This is something I've always wanted to do but found so daunting.
Oils just seem- to me at least- like such a 'grown-up' medium, almost inaccessible if
you don't have proper training or fine-art experience.
There are solvents and mediums and spontaneously-combusting oil-soaked rags....
But I've been doing my research and I'm hoping to demystify that notion of inaccessibility,
share my baby steps with you guys into this medium, and hopefully, if it's something you've
been considering trying for yourselves, we can share in this together so it seems a little
bit less out of reach.
It goes without saying, I'm not an expert, I don't think this video will answer all your
questions, it might give you more questions.
And I would like to open the floor to my commenters, my oil-painting friends, anyone with more
experience, any tips, any knowledge.
If you can share that in the comments, I think we would all very much appreciate it.
To start with, as I said, I've been doing my research bot on youtube and on Skillshare.
There was a class in particular that I liked called Guide to Non-Toxic Oil Painting Methods
by Adele McFarlane Wile but really any 'Introduction to Oil Painting'- type classes I found really
helpful, it's nice to get a broad perspective on peoples different approaches and kind of
pick and choose the bits that made the most sense to me.
This isn't sponsored but you guys know that Skillshare has been really valuable for me
in the last few years since I've been using it.
I've been very grateful, it still is that place where, if I'm trying to figure something
out right from the beginning and I want an in-depth look at something, Skillshare is
the place that I still go-to for that.
I will still have 2-months off I think, 2 months of free membership, I'll have a link
for that below if you are interested.
But otherwise, YouTube is still a fantastic resource and I think you can find a lot of
what you would need to find on there- for free.
In particular for me on YouTube, I was watching a lot of videos by Lena Danya who I've been
watching pretty much since the beginning of my time watching videos on YouTube.
I love her artwork, her personality.
And she has a series of 'Oil painting for beginners' type videos that really should
cover everything that....everything that I had questions about anyway.
Also looked at a guy called Florent Farges.
He has these more in-depth, technical videos.
Things like blending... he also offers a course on his website- a 5-hour video tutorial type
thing that really goes in-depth with oil painting and I think that potentially could be a good
next step for me if I really do decide to dig my heels in but for now I think I've gathered
enough information to get me started at least.
It's important to not fall into that trap of trying to answer every single question
before you even get started.
It's easy to wanna have everything figured out before doing it so you don't get anything
wrong but really, you have to try, to make mistakes, to find out what you need to be
doing more research on.
Also watched oil painting channels that I love to see their process in action; Happy
D, John Larriva, Alpay Efe, Maria Solias who is a more recent find for me but I absolutely
love her work.
And with that, it was time to buy my materials.
Not gonna lie, it was expensive.
I decided to stick with Gamblin products, after a bit of research, I like their ethics,
I like that they've a real focus on quality and safety for the artist and the environment.
There is a lot of concern about the toxicity of oils and I will leave a link to the Gamblin
article below.
They have an article talking about the pigments they use, but essentially, the pigments they
use and how they use them are relatively harmless, if you use them properly.
My only other concern with all this was waste and disposal, but we'll get to that all later
on in the video.
So Gamblin paints, Gamsol, Galkyd, - and that could be all you need.
Also got Gamvar, varnish brush, already had pallet knives, mixing surface, and rather
than get one of those cleaning jars with the coil- which is there to work the paint out
of your brush and keep sediment at the bottom, I DIYed my own version with this £2 mesh
from Amazon.
Really don't know about what it'll do to the life expectancy of my brushes, it does look
quite abrasive.
But at this point, I'd spent so much money, I was just trying to cut costs wherever I
could.
I got all of this stuff from Jackson's and Amazon and I will leave links below to everything.
One thing is that Jackson's only ship most of this stuff by road so it might help to
go for the Amazon links if you're outside of the UK.
Total outlay was £217.50.
And £130.37 of that was on the paints alone.
You could find cheaper, you could find cheaper.
I think you would still wanna look for something that's high quality, but you could do some
research into finding that high quality and high-quality pigments being used.
So without the paint, I think I spent about £87.13 on the extra stuff like mediums and
solvents which brought us to £217.50 altogether.
It is an investment.
It's a lot of money.
But I've been thinking about doing this for a long time and I do think that a little bit
goes a long way with oils and I think it will pay for itself in the long run.
I’ve got my dungarees on.
I got gesso on my nice jumpsuit yesterday so I'm not taking any chances today.
I’ve primed this MDF board with gesso and sanded it.
That'll stop the oil seeping into the surface.
And I've set up my workspace next to me.
We have a jar here with my solvent in.
I'm keeping the jar closed while I'm not using it, because fumes, and it'll last longer that
way- not evaporating out into the atmosphere.
I have a few scraps of fabric to wipe my paint off on.
These brushes that were sent to me by Mozart, I think they're meant for watercolours, I
might need something stiffer but we'll see.
I've put a blob of Alkyd resin here *shrugs* I might use it when I've mixed my colours?
So....From what I can tell- and clearly, I've got no idea- but it looks like solvents are
used almost like you use water with watercolours.
You can clean your brush, you can also thin out the paint and reduce opacity.
Then mediums have a whole host of uses depending on which one you go for- from speeding up
the paint drying time, adding texture to your painting, thickening up the pain, thinning
down the paint, giving it a glossy finish...
I don't know!
