1oilpainting.com | oil painting techniques and lessons

Oil painting formula – table of contents

Ethan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:23:37 +0000

One of my students who has “Oil Painting Formula” took it upon himself to make a table of contents for the program. Something I forgot to include.

Thanks Phil S. from Australia. He’s a designer so he even put “crop marks” on the design so it can be printed.

You can see EXACTLY what is in “Oil Painting Formula”

He also sent me this email…

Thanks very much for your ‘Oil Painting Formula’ DVDs. They are brilliant and my work has improved 200%.

If you don’t mind a comment that I would like to pass onto you about your DVDs. Attached is a table of contents that would help customers from having to go through each DVD to find specific information that they need immediately.

Since you have 7 DVDs in 8 sleeves, the extra sleeve left over could contain the table of contents. I’ve advanced all my DVDs to have the contents on the first sleeve.

Hope this helps.

Phil S

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Thank you Phil.

Oil Painting Lessons – Glazing, Layering, and Useless Lessons

Ethan — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:40:07 +0000

Don’t forget, you can leave a comment below…

More Resources.

To get Oil Painting Training In Your Home, that will have you painting better, not confusing you get “Oil Painting Formula“

50% Off For March 5 – ONLY for the next 9 people only

Click For The Special Discounted Order From Here

For more info on Oil Painting Formula and a Preview Video, Click here

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Layering your paint. Do you know how?

Ethan — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:00:16 +0000

One of the biggest things to learn, that seems to never be taught is layering paint. And using a definite procedure to do so.

You know, those great paintings you see in museums were not painting with just 1 layer of paint. This combining layers gives beginners a huge headache.

I was never taught this layering process in school. In fact in one class I was in, we used to paint by drawing outlines and carefully filling in these lines, modeling form as we go. We always used small soft haired brushes and would just mix a little and apply the paint using these very small brushes. Even when the canvas was very large. We would start in one little area and just lay the paint on inch by inch.

But, I knew from my visits to the museum that all the artists I admired didn’t paint this way.

I asked the instructor. “I can’t imagine Rubens or someone of his time painting like this. His paintings don’t show that he painted like this.” The teacher response was…”Oh well, he used a complex set of layers with glazing.”

“Bingo!” I thought to myself. “That’s what I want to learn”, I said.

The instructor kind of chuckled and said “yeah yeah.”

And, I never was taught that complex layering method.

I was usually just left to plow along making mistakes and have the teacher tell me where they thought a mistake was.

You know, the ol’ method of teaching by pointing to your painting and saying…”this area is too dark” or “that part is too green”.

Somehow this was magically going to make me a better painter.

It never did of course.

Take a look at this:

This is an underpainting of a woman that is in the National Gallery in Washington D.C.

It is not by any truly famous painter.

I had to take a picture of the nameplate because I hadn’t heard of this painter before.

Van Ceulen was his name.

But look at how this “no name” painter knew his craft.

Ask yourself a question…

Do you think he was following some procedure for painting this picture – such as first making a monochrome underpainting…

Or do you think he was just muddling along with his teacher telling him “That hand is too big” or “Her head is too dark”?

He was using the layering process and it looks like the underpainting was just about complete.

Now began the process of overpainting.

Now, ask yourself another question…Would you know what to do next? How to begin the next layer?

Here is a pretty famous work by Vermeer. Do you think he knew what to do next?

Judging by the final work, I believe so. I think he understood the layering process very well and new just how to get from the image you see above, to a finished work like you see down below. And he could repeat this over and over again, with confidence, and without an instructor telling him to “make that hand darker”.

It doesn’t have to be a secret and you can finally know how to use layers the right way.

