesso Sky and Land

1. Paint the bottom half of the canvas with black

gesso using a 2” sponge brush.

2. Dry the sky/bottom with a hair dryer.

3. Mix up a dark, medium, and light gray gesso.

4. Beginning with medium gray paint in the tree

trunks using a #4 bristle scrubber brush

Path & Rocks

1. Using Medium gray paint in the large trees ,

and a path which widens from the horizon to

the river’s edge. Paint up a bunch of rocks us-

ing the scrubber and medium gesso.

2. Add distant rocks using the dark gray gesso.

It’ll give the effect of distance and depth in the

painting.

Rocks

1. Return to the large medium gray rocks dividing

the land and river and paint in the cracks and

crevices of these rocks. Use the same scrubber

and a combination of the dark gray and pure

black gesso.

2. Add tree branches to the tree trunks to give

them a grand appearance.

River’s Edge

1. Paint small rocks and boulders all along the

river bank.

2. With the medium gray and using the #4 scrub-

ber, be sure to loosely paint the water lines.

Lay the water flat by using steady, parallel

strokes. One trick is to loosely paint in a stroke

going down the canvas, curving along the

shoreline with a single wide stroke. Than pull

each portion of the line parallel to center of

Almost Done

1. Check to make sure that all of the details you’d

like are painted. Now using the #2 scrubber

take some of the off-white gesso and highlight

the tops of the rocks, here and there to really

give this painting quite a sparkle.

2. Cover the entire surface of the painting with a

thin, thin, (did I say thin) coat of medium clear.

Under-Painting A Scene With Gesso


Applying Medium Clear

1. Use a 2” or 2 1/2” large brush to apply the me-

dium clear using crisscross or “X” strokes.

2. The next portion is extremely critical. Take a

clean paper towel and lightly wipe off the me-

dium clear. What you leave behind will be

sufficient for our painting purposes.

Adding Under Color

1. Add a thin coat of color over the entire paint-

ing. With a clean dry 2” or 2 1/2” brush tap

brush into Pthalo Blue (or your choice of color)

and paint the entire canvas using crisscross or

“X” strokes.

2. Make sure the brush is clean and dry. Other-

wise you may put on additional medium onto

the canvas that could cause the paint and medi-

um to run down the canvas.

Completed Painting

Once the canvas is covered with the color of your

choice, the under painting is completed. You can

declare the painting done, or you can finish your

painting by adding more colors and elements as

desired. But don’t overdo it on this particular paint-

ing.

Again, you may want to wait until you’ve finished reading the trees, bushes, rocks and water techniques chapters

before tackling this exercise.

Let me know how you do.


Drawing The Circular Vase

1. Obtain a round paper plate the size of vase.

2. Liberally coat the edges of the plate with gray

gesso

Transferring Vase Onto The Canvas

1. Go to the location where you want your vase

and turn the plate upside down and firmly press

the plate onto the canvas

2. Toss the plate.

Light Side Painting Of The Vase

1. You’ll need two shades of gray: dark & light.

2. Using a #6 scrubber brush, begin painting the

lighter side of the vase with the light gray color.

Dark Side Of The Vase

1. After the light half of the vase has been painted,

clean your brush.

2. Using the dark gesso mixed color, paint the dark

side of the vase careful to not cross the center.

3. While the canvas is still wet (spray lightly with wa-

ter if you feel the canvas is too dry), blend out the

border where light & dark meet.

4. Blend thoroughly pulling color as far as you can.

Finishing.

After you’re satisfied with the blending of the two

half you need to add a small amount of white gesso

and paint in a small spot where light is reflecting off

the bowl. You’re ready to paint the painting.

A Gesso-Painted Flower Vase


From Cave Walls To Canvas As an oil painting instructor I’m used to all sorts of ques-tions from students learning how to paint on the materi-als of our illustrious craft. In fact, one of the all time biggies is about what painting surfaces to use for prac-

tice and finished products?

When I was a beginning oil painting student, I quickly

discovered the great need for alternative painting sur-faces. I like using canvas, but mind you, one canvas is not all that expensive, but feed-ing a new insatiable habit with two, three or even four canvas-es a day can add up. Man has been in the great search for

practice painting surfaces ever since he started doodling on cave walls. Unfortunately, cave walls are in short supply and they’re really, really expensive these days.

So what’s an artist to do? What are our alternatives? What can I use for practice? What should

I use for a final painting pro-ject?

So let’s just take up with the cave walls and come forward a few years. Oil is a soft and fatty substance. So the requirement is that the painting surface must be harder than oil. The short of it all, you can paint on anything so long as it is harder than oil. You are limited only by your imagina-tion. With that said, you want to use a surface that won’t

change with the weather (warp) or corrode from the use of oils, solvents and medium. What good does it do, to paint grandma and grandpa and watch the work warp in three months?

Seasoned wood, masonite, canvas board or illustration boards just to name a few, are rigid and great to use as painting sur-faces. This used to be the primary painting surfaces until about 500 years ago when canvas was discovered. The most com-monly used painting surface today is canvas which must be

correctly mounted on a set of stretcher bars which ensures that the entire surface is taut. A good canvas is equally tight and firm throughout. This gives canvas its peculiar feel that’s softer and bouncier than wood, cave walls or other rigid surfaces.

As each of us develops our skills and craftsmanship, we get used to the properties of our painting surfaces. We rely on it. We may try many surfaces, but we settle down on what we generally like and become comfortable.

