Oil painting techniques

• Holding the paintbrush correctly

We have many different grips on the paintbrush that artists use while painting, this helps to get the most fluidity and sensitivity with your strokes, holding the brush handle as far back as you can. This might feel uncomfortable at first, but it offers the greatest degree of control because it allows you to paint with your whole arm rather than just your wrist.

• Mastering brush

During the process of painting, it can be very easy to forget that your brush has two sides or orientations! You’re not limited to always making wide strokes using the flat side of your brush, as every brush can be turned on its side for sharper lines or strokes. Learning to control your lines with your brush orientation will help you paint faster and with more versatility.

• pressure Varies

Avoid having 'heavy hands' with your paintbrush. Sometimes the pressure that you apply with a stroke can make the difference between perfection and a mess. The heavier your pressure, the more your paints will blend and create ridges along the sides of your brushstrokes. Get familiar with how your light, medium, and heavy strokes look on the canvas and vary your pressure appropriately to achieve your desired effects. 

• Harness the painting medium

Oil painting is not solely about the paint. An absolutely essential part of controlling paint is the artist’s use of a painting medium – typically a mixture of solvent and oil used to modify the paint and make it behave in different ways. Adding lots of medium will make your paint flat and transparent like a wash, whereas adding just a little medium will give your paint a mayonnaise-like consistency.

• Purity of your colours

Keep your brushes clean so you don’t contaminate your colour

Be careful when you grab from the paint piles on your palette. Make sure that your brushes are clean or you will taint the colours you want to use. It’s vital to preserve the intensity of the colours straight out of the tube so remember to clean your brushes regularly and often – even between strokes if necessary.

• if possible use two-colour mixtures

The fewer paints you mix, the more vibrant the resulting colour will be

Grabbing from every single pile while mixing will create a dull and less intense mixture. Practice mixing what you need using only two colours and white. By increasing your colour knowledge and getting better at mixing, you will paint much more efficiently and quickly and your work will benefit from it.

• Don't over-mix

Only mix as much as necessary, If you over-mix two colours, you will turn your interesting mixture into a flat and uninteresting pile of paint.

• No skimping on paint

To achieve the desired, make sure that you're using enough paint to create the type of stroke you need. Don't hold back on the paint at the expense of your painting. If you find yourself constantly swirling a brush around a thin pool of paint on your palette, then it's probably time to remake that mixture.

• Try wet-on-wet versus dry brush

Use wet & dry effects to your advantage, Remember that you can paint directly onto a wet surface or wait for it to dry and put wet paint over that. Paints will blend on the canvas when working wet-in-wet, which is great for getting transitions or gradients. Painting with a dry brush will give you a more textural effect, which is perfect for painting brick or dirt.