More Resources

For At Home Instruction on Layering:
Check out Ethan’s new DVD “Underpainting Solved”

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To End all your confusion about oil painting techniques and materials, check out Ethan’s newest At Home Training Program “Oil Painting Formula“

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Begin an Oil Painting

Ethan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:36:31 +0000

I made this sample video special for this blog. It was made to give you a sense of the beginning steps of just 1 variations of the process part of “Oil Painting Formula”

You’ll see placement, drawing, and underpainting. 3 key steps in the oil painting formula that will have you painting with confidence, knowing exactly every stage of the painting process.

oil painting techniques procedures and methods

Ethan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:56:03 +0000

Here is a video explaining all the parts of the oil painting formula

Click Here to see the oil painting formula video training program in detail

Click Here to download the Oil Painting Formula Procedures “Cheat Sheet”

Are your oil painting lessons helping you

Ethan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:31:14 +0000

It doesn’t matter if you like to paint landscapes, florals, portraits, or still-life. If you get the proper instruction, you learn more and you improve.

I was appointed to be a teacher’s assistant back in my student days at age 20. In fact, my instructors would refer other students to me about problems they had about oil painting techniques. Some of the other students even sought me out to teach them privately.

I remember the frustration that many students had when they were in art class.

You don’t want this to happen. I know about this frustration from experience!

I’m sure you have had some of the following experiences.

Isn’t It Time these Experiences Stopped Happening To You?

You try hints other people have told you, but find your work still doesn’t improve
You walk into an art supply store and feel so confused by the choice of oil painting supplies. Which ones should you buy
You ask an art teacher a specific question, but the answer they give is double talk or a confusing answer that you don’t understand.
You enroll in an art class or workshop, but the teacher only spends 5-10 minutes with you.
You search for art classes you can take, but they are just too expensive and the times they meet make it impossible for you to be there.
You go to a museum and wonder how a painting was made, but have no help finding the answers?
You ask an art teacher about a particular topic and they tell you the answer is “not important”! And you wonder if they know the answer themselves?
Your teacher tries to persuade you that the artists you admire are not good.

This brings up the question of how do you learn to paint? What is the goal of your art lessons or art instruction?

To teach you how to paint and draw better is the obvious answer. This is the goal of every art teacher, isn’t it?

Why isn’t this goal accomplished more often?

Have you ever been frustrated in an art class? You felt like you were not getting any better sometimes after months or even years of study.

…Why is this?

The answer is simple, all art instruction is not always good and all teachers do not always know how to teach.

I have had many teachers over the years. All had a different way of teaching or “not” teaching. This theory of “not” teaching is something that is very common among art teachers.

Usually, when you take a painting class here is what happens…You enter a large studio and get yourself your painting space. It can be very hard to find a good space if the class is crowded.

You share the room with many other students, sometimes twenty or more. You usually paint from either a model or a still-life setup.

The teacher goes around the room. He or she stops at each persons area and makes his or her comments, maybe even paints on some people’s work.

They basically tell you what they think you are doing wrong.

“Make this area darker” or “This is too small” they may say.

I do not understand this way of teaching. I think it does not accomplish much at all, and the proof are the students who have taken the class of a particular teacher for years and have not improved.

Sometimes it looks as though many students have been painting the same painting over and over for years without getting better.

This way of teaching would never take place in a music class. People are always talking about how similar music and painting are, but…

–Nobody talks about the difference in the way music and painting are taught!–

Sometimes, in a painting class, the teacher gives a demonstration, which always excites the students. I remember the excitement of demonstration days at school.

Students who felt they were not learning from the comments the teacher made to them individually, felt that now they could almost spy on the teacher while they were at work.

Of course sometimes you would get a teacher who loved performing almost as if they were putting on a magic act. This type of demo did not teach much to the students. It only helped to boost the ego of the instructor.

Good demos were quite interesting to watch though and very informative for the students. It would have been better for the students if the instructor came in and did demonstrations every day. And then went over the demonstration step by step.

Students could see all the stages of a painting being created in front of them. They would then have an answer to questions such as…

“How do I start?” and “When do I use medium”.

Maybe you have had the experience of being in an art class and the teacher comes around to you and tells you something like…

“Make that area darker”
“That arm is too big”
“Don’t get too light in that corner”.
And other similar comments

How Is This Helping You?