Canvas is popular because its light, rigid, yet elastic at the same time. Canvas can be made from sackcloth (burlap), cot-ton (most popular), synthetic, a combination of materials or even smooth linen. The texture of the surface of the canvas are

Canvas are available in

many different sizes.

This double-primed can-

vas is 12” x 24” . Its

unique size lends it nicely

for use in landscapes,

seascapes and florals.

You can really compose

stunning floral arrange-

ments with this canvas

size.

I traditionally choose two sizes of canvas. I like

the 18” x 24” canvas for conducting workshops. I

find my students learn better and faster with this

size as opposed to smaller sizes. For my own

practice, I’ll frequently purchase canvas paper

and mask tape them to a canvas. This allows me

an inexpensive painting surface with the touch

and feel of a real canvas. Touch and feel is ex-

tremely critical during the learning process.

I like a small canvas for painting

pop art portraits. I have a stack of

studio canvas whose sides are 2”

deep. This really lends itself to con-

tinue a painting across the top flat

surface and over the sides to the end

of the canvas material. No frame is

required.


rated the their smoothness, known as “tooth.” The coarser the surface, the more ‘tooth’ it is said to have. Canvas are available as economy (rough with lots of tooth), medium, fine (portrait smooth) and smooth linen. Each cloth can be constructed to any quality level. Linen is considered to be the best in quality and therefore sports the heftier price.

A “primed” canvas is one that has been covered with a solid layer of substance that protects the canvas cloth from rotting

away because of the acidity and harshness of oils and mediums. In a nutshell, an unprimed canvas will dissolve over the long term from the acidity inherent in oil paints. The next time you’re shopping, look at the canvas label. It should mention whether or not the canvas is primed. If there’s no mention, than safely assume the canvas is not primed.

Canvases are typically primed with one of the following:

1. Thinned glue that does not affect the color of the canvas.

Canvas are typically labeled as either single or double primed, meaning coats of application. The canvas must dry before the next coat is applied. Double primed application is best.

2. A compound of rabbit skin glue and Spanish white or chalk.

3. Acrylic gesso.

It is normal practice for manufacturers to label their canvas as primed, materials used, degree of material mix if any, texture and quality.

As a guideline, think of it in these terms.

1. Economy is

great for prac-tice and giving away.

2. Reserve fine

for those prized masterpieces.

3. If you’re getting paid, go fine. You can do your

studies on rough, but for the final masterpiece, make sure its fine.

Wood is an excellent painting surface, however solid

wood surfaces are seldom used anymore. Chipboard, made of wood chips and glue pressed tightly is be-coming popular. Masonite and plywood are also ideal surfaces for painting since they resist warping and climate changes.

One idea is to take a sheet of masonite rough it up with sandpaper, and then coat with a thin layer of a primer. ( I typically use acrylic or gesso). I’ll take a 4′

I’m really particular about which scene I’ll

paint on an oval canvas. The scene must

look better than if painted on a rectangular

canvas. Often, if I believe a scene will best

show on an oval, I’ll paint both an oval and

rectangle canvas and then make a decision.

One problem with oval canvas is your ea-

sel will have to be able to solidly hold the

oval canvas. If it doesn’t you may have to

build an adaptor. The simplest is a 1”x”4

shelving board with the top of the oval

canvas cut out to the size you need to in-

stall on your easel. I have one that sup-

ports 18”x24”, 16” x 20”, and 12”x14”

ovals.

Not only do canvas come in different sizes and

primed/non-primed offerings, but different quality

levels as well. As a beginning student, you’ll go

through a lot of canvases before you begin to develop

your own unique style. During some really hectic

practice days, I’ve been known to go through two

dozen canvases in a single day. So I’m grateful for


x8′ sheet of masonite, prime it, then saw it right down the 8′ foot center. Each half would then be sawed again at 18″ intervals. This provides you eight (8) 18″ x 24″ wooden painting boards to use.

The only problem with the above approach is the hard surface. But if you like hard, this is an excel-lent tip for securing inexpensive painting surfaces.

Another approach is the use of canvas boards. This a very hard cardboard with a canvas like surface. Very popular due to their low pricing. Most art supply stores carry these. Again, an excellent low-cost alternative, but the hard surface is different than a canvas. If you like hard surfaces, this could well be the approach for you and save you the preparation required for masonite, chip boards and ply-

wood surfaces.

If you’re a die hard canvas person, let me introduce you to canvasette papers. This is canvas paper. In general, papers are unsuitable surfaces for oil painting, because they just simply absorb the oils.

However, canvas paper is a very thick paper especially prepared for oils. I therefore use it for prac-ticing. It cuts costs to well under a buck each. I buy a pad of 16″x20″ canvas paper and mount them onto a 16″x20″ canvas with masking tape or thumbtacks. I paint my heart out, toss or give away and move right onto the next session. I love this approach as I retain the look and feel of canvas throughout my practice session.

A third method is purchasing an economy 24″ x 36″ canvas and a wallpaper scraper. Paint until you

drop, scrape the paint off with the wallpaper scraper, clean with thinner and you’re ready to go again. You can always divide your canvas into four equally sized panels with masking tape on the 24″ x 36″ canvas.

