Oil Painting for Beginners - First set of material required

Being in India, I do understand how difficult it can be for the beginners here, to buy the right material initially.

So here is the list of things you would need for your """ FIRST oil painting. """

1. Oil Paints:
'Camlin Artist oil colors tube set'. It is a set of 12 shades, each 9ml tube. Enough to start your first painting.
You get student grade paint tubes as well., but there is not much difference in the price. So I would suggest Artist grade even for students.

 

2. Brushes.. You would need 3 types of brushes:

a) Round Brushes: You can buy camlin series 66 synthetic hair flat brushes size: 0,2,4,6

b) Flat Brushes: You can buy Camlin Series 67 Flat synthetic Brush.. size 1, 2, 4, 6

c) Fan Brush: Size 4 fan brush. You can buy them online from www.flipkart.com OR www.himalayafineart.com.





You can do without Fan brush if you dont find any, but these are really good for blending purpose.

3. Canvas. First the warnings...
    a) You should never paint on a regular sketch book paper, or any  other paper. Paper absorbs all the oil from the Oil paints.. thus giving it a pathetic look and would demotivate you completely. Always buy canvas board for your Oil Paintings. Even if you are making your first.
    b) Second warning: Dont use canvas pads for actual paintings (They are cheaper than canvas boards... but they and not primed properly and should be used only to practice certain objects you are aiming to put on the canvas. For eg if i am making a floral paintnig on canvas board, i might want to try out different color combinations for those flowers. For trying these things, you should use canvas pads... THATS ALL !!

So back to canvas boards: The sizes of canvas boards start even at 6 by 8 inches. But i would suggest that you buy atleast a 12 by 16 inch canvas for your first 2-3 paintings. You can buy 'Fine art Canvas boards'. These are good for both oil and acrylic colors.

4. Medium: You will need to buy 2 things.

a) 'Camel Distilled Turpentine' 60ml bottle.

b) 'Camel Purified Linseed Oil' again 60 ml bottle. 

A mix of these two would be used as a medium here. Pour one cap full of the turpentine and add 5 to 7 drops of linseed oil to it. This would be your lean medium. You would understand these terms better at later stages.

5. Solvent: These would be used to wash your brushes after using them - to remove oil paints from them.

You can go to a local hardware store and ask for turpentine. A regular 250 ml turpentine would  be sufficient.

6. Palette: You can use normal disposable plates for this purpose for atleast first 5 paintings. The disposable plates should be the ones with aluminium foil look, or the ones made of plastic. Dont use paper plate as it will absorb the oil from the oil paints.

7. You will also need a rag and few plastic cups for keeping your medium.

8. A Big Bottle to keep your solvent to clean brushes

All of these brands are available in India. Even on some websites like Flipkart or Himalayafineart.

An optional item for first five paintings would be 'Easle'. Easle is a stand where your can place your canvas vertically and paint without having to bend. But i guess it can wait till u are sure of your interests as it is a bigger investment than the other material and it needs a lot of analysis before your purchase.

Sexy Vidya

This is the new one i have started painting. Vidya balan's beautiful photograph is the inspiration.
Hair was done with burnt umber, black, burnt seinna.

Also done with the skin part here... except for hand. Painting the feet took some time, and now it has come out well.
I used burnt sienna, Alizarin crimson and white to create different shades of flesh colors. Feet are having very high difference between the shades to create a proper shape. Tummy area was easy though. Most of my time went into the feet and face.

This is now the second level done :)
Blouse and hand also finished.

Blouse was easy. Used veridian hue and black to create the right color. Added lot of black for the cloth lines. Bindi is with alizarin crimson.


Hands was a bit tough. have put the dark shade by adding lots of burnt umber.








Ahhh... finally.... Third level done
Sari complete.
Used titanium white to first paint the sari. Then created waves using grey (mix of white and very little black). Then painted the embroidery using 3 colors. First base dots with a mix of 'Gold, Alizarin crimson and burnt sienna'. Then added few dots of veridian hue on border of each embroidery peice. Last put lots of dots of gold on each peince and wallaaaa... all done. Border embroidery also done in the same way.




Remaining are background and arm under the hair.
I think i will have to repaint the hair.

--------------------------------------------------------

 Here i painted the background. White and grey.
Had to paint over the hair, as i didnt realise that background color under the hair should have been done before.

Finished with Hair as well !!!! At Last !!

Tranquility

This is an original abstract painting.
Divided the canvas into two beautiful colors. One side is a mix of Titanium white with Viridian Hue, the other being mix of Titanium white and Cobalt Blue.
Main aspects:
1) Choosing the right colors that create a soothing look.
2) Blending it right, Takes good time.
3) Painting of the tree (Here i painted after the background was dry)

Planning to make similar one with two other colors to make a set of  2 beautiful and soothing abstract paintings.

Beautiful Hands

 Made sketch from a friend's photograph.
I just loved the way she had put her hands so delicately.
I wish i had made it bigger in size. I would have then gifted it to her.

Made this sketch using graphite pencils. Used knedable eraser to give highlights !!

Sunset on the rocks

landscape canvas prints

This one is absolute original painting. Beautiful sunset and a view of bridge... found it amazing.
Also the rocks and water .....
This painting has it all !!!! Perfect landscape, seascape, sunset, beach mix.

I started with painting the sky and sun. The clouds being dark gave a nice contrast. Then started with rocks. Painting rocks can be both easy and difficult. If you think too much.... u r gone !!! Start with your basic burnt seinna and then add shades of Raw umber + white to give it shape and to seperate rocks from each other. Also use the sun color on the side of the rocks (thats facing sun).
When all was complete dry, then i painted the bridge. Used again burnt seinna and raw umber..... ofcouse used a scale to get the straight lines.

Waves in the water can be made with thick layers of titanium white paint.

Love

This sketch was one of my initial ones. Being a new mother, it was a wonderful way to express my love for my baby.

It shows how much a parent does to give the best care possible to their child.

My sketches are made with Graphit pencils. I used tissues to blend and kneadable eraser to give highlights and clean tough areas.

Knife Painting

Tried leonid afremov style of knife painting.
He is sooooooo good with colors. Makes such vibrant and beautiful knife oil paintings. He is my inspiration when it comes to knife painting.

Knife painting is less clumsy but quite costly. It needs so much of paint and tissues. Beginners definitely find it intimidating.... but one must remember ... knife painting gives a lot of freedom to the artist.

Aanya's Sketch

This is my sister's daughter sketch. Sketching was my first love.... later i moved to oil painting.
Used graphit pencils, eraser, kneadable eraser, tissue papers... and walla !!!!!

Sketching requires least amount of material and gives immense pleasure.

Sensual bareback

Sensual bareback (Oil Painting on Canvas)

One big step towards portraits painting. Ventured into skin colors.
Loved the colors used ... esp the towel color.

Challenges:
-> Blonde hair were really challenging. I painted hair 4 times, but no success. Removed the color everytime. Then finally used combination of yellow ocre, white, burnt sienna and the whole thing turned out good.
-> Skin color was made with Burnt sienna, crimson lake and white. Shades of these 3 mostly worked.

Vermilion Hue was a great color for the towel, with shades of crimson lake.
Vermilion hue is such a beautiful orange..... being so transparent is its best quality :) Produces a beautiful lighter orange if mixed with yellow.

Background is simple combo of crimson lake and black.