If someone knows the answer, please explain it to me. With this way of thinking you will always need that instructor. For the rest of your life.

Yes, for the rest of your life!

Who else will be able to tell you to if an arm is too big and so forth if you are not taught how to correct these problems for yourself?

I can even recall an experience when I brought a book to class to ask one of my teachers what they thought of it. The reply I got was “oh, that book is only about technique.” And I never heard anything more about it.

Let me say this right now…

There is nothing else about painting that can be taught except the craft of painting and different techniques of painting.

If someone tries to teach you how you should “express yourself” or how to paint with a certain “style”…

run the other way and fast.!

To sum it up, the goal of an art instructor is to teach you.

You have questions, you want them answered. You wish to be instructed. After you have studied painting for some time you shouldn’t have so many unanswered questions.

Do you believe I have experienced people who have been painting in an art school for years and have never been taught how to stretch a canvas? Or they don’t even know that there are different types of canvases to buy!

This after being in art school for years! There is no excuse for this.

You should be able to accomplish your goals in the most effective way possible, and by yourself. This is what you go to an art instructor for. You feel you need help and want to receive it.

An art instructor is supposed to teach you to not need them.

Now, for some oil painting lessons you will never get in a formal art class, click here

Take a Shopping Trip With Me

Ethan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:31:54 +0000

When you take up oil painting, you’re going to have to have to buy oil painting supplies. Some of these supplies can be quite expensive. Especially if you want to make good paintings.

Now, some of you might have received supplies as a gift, or have them laying around for awhile. That’s fine too, but not all supplies are created equal.

For example, I was at my in-laws place for the holidays and they had a dinner party. One of the guests prepared soup from scratch. It was delicious. They made the broth from a bunch of chicken bones. It takes hours to make and it was well worth it as it was delicious.

We all started joking about his soup being good, but it can’t compare to campbells or progresso. Those soups would have taken just a few minutes to heat up from a can, but they wouldn’t have been near the same quality as the home made soup.

To make the home made soup, one needed to buy special ingredients, that perhaps cost more than a few cans of progresso, but it is the only way to make that delicious soup. You’d never get that from soup in a can.

It’s the same with oil painting supplies.

Also, if you think you can learn to oil paint without spending a decent amount of money on supplies, you are mistaken.

I thought you might want to come with me on a shopping trip for oil painting materials and see how much is spent.

Let’s buy our supplies

I don’t want this to be a huge shopping trip. After all, I don’t have a lot of money to spend, right? So I will start with brushes.

In bristle brushes, I need to get two number 4 brushes, a new number 6 and two number 8’s. I also need 2 new small sable brushes.

I need some paints too. Some more flake white, a cadmium red, and yellow ochre, and a burnt umber.

I need canvas. I personally buy rolls of unprimed canvas as well as oil primed canvas. I never buy pre-stretched canvas in a package, as these canvases are junk to be honest. Actually, it’s not the canvas that is junky, but how they are prepared.

“But, I don’t want to go through preparing a canvas and all that…It’s too complicated and too much work”

I know that argument, but listen…If you paint on crappy surfaces, you’re going to have crappy paintings. The old master paintings you admire are not on crappy canvases. You will never achieve the look of those paintings with cheap and badly prepared canvas – plain and simple.

At the very least you could buy pre-packaged canvas and add extra priming layers to it. Oil Painting Formula covers a complete video demonstration of this plus so much more.

You’ll be amazed at the immediate difference in the look of your paintings and the ease of painting.

So for the sake of this article, let’s say I need to buy 4 canvases all mid size, around 18 x 24 inches. You will also need a can of priming paint to prepare these canvases.

And let’s say I need a bottle of oil as well.

Ok, let’s total the shopping trip. I’ll use Mister Art as the store I am buying from.

They are a pretty popular online store – and a discount store. Now, I personally do not order form them. I just about always get my materials in person from stores in my area. But I wanted to do this experiment so anyone can follow my experiment for themselves online and even try it for yourself.