I love the thought of one day creating a masterpiece on cave walls that’ll be gazed upon for centu-

Canvas pads are available in many different sizes in pads of 10-12 sheets. Each ‘canvas paper’ has the

touch and feel of a real canvas. By mask taping a sheet of Canvas pad to a regular canvas you extend the

sensation that one is actually painting on a canvas with the touch and feel of canvas


Easels Econo Easel

This small inexpensive table top easel is ideal for

beginners as they discover the art world and devel-

op their skills. It’s easily carried to a classroom and

can be securely fastened to a table by using an 8”

length of tape on each easel leg. Secure legs to ta-

ble with two strips for each leg. The first strip goes

around the leg and criss crosses the front of the leg

when pressed onto the table top. The second tape is

applied the same, but opposite direction.

Stanrite Table Top Easel

This is another great easel Easy to fix a canvas on

while painting and seconds as a wet canvas carrier

on the return trip home. I like adding a piece of

plywood to the bottom of the easel which is secure-

ly fastened with a long bolt that goes from the cen-

ter of the plywood through the center support bar of

the easel. Expand the picture to the right to see

what we mean.

Wooden Easel With Drawer

This easel sells between $40 and $80 depending on

the store and has a beautiful drawer in which you

can transport brushes and/or paints & Medium. An

ideal portable classroom.

Alexander Wooden Table Top Easel

I have a few favorite easels and this ranks as one of

them.

Very sturdy, easy to adjust for different canvas siz-

es, Very durable for my style and techniques of

painting.

Inexpensive Floor Wooden Easel From Best.

Another favorite that functions as a sit down or

standup easel. Has a bottom shelf and extraordinar-

ily easy to learn. Can hold canvases that are huge

as well as the smaller canvases.


Full French Easel

I prefer the full version of the easel so I can carry all

if not most of my supplies. You can find these ea-

sels from $49.95 to several hundred dollars.

I’m hard on easels and wear one out each year. I

had bought a nice Italian, expensive French Easel

only to find out it lasted maybe 2 years. I went back

to the $49.99 version. Use in classrooms. Can also

sit on a tabletop.

Soltex Portable Standing Easel

This Easel was designed by artists for artists. Ex-

tremely light weight and easy to carry.

But the price tag is steep. Expect to pay between

$700-$800 for this easel.

But I’ve had mine 6 years already and counting.

Easel Bag

Available on line, this allows me to carry either my

Soltek or French Easels on location quite nicely.

Level Your Easel

I added this level to my set of supplies so I can test

to make sure the easel is level and that the canvas is

level when mounted onto the easel.

Easel Feet For Gripping Canvas.

I install these small rubber feet from a local hard-

ware store. Place them onto the canvas grip board

and using a clamp over the newly affixed rubber

feet. Let sit 12-24 hours and not only can you again

use your easel, but it’ll grip canvases with lion pow-

er.

Have you wondered how

you could use your cam-

era tripod as a portable

easel? Sun-Eden Artists

Gear offers one. Contact

them at (303) 828-4430

and see if their offering

will meet your needs.


Painting Accessories Baby Oil & Odorless Turpentine

I clean my brushes during and after painting ses-

sions. I formerly used odorless thinner. But for

health reasons, I switched to Baby Oil. I only use

turpentine now for the thinning of paints. In gen-

eral, I use OMS (Odorless Mineral Spirits) instead

of turpentine for thinning paints.

If using Odorless Turpentine or OMS, make sure

you’re in a well-ventilated area.

Brush Holders

I store my brushes when they’re not in use lying flat

in a tool box drawer. But when I’m painting, I’ll

put them into a special brush holder. This brush

holder easily fits into a coffee can and can hold a

large number of brushes.

Portable Brush Storage

When traveling you’ll find it preserves the brush

life to store them in special cases that will allow

them to lay flat and be safe from the other art sup-

plies you carry. This is an example of two excellent

“brush bags.”

Paper Towels, Masking Tape

Paper towels are used to clean brushes while paint-

ing and during clean-up.

Masking tapes have an infinite number of uses so be

sure to keep an abundant supply of 1/4” and 1/2”

masking tape rolls.

Linseed Oil, Japan Dryer, 2 oz Cups

Often you may want to mix your own painting me-

dium. As such you’ll need these three products and

OMS. I use one part linseed oil, 5 parts OMS and 2

-3 drops of Japan Dryer per ounce of mix.


Baby Wipes, Q-Tips

Baby Wipes will clean just about anything. I use

them to remove paint off the palette, painting

knives, brush handles, my hands, face, head, hair

and students.

Q-tips are great for wiping off mistakes from a wet

canvas.

Brush Buddy

This small brush caddy is ideal whenever you’re in

the midst of painting and need to switch from one

brush to another. Simply rest the wet, paint laden

brush in one of its ‘nooks’ and it frees your hand to

grab another brush.

Sizing Photos

When working from photos or on location this in-

strument will help frame your painting. By adjust-

ing the rectangle size you’ll be able to identify the

ideal painting composition for your next project.

Tube Wringer

This is one of the most used and appreciated tools in

my art box. Paint is expensive enough and being

able to squeeze out the last drop of paint is sooooo

exciting. Two versions are out, metal and hard plas-

tic. The metal is about $25.00, but well worth its

price. I went through about two plastic versions a

year until I found the metal version. That was 8

years ago and I still have my original metal wringer.

Thinner Bucket, Thinner Screen

With our big brushes we need to clean them fre-

quently. Since they hold a lot of paint, I like to put

a paint screen into the bottom of the thinner bucket.