The medium I got is Galkyd, I think this is meant to smooth the paint a bit, make it easier
to apply.
I also think it helps with drying time.
And also because this is the one that Lena uses.
I also need to find a reference.
I am putting off doing the actual painting now.
I'm quite nervous.
I think I'm gonna spend some time mixing up my colours just to give myself a low-pressure
way to familiarise myself with the paint and its consistency.
Now I'm going to add some Galkyd to each of these, to see what that does to the flow.
Well, that definitely helped to smooth the paint, make it a lot more liquidy, and a bit
more buttery I think.
Now I'm trying to figure out if I wanna start with a wash.
Some people do, some people don't.
The people that do say that- obviously it takes away that blaring bright white of a
blank canvas, will help with establishing values.
Also, I think it might help things glide on a bit smoother.
-But I think I am gonna start without it.
I don't think there's any one specific way to approach an oil painting.
I'm going full alla prima today- which means, I'm not going to be waiting for layers to
dry, just gonna do it all in one sitting.
I've heard of the fat over lean rule, when it comes to layering.
Which essentially means that you're making sure that you're putting your thinner underneath
and then building up your thickness.
I don't think that's going to come into play today.
I'm hoping to just pile on the paint and see what happens.
Could be famous last words.
Some people start with the darkest values, some people start with the most vibrant colours,
so they don't get muddied along the way.
I'm going to start with the darker values just because, that's what I tend to do with
my gouache paintings and the plan is to just go for this in the same way.
I decided I wanted to really focus, so the painting and talking at the same time had
to stop.
Plus the rain sounds were getting heavier, I was desperate to put some headphones on
and just zone in on the painting because I was finding the process so far to be quite
the adjustment from what I'm used to with paint.
One of oils strengths is being able to blend it so smoothly, and I was really in awe of
how that was going, even from the beginning.
But a downside to that was that I was struggling to maintain hard edges, and when I tried to
go back and fix certain areas, everything was getting mushed into one thing.
Unlike with gouache, when the marks I've made usually dry within a minute or so and I can
just pile fresh paint on top to cover my sins, in this case, the sins remained and just merged
with the fresh paint, and that's something I really had to get used to.
One thing I really liked was the effect that Galkyd had on the paints.
I found myself, quite naturally just dipping into it here and there when the paint was
feeling too sticky, and it had this wonderful effect of just making it glide over the canvas,
lovely and juicy.
I also only washed my brush in the Gamsol once or twice, opting to just wipe it off
on the rag between colours, which is something I do quite a lot with gouache and watercolour
paintings anyway.
Speaking of which...
Another thing that was putting me off from using oil paints was the thought of having
a more complicated clean-up than my usual, easy watercolour or gouache or even acrylic
methods.
You can't pour this stuff down the sink.
And there is a risk, when these rags are bunched up, that they will spontaneously combust.
That's scary.
And there was a lot of mixed info on what to do about that.
This is where I don't want you to take my word for gospel, do your own research and
please if anyone can help in the comments, let us know.
Regarding my solvents, once I've cleaned off my brush as much as I can in here, I think
I can rinse it out under a tap maybe with some paintbrush soap, that shouldn't be a
high enough amount of toxins into the water system to be an issue.
As for this jar, I'll keep it shut, the sediment should eventually sink to the bottom, and
I'll be able to keep using it over and over.
So I'll have a few of these going at once, new clean fresh ones while the others settle.
You can pour out the clean solvent to a new container once the dirt has settled, and you
can wipe out the mush that's left.
My palette, if it has enough paint left on it, I'll cover and keep using it, if not,
I'll scrape it off and wipe down with my rag and some solvent.
Then all that's left is the rag itself.
It's not as scary or complicated as it seems.
Basically, oil products oxidise as they dry which causes heat, if you've got a lot of
oily rags all bunched up together, that can produce enough heat to start a fire.
People put these in metal jars or buckets of water then wait to take them to special
waste disposal places.
Some people have those fire-resistant bins you can chuck them in, again just waiting
til you can dispose of them safely and properly.
You can also -I believe- lay them out flat and wait for them to dry completely on a non-combustible
surface.
Which I think is what I'll do- I'll just make sure it's nowhere near anywhere Thierry can
get to (speaking of which, he's not in here, I've got the door shut, but I do have the
window open so I'm well ventilated and he won't be affected by any fumes.)
And then I looked on my local councils website and they collect oil and oil soaked items
at my local recycling centre so once I have enough of these to warrant a journey over
there, I'll do that.
It's a bit more effort than usual just because it's not just putting something down the drain
or in the bin.
But it's also- like I'm not going to the recycling centre every time I do a painting.
I can have these in a closed tin of water or drying somewhere until I'm ready to dispose
of them properly.
I'd love to know what you guys do if you have oil experience.
All in all, I really enjoyed this first attempt with oil paints.
I finished off just aching to give it another try.
What I would do differently would be to work more sculpturally, in broader strokes, carving
out the painting, rather than blending small areas at a time.
But I can't wait to do it again.
The thing that stands out to me with the finished piece is the boldness and almost glow of the
colours, it's unlike anything I've painted with before.
And that's it.
Thank you so much for joining me for yet another adventure into something new.
I would love to know if any of you guys have wanted to try oil paints, if you think you
will.
And to my experienced oil painters, what advice could you give to us beginners?
Looking forward to hearing from you, thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in the
next one.
Bye!