Buying brushes and paint

The brush sizes I wanted were not all in stock (see, I didn’t cheat for this) so I ended up getting the following:

3 – number 3 bristle flat,
2 – number 10 bristle flat
1 – number 12 bristle flat.

I also got two number 4 real sable brushes. Ok, that’s it for brushes. Not a lot at all. And I am getting them at a discount art supply store, and my total so far is $46.29

I got the 4 tubes of paint I wanted. I chose grumbacher for this experiment. They are not usually the brand I buy, but they are popular and they were discounted more than the others. For this experiment, I am trying to spend as little as possible.

Also, they didn’t have a large tube of flake white (the white I prefer) so I substituted Titanium white. And you always buy a larger tube of white because it is used so much.

So, the total so far is $80.13.

Buying canvas

I got 4 frederix pre-streched canvases. 2 16×20 inches and 2 18×24 inches. I highly do not recommend these canvases, but for the sake of this article I wanted to keep it cheap. My total is now $106.63.

But, remember, I would recommend buying a roll of canvas, but that’s more expensive but, of course, makes better paintings and makes the painting process easier. You be the judge if it worth the extra money. You already know my opinion on this.

Remember, when you buy pre-stretched canvases, you absolutely MUST add a priming layer to them. If you don’t, I have to conclude that you are not following the instruction I am trying to give you.

It’s also then likely you are not following other parts of my instruction. Just picking and choosing which you will follow, and then you will not achieve the results you are after.

Many times, people who do this can’t figure out why they are not achieving the results they want and my instruction gets branded as “didn’t work”. You can be sure nobody wants that.

So back to the shopping trip…

I added a small 8oz can of oil priming to my cart. I also added an 8oz bottle of refined linseed oil and my total comes to $131.71. Add in shipping and my total comes to $145.69

So, I went shopping for just a few supplies and spent $145.69.

If you have no supplies at all, these are not enough to get started. This is just a shopping trip of someone who is looking to add to the supplies they already have.

If you have to start from scratch, you will spend more, perhaps double.

So I just wanted to take you on a real life shopping trip and show you how much you will easily spend.

Of course, now that you have all these supplies most people are never taught how to really use them.

I know you don’t want to just play around with this expensive stuff like a kid. You’ll end up wasting the supplies and getting nothing out of it.

You’ll use up the paint, wear out the brushes, and waste the canvas on another bad painting. and have nothing to show for it. Not a painting you are proud of or even some newly acquired knowledge that you can put to use for your next painting.

This is why it pays to take time and invest some money in good oil painting training.

Especially if you consider this more than a hobby.

There are plenty of other sites online that will teach you to make “hobby” paintings. Those 27 minute landscapes that don’t distinguish between cheap quality materials such as cheap paint and real artist quality paint.

But, that’s not what this is about. This is about traditional oil painting. The way the masters did it.

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For more information:

Click Here If you’d like to see a free trailer of my newest complete oil painting training program – “Oil Painting Formula”

What medium should I use?

Ethan — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:30:45 +0000

I received a great question from David about mediums. I thought I would answer this for all of you who are having the same confusion as him.

Q: Some people use paint directly from the tube with no medium while others use a mixture of linseed or stand oil and turp adjusted for the fat over lean process if building up layers. Still others use Liquin. There are so many mediums out there. My question is: What do you think is the best medium for building up layers of paint and how would you adjust it for the fat over lean process?

First, mediums is one of the most confusing things for people to learn about oil painting. After all, when you learn to draw, you just grab a pencil, paper and go. But medium makes oil painting a bit more complicated.

First, you must make sure you understand what medium is. Medium is simply something you add to your paint to change it’s characteristics.

Now, there is another way to use the word medium. And this is for what the binding medium is that you are adding to pigment to turn the pigment into paint. Acrylic paint and oil paint use the same pigment. But one is acrylic medium and the other is oil medium.

For painting with oils though, the “medium” people have questions about are the mixture you add to your paint.