Rubbing the brush against this screen will scrub out

all of the pigments until the bristles are clean.


Fine Mist Water Spray Bottle, Orange Hand

Cleaner

When using gesso the fine mist water spray bottle

will lightly wet your painting surface allowing you

to quickly cover the area with Gesso. The Orange

Pumice hand cleaner is the perfect choice for clean-

ing the #2 sable script liner as well as yourself at the

end of a vigorous painting session.

Wooden Palette, Mahl Stick

When teaching or in the field, the wooden palette is

superior to the pad of paper palette. Cleans easily

with baby wipes as you head home.

The mahl stick is an assistant you can rest your

hand on without messing up your painting. Typi-

cally used when painting detailed work with a script

liner.

Tools: Screw Driver, Pliers, Level

The flat screw driver is great for opening up thinner

cans, baby oil and for mixing mediums. The pliers

quite useful for stubborn and half-dry painting tube

caps.

The level helps level your easel and canvas.

Palette Paper

I primarily use palette paper for painting in my stu-

dio or being a student in another class. Where

they’re available in different sizes I find two are

sufficient for me. A 12” x 14” for most work and

an 8”X10” whenever I’m using a few color such as

wildlife and portraits or Tall Ships.

Trash Can & Liner.

Keep a large trash can close to your painting area

that has a liner. Some really gooey stuff will end up

in the trash can, so all you have to do is close up the

liner and transport to the outside waste storage area

for pickup. Use a trashcan or cooler to store your

brush beater rack for drying brushes.


Protective Sprays For Paintings

The reason cited for using the protective sprays are to preserve the intensity of color and to protect the finish of

the painting itself.

Personally, I don’t use the sprays since most sprays require that the oil painting be absolutely dry before applica-

tion. The recommended time is six months to a year to allow sufficient drying. I also find that by hanging a wet

painting right away, its out of harms way so there’s little need for additional protection. I have a wall in my stu-

dio with lots of hanging hooks and so its a simple matter to hang a half dozen drying painting. Perhaps one day

I’ll make a short tip video on how to make a painting rack to allow for drying.

Colors also fade a bit when they dry. And different colors fade a little faster than others. I find red fades faster

and more than any other color. That’s why I use it in sky colors and mountains, etc… If I had a bit too much, I

know the colors will fade a bit over the upcoming year. Now remember pink is not tinted white. Pink will dry a

little duller pink. So paint the colors you want on your canvas without consideration for fading.

There is one spray I’m aware of that can be applied while the painting is wet and that’s the finishing spray under

the Bob Ross brand name. But I’ve found that on hard, smooth surfaces, such as glass, that your paints may run

on applications. So test, test, test whatever spray you’d like to use.

Bottom line….. if you’re inclined to spray your paintings, follow the directions for the spray properties you’ve

purchased. Test before you use on any of your prized paintings. I didn’t test once, and I’ll never forget the look

of horror on one of my student’s face as her painting literally dissolved before our eyes and ran down the canvas..


Cleaning Brushes I Use Baby Oil

I clean my brushes with Baby Oil.

It takes a little work, but its clean AND healthy.

I try to find Baby Oil either by the gross, or $1.00

for a 20 ounce bottle. This is getting to be a rare

find now.

You’ll Need A Thinner Bucket

I like using a small round plastic bucket which I

acquired at a local hardware store.

I’ll even drill holes in the side of the bucket so I can

fasten it onto the easel.

Place the thinner screen either directly into the

bucket, or use a plastic 1 gallon freezer bag to hold

the screen and cleaning oil.

Pour Oil Into Bucket

Pour enough baby oil into the bucket so that the

level of oil is about 3/4” to 1” above the screen top

surface. Then scrub all large brushes across the top

of the screen to remove all pigment from these

brushes. I repeat this until I no longer see pigment

flowing from these big brushes when pressed

against the side of the bucket. I soak hard, paint

dried brushes in brush cleaning solutions such as

you see on the right.

#2 Script Liner Brush

I clean all my script liners with Gojo by placing a

small amount of the pumice cleaner between my

thumb and index finger. Then scrub the brushes

(rinsing frequently) by rubbing the fingers together.

Once clean, wipe the brush handle with Baby

Wipes.

I clean all my brush handles with baby wipes.

Beat The Large Brushes Across Rack

Place the beater rack on the left into a trash can and

beat the large wet brushes just cleaned with baby oil

across the beater rack. The trick is vigorously brush

the brush bristles across the ribbed surface of the

beater rack until all of the baby oil has essentially

been ‘beaten’ out. Then take a paper towel and

thoroughly wring out any remaining oil from the

brushes.


Using A Cooler Instead Of A Trash Can

Instead of a trash can, I’ll often use a cooler when

teaching on location. This allows me to seal the lid

tight so that even if the cooler tips in the car, the

baby oil will not spill out. I use 3 seals:

1. I place the oil into a ziplock bag with the screen

and seal.

2. The thinner bucket lid

3. The cooler lid.

4. Optional: Bunge cord around the cooler.

Make Sure Your Trash Can Has a Lid.

This will preserve the dignity of your studio and

more importantly, I’ve found that pets like to drink

the baby oil. So cover your cleaning stations to

keep your pets safe. They can get sick and mess up

the area in short order.

