It is very hard for many painters and students to initially begin.

Your canvas or panel (depending what you use) is blank! Let us say you are painting a still-life you have a set up…

Maybe some apples in a bowl with flowers in back of them. And all of this is against a background of dark green cloth.

You have red apples, colorful flowers, a green background, maybe on a wooden table. All of these colors and objects, but your painting surface is blank! How do you begin to put what you see in front of you, on your canvas or panel? The problem is that you see a finished product and you are painting on something totally blank.

You have to reconstruct what you see in front of you.

Of course you have prepared your surface properly, haven’t you? This is of the utmost importance! I hope you have not decided to just buy a canvas from your local art supply store, rip open the packaging, and begin.

If you have done this, you are only making things SO MUCH harder for yourself.

Proper preparation of your painting surface is SO important I cannot begin to tell you. If you are painting on a store bought canvas, you might as well paint on a sponge, it is almost the same effect!

For real. Try doing a test and paint on a sponge this is how it is to paint on one of these canvases.

Remember, everything you do should be done to make the process of painting easier!

So we must start with some type of drawing.

This acts as your base or skeleton. It is your foundation for the paint that will come later. And it is only a foundation!

You are not painting by numbers. You are not carefully filling in your lines of a completed drawing. You are making a foundation for the layers of paint that will follow.
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Let’s take an example image.

You can see all of the detail. The eyes, the highlights on the nose, the patches of reflected light in the eye sockets.

Here is a closeup of the right eye so you can see for yourself

The main point I am trying to make is, this is not at all how this painting looked when it was started. Everything has to go through a beginning stage

Would you believe it looked something like the image below?

This is a painting in it’s beginning stages. Not much detail is there? There are indications of the eyes, and nose, but this is only put there so I have a foundation to work with.

This is the purpose of your “drawing”. You can do this drawing with other materials as well. You do not have to use paint like I do. I am comfortable using paint, so I use it.

You may be more comfortable using charcoal, pencil or even india ink. All are fine. But be sure to “fix” your drawing with fixative so it does not smudge when you begin to add paint over it. It is most important to begin your painting properly.

If you don’t, you do not have much of a chance at making a good finished painting.

The oil painting lessons here are ones no beginner can do without.

Related posts:

1. How was that oil painting made
2. How was that oil painting made part 2
3. Layering your paint. Do you know how?