May times, people just use a basic mixture of turpentine and oil. Some people will mix turpentine with stand oil.

Other people add other ingredients to their mixtures.

They are all fine. The main thing is, you have to know what effect you are after.

Do you want your paint to dry faster? You would add certain ingredients. Do you want to slow down the drying of your paint? You would add a different ingredient.

Do you want your paint to dry with shine? This would demand using a certain ingredient in your medium. If you want to thin down your paint so it’s more watery, a different ingredient would be needed.

As far as fat over lean. I have never had any paintings of mine crack due to bad use of medium. Unless things are taken to extremes, I would not worry about this too much.

In case you do not know. The fat over lean rule means that the layer you are currently painting should have more oil in it than the previous layer. And, unless you are taking it to extremes, this will not be a problem.

If you are painting over a layer where you used a lot of oil in the paint, the surface will be greasy and it will be hard to get paint paint to stick to it. The dried surface will be very shiny. This will present more of a problem than cracking from not following fat over lean.

Renoir, at least in his later years, according to first hand witnesses like his son – used a simple mixture of turpentine and linseed oil for his beginning layers. As the painting advanced, he would use just pure linseed oil as his medium. This made it easier to paint over his underlayers which were done with a slightly “leaner” medium. This produced some “greasy” paint surfaces in the later layers of his paintings, but he liked the feel of it and it the effect he was after. Renoir knew all about his supplies so he knew exactly what to use to get the effect he was after.

There are different ingredients besides regular oil, like sun thickened oil and stand oil. These have a honey like consistency and add a quality to your paint that makes the paint “stand up” from the surface and makes it easier to apply one color over another without making mud.

Like I said, there is no right answer to “what is the best medium” because I don’t know what you after. The effects Monet was after (dry matte surface) is certainly not what Rubens was after (shiny surface, fluid painting) so they would not use the same medium.

In my home study course, I go over exactly what each ingredient will do to your paint. This way you can choose exactly what to use for your mixed medium to get just the effect you want.

You’ll never have any more confusing questions when you know exactly what to use.

Your Questions

Ethan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:05:49 +0000

I’d like you to leave a comment below and let me know your questions you have when it comes to my oil painting instruction.

Do you not understand the different versions of my home study course?
Are you wondering if the course will really help you?

Do you not understand the benefits of getting instruction?

There is no wrong answer so feel free to post what you want.

Please make a detailed answer. Don’t just write “I want to know how to paint trees”

I will go through the comments and try to answer them.

In case you do not know how to leave a comment, scroll towards the end of this blog post and you will see the comments section. Just fill out the form and post your question/comment.

What’s in the box?

Ethan — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:33:32 +0000

Hey – don’t be jealous of the professional camerawork of this video. I *just* got this box in the mail and needed a cameraman – My 4 year old son.

Anyway – opening the package was exciting.

The new format makes super easy to use at your easel. When you get your copy, you don’t have to film it, just put the information and techniques to work for you.

You can leave a comment below

SPECIAL OFFER Feb. 3 2010 – First 10 people

Use Coupon Code: myson

And take 40% off your copy of “The Insider Guide to the Secrets of Oil Painting”

Printed Version or CD-ROM version

Q: What is the difference in the 2 versions?

A: The information is the exact same. Some people just prefer to have a manual there to read from.

Q: Why Should You Get This?

A: If you want the fundamantals of traditional oil painting in an easy to understand format, this is for you. It doesn’t matter what subject matter you like to paint. When you learn the fundamentals, you can paint anything.

You can use it at home, at your own pace, right next to your easel.

Q: Who Should Not Get This?

A: If you are looking for instruction such as…”grab your number 4 fan brush, dip into burnt umber and then make a line for your trunk, tap on each side of the line and you’ll have a tree…you won’t like this instruction.

That’s a way to copy a teacher to make an art project, there are plenty of sites online that sell that sort of thing.

The Insider Guide to the Secrets of Oil Painting teaches traditional fundamentals of oil painting, from the masters to the impressionists.

Q: What To Do Next?

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