Cleaning Water Mixable Brushes

With Water Mixable brushes, I clean in the same

fashion, but instead of using baby oil, I use old fash-

ion water. After the brushes are dry, I’ll wrap them

in paper towels to preserve their shape if I’m going

to paint within a few short days. If it’ll be weeks

before I use the brushes again, I’ll wrap them in a

kitchen wrap like Saran Wrap.

Scrub The Brushes In Water

When cleaning your water-mixable brushes ensure

you begin with clean water at the beginning of each

cleaning session. Thoroughly scrub the brush

against the wire screen to remove all pigments.

Press and Beat.

Press the excess water from the brush up against the

side of the painting bucket and then vigorously beat

the brush across the surface of the beater rack.


Dry With Paper Towel After Solid Beating.

Once you’re satisfied you’ve gotten all of the water

out of the brushes, than wipe any moisture you can

from the brush with a paper towel. Then wrap the

brush for storage in a paper towel.

Cleaning Small Brushes

For small brushes like a scrubber, or a fan brush or

a filbert simply remove the pigments from the bris-

tles by scrubbing the brushes across the surface of

the water screen, pressing out the excess water

against the side of the bucket and finally drying

with a paper towel.

Cleaning Sable, Badger & Other Soft Brushes

I use either Chroma, Winsor Newton, or brush

cleaners produced by the Martin F. Weber Compa-

ny

Beginning The Soft Hair Cleaning Process

Pour a small amount of the cleanser onto a paper

palette.

Then begin stroking or scrubbing the solution into

the brush. I like stroking the brush a couple of time,

flipping the brush 180 degrees and stroking a couple

more times. I’ll constantly repeat this process.

Tree Brush (Black Handled Oval & Mop)

As I work the Cleaning solution into the brush, I see

old dry pigment starting to color up the solution.

This is dried paint that is loosening up in the brush

and being extracted. Continue working the brush

through the cleaning solution until the solution is

quite dark from the pigment.


Rinse and Repeat.

Once the solution is absolutely filthy, wipe it with a

paper towel and clean your oil painting brush in

baby oil. Dry.

And repeat the process.

Repeat and Store

Continue repeating this process until the cleaning

solution remains clean when you scrub your brush

in it.

Then rinse the brush in clean baby oil, dry and

shape with just a touch of baby oil for storage.


You’ll need a form to draw your oval.

I took a 16”x20” oval canvas and laid it on top of an

18”x24” 1/4” plywood I had prepared. I then drew

around the oval canvas and sawed out the center.

I repeated the process with a 14” x 16” oval canvas

and 16”x20” canvas.

Drawing The Oval On To Contact Paper

Take a contact sheet of paper the size of the canvas

you’re going to use.

Trace the oval cutout onto the contact paper.

Cutting Out The Oval Center

Once completed, remove the form and cut out the

center oval with a pair of scissors.

Toss out the oval center you just cut out. You want

to preserve the outer plastic.

Remove the plastic backing.

Placing Contact Paper Onto The Canvas

After the backing has been removed, stick the can-

vas paper (sticky side facing the canvas) so that the

contact paper is lying flat on the canvas.

Smooth out the contact paper from the oval center

cutout to the canvas edges.

You may need a buddy to help you position the con-

tact paper on the canvas and smooth it down.

#6 Filbert Bristle Brush

If an air bubble is just impossible to smooth out.

Force the bubble to a single location. Using scis-

sors, cut the contact paper in half on one side,

smooth the contact paper flat and mask tape over

the seam of the cut.

Oval Setup For Rectangular Canvas


Transferring A Pattern To Canvas

Protecting a spot on the canvas.

Take your master drawing and place it over a large

enough contact paper.

Lay tracing paper between the drawing and the can-

vas (Shinny side down.)

Trace over your drawing

Cutting out the template.

Now cut out the drawing on the contact paper.

Then remove the plastic backing paper.

Apply the contact paper image of your drawing

(sticky side down) at the location on the canvas you

desire.Now you can paint without worrying about

keeping your one spot on the canvas free of paint or

medium.

When you’re ready to paint, simply remove the con-

tact paper. You can now paint the freshly bared

canvas area without worry.

Tracing The Drawing Directly Onto the Canvas

1. Print out the drawing, image of photo I want to

use, the size of the canvas I want to paint on.

2. Place Tracing paper over photo.

3. Trace the photo and then tape tracing to canvas

4. Place tracing onto canvas and secure with

masking tape

5. Place transfer paper between tracing and canvas

6. Trace firmly over the drawing so that the image

‘transfers’ itself to canvas. Inspect thoroughly.


Reference Materials

Photos

I like painting from photos when I’m putting togeth-

er a new painting. You can use just a portion of the

photo or combine with other photos.

Be sure to note what you’ve done and save copies

of your photos to substantiate that this is an original

painting by you.

Modeling

Another way of studying and creating new composi-

tions is to model the elements against a canvas.

Tape the elements onto the canvas, rearranging to

suit your objectives.

Step back from the canvas and size up your compo-

sition by looking through two cardboard right an-

gles to frame of your composition. This really helps

to model your potential painting.

Coloring Books

Realistic coloring books provide enormous details

you’ll be hard pressed to find elsewhere. Don’t

copy them, but study the details for inspiration on

how you can approach your work.

#2 Specialty Books

All different genres of painting subjects can be

found in specialty magazines, manufacturers bro-

chures and catalogs and books.

