12
votes
Accepted
How do you fade one color to another with oil paint without getting the mixed color?
There are green areas in the photo, although they are not bold.
Maybe your solution would be not to fade but to juxtapose bold colors.
Yet, if you want to fade, painting by layers will have a cleaner ...
12
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between cheaper oil paints and more expensive ones?
There are many things that can set apart great paints from others:
working-qualities of the oil
specific source of the oil
chemical pigments
pure-mineral pigments
colorfastness of the pigments
...
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12
votes
Accepted
Bob Ross - Ebony Sunset - Did he use a dry black base coat?
Bob Ross usually starts his paintings with a completely dried base coat. He starts this particular episode explaining that he already prepared a coat of alizarin crimson, but that should make the ...
Elmy♦
- 12.6k
11
votes
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How can you tell if an oil painting is dry?
Before providing a way to test the oil painting is dry, it's useful to know how the drying process works and why it is important.
How does oil paint dry (cure)?
Oil Paint doesn’t really dry, rather ...
- 1,338
10
votes
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Why are the top layers of my oil painting cracking when it starts to dry?
So the golden rule when layering oil paint is to work lean to fat (or fat over lean).
What does this actually mean? Lean paint is paint that is diluted with white-spirit or turpentine. It is 'watery',...
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9
votes
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Will putting an oil painting under glass cause damage?
As long as the Painting isn’t recently painted, within 6-12 months, then there isn’t a general consensus and the answer is: It depends.
The reason for the delay after the painting is finished is that ...
- 1,338
9
votes
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What should I use to draw under oil paint?
If using graphite make sure to spray a few coats of fixative over the graphite drawing prior to painting.
What should I use instead?
You could also try:
charcoal
Water color pencils
diluted ink
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8
votes
What is the difference between cheaper oil paints and more expensive ones?
On one hand there is the general quality of the paint such as the formulation of the base, density and particle size of the pigment as well as the consistency of quality from one batch to the next.
...
- 1,979
8
votes
What is the difference between cheaper oil paints and more expensive ones?
Always buy the best you can afford.
The answer can get complicated, but generally the lower priced brand use only cheap manufactured pigments and fill the tubes with cheapo filler, over diluting them ...
8
votes
It is easier to learn to use oil paint or acrylic paint?
Oil paint dries slowly and mixes well on canvas (A thin paint will stick to a thick paint). It also adds texture but shows brush strokes. You are going to want to work in a ventilated area.
Acrylic ...
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7
votes
How can you preserve oil paints on your palette between sessions?
Light, Air, AND Temperature. After restricting the air flow like by putting the palette into a container you can put it in the fridge or even the freezer for a longer period.
Some painters immerse ...
7
votes
What should I use to draw under oil paint?
Well, you can use graphite or charcoal pencils for drawing on canvas, but they should be sealed with a fixative or a very thin layer of gesso before applying oil over top of them. That will prevent ...
- 3,443
7
votes
Accepted
It is easier to learn to use oil paint or acrylic paint?
Generally speaking, acrylic is a cheaper and more forgiving medium to start with. As mentioned by other respondents, acrylic is fast-drying and can be painted over. You can also use acrylic media, ...
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7
votes
Can an oil painting be finished with wax to create a matte finish?
Pure beeswax is compatible with oil paint and you can use it as a top coat or "varnish" on oil paints to provide a matte finish.
There are also cold wax mediums and varnishes that you can use with ...
- 3,159
7
votes
Quality ranking of oil paint brands
There is no standard quality ranking for artist oil paints, however, generally, they are sold as Professional, Artist or Student grade with different brands having their own names. Price also is ...
- 101
7
votes
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Storing Oil Paint in Bottles
The problem with bottles
Oil paint doesn't really "dry", it hardens through a chemical reaction that turns the oil in the paint into a kind of plastic. The oil reacts with oxygen in the air ...
- 11.5k
7
votes
Are stretcher bars always left attached to an oil painting?
Yes, it's a time-honored tradition to leave canvases on the stretchers. There are some exceptions to this, but the usual reasons are:
Stretching a canvas cleanly without tension irregularities and ...
Elmy♦
- 12.6k
6
votes
Can I use sunflower oil in oil paint?
Cooking oil certainly isn't a direct substitute for linseed oil. Oils used for paint and treating wood are so called 'drying oils' this means that they naturally polymerise when exposed to air, ...
- 1,979
6
votes
What should I use to draw under oil paint?
Traditionally a silver pen was used. see http://www.naturalpigments.com/art-supply-education/silverpoint-technique-art/
One of the modern alternatives is the use of fixative over a graphite drawing ...
6
votes
For how long can oil paint be worked into?
There is no simple answer, it depends on many factors like the temperature of where you live, sun and wind exposure, the amount and type of oil, the thickness of the paint, the color pigment itself.
...
6
votes
Can boiled linseed oil from hardware stores be used for oil painting applications or cleaning brushes?
Since you tagged this as oil-paint, I assume that is your intended use.
Actually, the BLO that is sold in art stores is the same stuff that is peddled in hardware stores, be they large or small.
So ...
- 653
6
votes
Accepted
Can boiled linseed oil from hardware stores be used for oil painting applications or cleaning brushes?
The thing about the art store options is that they're being tested by the manufacturers for their impact on the longevity of the painting or color impact to the pigments, so I would divide my response ...
- 3,443
6
votes
Is there any way to paint with acrylics over oil?
As Catija implied, if your oil painting is less than 6 months old you shouldn’t do this. And if the oil paint is impasto (very thick) you should wait up to 18 months before varnishing. A very bad ...
- 2,812
5
votes
What is the purpose of an underpainting?
The reasons I like to use underpainting when doing art in oil or acrylic are:
Sometimes having small/subtle areas where the underpainting shows through can add interest to the painting. Some of the ...
- 51
5
votes
Accepted
Can I use the same brush for oil and acrylic painting?
The most important thing is to keep your brushes clean and dry between uses. Use a mild soap and lukewarm water (marseille soap is my favorite) to clean your brushes after you have used them, whether ...
- 2,812
5
votes
What are the differences between different black oil paints?
The answer would be too broad because the different black pigments have all different characteristics as other pigments have in terms of hue/temperature, intensity/tinting, transparency, even value ...
- 266
5
votes
Accepted
Proper disposal: Can oil colors spontaneously combust?
Yes, there is still a risk, as the hazard is in the oil; as the oil dries, it emits heat (an exothermic reaction) which, if it's in a pile of other flammable objects--such as other oily rags, papers, ...
- 3,902
5
votes
Removing creases from an oil painting canvas
Stretching it properly on the right sized frame should be enough to remove the creases, no water required. Properly is:
Procuring a support of the right dimensions. The original frame on which the ...
- 3,159
5
votes
How to blend black to grey for dark paintings?
The fundamentals of painting and color theory: black is rarely used (of course it can be in certain instances). But when observing with the human eye, shadows or dark colors in general are typically ...
- 1,771
5
votes
In oil paintings, how do you paint transparent highlights?
Caravaggio might have painted the hair highlights separately, or used relatively small bristle brushes to paint a few separate hairs simultaneously. In his time, these details were usually added after ...
- 10.4k
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