Feel free to study these documents in great detail to

determine the element’s composition and explore

new compositional ideas.


Books and Research

I never tire of researching my subject before picking

up my brush. I’ll browse on-line, review books,

study other paintings, photo and post cards.

In preparing the Tall Ship Series, I rented a fishing

excursion boat for a half day to take six budding

young artists for a ride through the Full Sail, Tall

Ship Parade at Newport, RI one year. We collec-

tively took over 1,000 photos in 4 hours.

Study What You’ve Already Done.

Examine your most popular, fast-selling paintings

to see if there’s another way you could arrange the

composition to produce yet another popular, fast

selling masterpiece.

I’m Loosing My Lines If you’re losing your tracing lines on your canvas when you add medium, here’s a great

suggestion.

I discovered when learning to paint portraits. It has served me well in complicated land-

scapes, portraits and tall ships compositions and paintings.

Paint your canvas with a light gray gesso. Add some white gesso to the gray if you’re using

the gray gesso straight from a bottle. Paint your entire canvas or the portion of the canvas

as desire. After the canvas has dried, I’ll transfer my drawing to the canvas by using graph-

ite transfer paper and a pencil. I’ll then load a #2 liner brush loaded with the gray that is

darker than what I’ve painted the canvas. I can use gray straight from the bottle, or gray

gesso with a little black gesso to gray the mixture down more. Paint all lines with the dark-

er gray. The lines will now be distinct and will show through either medium clear or medi-

um white. (Caution, they will not show through a darker than grey medium i.e.…. medium

black) Apply medium and paint as you normally would. The dark lines will show through

the medium, but will be covered when you apply paint. Furthermore, if you ever decide to

change your mind on the painting you can use a wipe-out tool or paint eraser to get back to

the raw canvas and your lines will still be there.


I receive a lot of questions from students who are preparing to paint on wooden surfaces.

The questions are typically…..

Hi Darrell: I have a wooden board that was previously varnished and I want to use it for an outdoor name sign and

I thought I would paint a picture of our lake scenery on it. After I sand it off, how would I prepare it for an oil

painting to be hung outdoors?

Student.

To prepare wood I simply sanded the wood and stained it the base color I desire.

Let the wood dry a couple of days.

After the wood surface is thoroughly dried, paint on it as you normally would a canvas using normal oil paints and

medium clear. Then let the painting dry thoroughly.

When the painting is dry all over, wait yet another week if its only a painting. If you’re using the painting also as a

sign either paint the letters on or affix the letters to the sign.

Let everything dry for a second week.

Now, spray coat the all of the exterior with an acrylic clear spray after it has thoroughly dried for the second week.

I’ll put a thin acrylic clear spray coat onto the wood surface twice a day for three days. This seals everything quite

nicely.

When I owned a gallery in Newport, Rhode Island, I had a hanging wood sign that had a painting on each side,

with the store name underneath.

This is how I prepared the painting on the sign and it performed well for a good 2-3 years. In fact, I still have the

sign and at the tender age of 15 years, the painting looks great.

Preparing Outside Wood

Surfaces For Oil Paintings


I just got off the phone with a lovely lady that was perplexed what to do if she couldn’t finish a painting all in one

sitting.

Was it permissible to finish a painting another day?

She’s not alone. I must receive this email 30 times a month if I receive it once.

Somehow, we’ve taken a benefit of the wet-on-wet painting style and turned it into a do or die rule that a painting

must be finished in one session or our painting just won’t be up to par.

With the wet-on-wet (or wet-in-wet) style of painting, we “can” finish our painting in one session. But what has

happened is this benefit is promoted vigorously by advocates, we therefore “think” we must finish a painting each

time we sit down at the easel.

TV artists promote then feature and, we have countless classes taught across the planet whereby a painting is fin-

ished in a single 4-5 hour workshop. This reinforces the concept that we’ll be eternally damned if somehow this

painting isn’t finished in a single session.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Students are simply “not taught how” to complete a painting in multiple

sessions.

The short and sweet of it all is, yes you can. You can take as many sessions as you’d like to finish a painting. You

can finish a painting and then six months later come back and fix something if you’d like.

Over the next few minutes, I’d like to explore how, by using three simple techniques, you can return to a painting

that has dried and continue with the wet-on-wet style. I cover this in the Basic Techniques of Painting Flowers

DVD Series, so if you’d like to see how I return to a painting, that’s the series to watch.

I love painting when I’m in the mood to paint, but once that mood passes or I’m tired, I lay the brush down and

return another day. But before you lay down your brush for the day, take a look at your painting and plan your re-

turn.

For a landscape painting, where are you when you want to call it a day?

Have you finished the sky, but need to add clouds on another day? If so, then simply clean your brushes and

walk away. When you return, put medium into your cloud mixture(s). You will not be able to pick up any of the

sky color as you paint your clouds, so take that into consideration as well. Add a touch of your sky color into the

cloud mixture if that’s the case. If you’re painting clouds with multiple colors, start by painting the darkest color

on, blend, then the next brighter color, blend and repeat the process until you’ve got your clouds painted.

Have you finished the sky, clouds, but need to pick-up painting mountains? The best advice I can give you is

if you feel you may not finish your mountains, don’t lay down the base color for the mountains. Wait until you

return to the painting. Then you just load up the base color onto your knife and build the shapes you want. Remem-

ber….shape, scrape, and spread the base to form your mountains. IF you should finish the base shape for your

mountains, but can’t continue, than I simply put medium into my mountain highlight color and shadow light color

and load up the knife with an even smaller roll of paint than normal and continue painting.

Sometimes I Can’t Finish A

Painting In A Single Session


Have you finished skies, clouds, mountains, but need to pick-up with foothills or a distant shore? Just simply

add a small amount of medium to the paint and continue painting as though you were on the first session.

What about evergreen trees, foliage, grass, bushes….? If you know you’re going to need to break a painting

into two sessions and you’re wondering about whether or not to base color the trees, etc… don’t. It’s better to leave

the base coloring to the session you’ll highlight. Now if I decide after basing to end the painting session, than upon

my return I have two options. First, I can rebase these elements, or secondly I’ll wet the entire evergreen trees,

foliage, grass, bushes, etc… with an even THIN coat of medium clear. Then I’ll mix up the exact highlight I want

and paint. Just remember you’re not picking up any color from the base, so check out your highlight brightness to

ensure you’re not too bright. You can even add a bit of the base color to your highlight color to dull it a bit if you

are too bright.

How do I paint those big, tall, stately trees when I return to a painting? This is very easy to do. I’ll take a

filbert brush or a fan brush and load it up with the dark color (typically Van Dyke Brown or Burnt Umber) and

without any medium, dry brush the basic shape of the tree and its major limbs onto the dried canvas. Then I’ll pick

up the knife or brush and paint on the highlights as I normally would. I’ll thin the base color with medium (not

thinner) to paint on all those wiggly little branches. Don’t make this mixture runny like ink since the surface is dry.

It has to be soft enough for your script liner to easily paint on the branches.

Ocean scenes and seascapes? Simply wet the sur face you’re about to paint on with an even, THIN coat of

medium (wipe off excess with an absorbent cloth or paper towel if you need) and continue painting as though

you’re on your first session. Just remember, that if the canvas is dry, you’ll need to add some of the base color to

your paints to adjust the brightness.

Flowers, tall ships, portraits, wildlife? Again, simply wet the sur face you’re about to paint on with an even,

THIN coat of medium (wipe off excess with an absorbent cloth or paper towel if you need) and continue painting

as described in the preceding paragraph.

You primarily have 3 methods of regaining the “wet-on-wet” or “wet-in-wet” environment of your first session in

subsequent painting sessions.

1. Base coating the objects your painting using no medium and highlighting as you normally would.

2. Mixing medium into the paints you’re layering onto the canvas in the subsequent painting sessions.

3. Wet the canvas area you’ll be painting with a THIN even coat of medium and then continuing your painting

sessions.

Keep Your Thinner Bucket Clean

Line your clean, empty thinner bucket with a plastic 1 gallon freezer bag. I’ve had the best results using the one

gallon freezer bags. I put the thinner screen into the bottom of the freezer bag and then slide the freezer bag into

the bucket or 2 pound coffee can. I then use the thinner bucket as I normally would for cleaning brushes and when

done, remove the thinner screen, wipe it off with a paper towel and pour the contents of the freezer bucket into my

storage container for odorless thinner (or OMS, or baby oil).

It’s beautiful. No more mud build-up.

Transportation is easier as you can seal up the freezer bag.


I love getting letters like the one below. And her question is a frequently asked question we should consider as we

prepare to paint.

Hi Darrell, I have purchased you landscapes and floral videos and I love them both. I recently bought a video on

techniques for painting portraits. The bad new is that no one, but no one is as clear and precise as you are in ex-

plaining how to paint, Darrell. The video starts out with the canvas already washed. My problem is this. Do I draw

the image on before I wash the canvas, or after? Or do you go around the drawing, like you do in your floral vid-

eo\’s? The instructor talks about the entire canvas being covered, and yet the face is definitely lighter than the

wash she used on the background. (She was using burnt sienna). Then she said you can use any color, blue or

green. I am almost sure you would\’t want that on the face area. Can you give me your impression of this? I know

you are a busy man, but I value your opinion. Do you do portraits? ….Keep up the great work. Sheryl M.

Hi Sheryl, Thanks for the encouraging words. There are a lot of films out on the market to educate us in portraits.

But as you’ve pointed out, they assume us students know something and they just kind of start there.

As a student, I always like to begin at ground zero. I know nothing.

To answer your basic question, you need a drawing on the canvas to at least show where and the shape of the sub-

ject’s ears, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, cheeks, hair, etc….

Here’s how I would transfer an image onto canvas…..

I really can’t draw, so I need to create a drawing. I can create a pattern from a photo or I can shine a photo onto the

canvas using a projector.

The projector is simple. Just place the photo into the source tray of the projector’s and following the projector’s

manual instructions, focus the photo image onto the canvas. Trace the subject’s portrait directly onto the canvas

and then begin painting.

A digital camera approach is nearly as simple. The photo editor you have will determine the ease of building a

portrait pattern. Your photo editor should have a resize image feature, allow photo cropping, Have the ability to

remove color from a photo and the a filter that allows you to find edges (Where light meets dark, and vice versa).

In your photo editor (I use Photoshop elements 4.0 — Yes, I know they’re up to version 10 or higher now. But

I’ve been using my 4.0 for a long, long time.) Blow up the portrait photo to the size of the canvas you’re using

Make sure you’ve cropped the photo for the composition you want and you’ve used the editor’s autofix mode to

enhance all of the color/focus/brightness/contrast/etc… adjustments. Save a copy of your photo.

Now remove all color from your photo and save this photo with a new name as well.

Go to your filter drop down menu and select “Find Edges” button and select this operation. The photo editor will

look everywhere on the photo and produce a line drawing of your portrait that can be used as your portrait pattern.

Save this photo with new name.

Transferring A Portrait Drawing

Or Pattern Onto Canvas


Your photo now has been….

Cropped for Composition

AutoFixed

Resized

All Color Removed

A Line Drawing from the Find Edges filter.

I like to use my layout software to print out the pattern. I use Microsoft Publisher, but there are many on the mar-

ket. Even free ones like Big Picture Splicer, etc…

Open the layout software, select the page setup to match your canvas size. Insert the photo and arrange in your

layout software exactly how you’d like the portrait composed. This makes the job really easy if there are more

than one subject in the portrait painting.

Print out the pattern making sure the printer is set up properly for the image size and image orientation (portrait/

landscape). If the portrait is going to be on a canvas larger than 8x10, multiple sheets will be printed. Simply tape

them together for your tracing pattern.

When painting portraits, I like to use a portrait smooth canvas. Paint a single coat of misty grey gesso on the can-

vas. This is critical. After the Gesso dries, use black graphite paper or transfer paper and trace the taped up pattern

onto the canvas. Outline the subject’s head. Mark the eyes, eye brows, ears, side burns, nose, mouth, chin, neck

and generally 2-3″ of the top torso, maybe more. Trace any distinguishing marks or facial contours, scars, etc…

Once the tracing is completed, study the tracing against the photo and make any corrections deemed necessary.

Then make another mixture of grey gesso that is about 1 or 2 shades darker than the misty grey canvas color. The

objective is to get a light line color I can use to permanently retain the portrait’s facial features.

Paint over the portrait tracing on the canvas with the darker gesso using a #2 script liner until all of the graphite

marks have been covered. Once the Gesso is thoroughly dry, coat the canvas with a thin coat of medium. Depend-

ing upon the type of background I want, I may wash the canvas with a coat of very thin paint. Or I’ll leave it alone

until I’ve completed the portrait to a point I need to paint the background. Never keep the background until last.

You want to be painting the background along with the portrait as its an integral complement to the portrait.

This pattern approach works quite nicely.


Here’s my best approach with my own grandchildren. I started most of them between the ages of 8-10. However I

had one grandson, Joshua in which I felt that at 4 he could paint. He’s been painting every since.

Be flexible as the right age varies with child. Its generally somewhere between 8 and 10. It depends mostly on

their maturity, how well they listen and follow instructions, but most importantly, how seriously they want to paint.

Its best to sit down with the child and watch the Basic Technique of Oil Painting Water video with them. If after

viewing the waterfall segment you find they’re excited and want to paint, then set-up and go. What I suggest is a 3

-part program to see how ready they are.

Watch the video in its entirety with them. Or by subject matter. For instance, watch the segment on the waterfall.

That’s approx. 17 minutes.

Discuss with them the techniques taught. Have them tell you in their own words what brushes they saw being used

and how everything was put together. Don’t answer or suggest responses to them. Let the child tell you what they

saw and learned.

Then watch that segment again and this time, you’ll both looking to see if their initial observations were correct.

Then paint the scene together referring back to the film as required.

When you’re done, compare notes and asses the enthusiasm of the child.

After their first painting is dry, let them take masterpiece to their next show & tell in school. That’s where they

will get real re-enforcement.

Praise just works wonder with kids.

What Age Is Best For Teaching

Kids To Paint


Brushes Purchased Easel Purchased

2" or 2 1/2" Bristle Landscape Table Top

1" Bristle Landscape Standing

1" Bristle Filbert

#6 Bristle Filbert Palette

#3 Bristle Fan Paper Palette

#6 Bristle Fan Wooden Palette

Script Liner #2 (Pure Red Sable) Acrylic Palette

Palette Knife, #5

Palette Knife, #10 Accessories

#2 Bristle Flat Thinner

#4 Bristle Flat Baby Oil

#6 Bristle Flat Odorless Mineral Spirits

Blender or Hake Brush Brush Caddy

3/4" Badger Bright Portable Brush Carrier

1/2" Badger Bright Paper Towels

1/4" Badger Bright Masking Tape

1/16" Badger Bright Linseed Oil

#2 Badger Round Brush Pumice 'Orange' hand cleaner

#12 Badger Filbert Baby Wipes

Q-Tips

Paints Tube Wringer

Alizarin Crimson Sizing Aide

Burnt Sienna Thinner Bucket

Burnt Umber Brush Beating Bucket

Cad Orange Trash Can (with liners)

Cad Red Light Thinner Screen

Cad Yellow Light Brush Beating Rack

French Ultramarine Blue 2.0 oz. plastic cups for medium

Indian Yellow Water Spray Bottle

Ivory Black Flat Screwdriver

Paynes Gray Standard Pliers

Prussian Blue Small Level

Pthalo Blue Art Supply Carrying Cart

Pthalo Green

Purple

Raw Sienna

Raw Umber

Titanium White

Titanium White Soft

Yellow Ochre

Art Supply Shopping List

chapter 1 - learn to oil paint with darrell cro · and anybody with enough practice can sign ......

Documents