Oil Painting Tips for Artists

What to do when it all goes badly wrong?

How to get the lid of a stuck paint tube?

You need to put your paint tub in boiling water for about two minutes then remove carefully, scrap off any excess paint with a knife and turn the lid with a cloth wrapped around it.

If still stuck try a but more time in the hot water. Once lid is off carefully scrape the excess paint off the lid and of the lid thread and lightly smear thread with Vaseline.

How do I stop my paint  colours getting all muddy and sinking in?

Likelihood is you are painting wet on wet and lower coats are on too thick. Best to remove some paint with a pallet knife or baby wipe whilst still wet and try again, alternative is let it dry then fix.

If sinking in which basically means your colour your adding is being overwhelmed by the colour below, try a lighter brighter colour applied with very little pressure if that is not working scrap off the colour below or let it dry.

How to get paint back off my canvas?

It happens, don’t worry about it, either wipe it off, if minor blend it in with a soft dry brush or if still up against it accept it and let it dry then fix. You will get paint on you and personally I have found gloves not idea, baby wipes and a plastic bag for your waste wipes is a good way to keep your hands and materials clean. You know your getting better when mistakes don’t stress you out, we have all been their it is a learning curve.

How do you paint a thinner paint line?

Likelihood you needed a better, smaller brush. Use a dry brush to remove excess either side and if still an issue let it dry first. You can get a thinner line by thinning the paint before you paint your line with Liquin, Sansador or Linseed oil.

Another tip is use the edge of a pallet knife, old style razor blade or a colour sharper or something similar that has a fine edge, thin the paint out flat on the pallet, get the sharp edge wet with paint, hold your breath and touch the edge square on to the canvas with one touch, if you need it bigger, clean the edge with a wipe and repeat and dry brush out any errors. If still messy let it dry then fix.

How do you paint a straight horizontal line?

The trick is to avoid it getting messy to start with rather than having to fix with a dry brush. Use a low tack masking tape below your horizon line and make sure your easel is set up so horizontal to the tape and floor. Paint and peel and you should have a nice straight line.

How do you fix a paint tube that is leaking?

This is most annoying, all you can really do is clean up the tube and tape it with some strong tape, top tip is add a spot of the paint to the top of the lid and if you can write the colour on the tape as likelihood you will not be able to see the paint colour. If particularly bad transfer the paint into a jar with a screw on lid, down side is this can dry the paint out so add a bit of linseed oil and mix it with a palette knife. 

You will find the more you move your paints the more they are likely to get damaged so if you paint in two locations ideally you want two sets of paints.

How do you get paint out of my clothes?

The ideal answer is don’t wear clothes that you would be concerned if they get paint on then, ideally wear an oil T shirt and a old pair of jeans.  If oil paints get some clean solvent on a cloth or baby wipe and try remove with if oil, if acrylic soap and water, however either way do it right away before it dries. 

Rules you need to know!

You can paint oil over dried acrylic paint but you can’t paint acrylic on to oil.

If your building up layers, base layer should be thin and use some medium, texture and thicker is ok on last layers, go to thick in base layers you will run into issues particularly wet on wet. 

Gesso canvas, gesso is best diluted and give it a few more coats, give your brushes a really good clean as dries fast, will take out that draffing effect if you paint straight on to a canvas, hard to explain but try it without Guesso and you will see the patchiness of paint applying to the canvas.

Linseed oil, tread with care!

Can yellow your white, will soften some older paints but being honest might be better to buy a new tube of paint.

Mediums can be problematic!

Mediums can crack the paint, dull the paint and also yellow the paint, experiment but go real easy on the mediums, experiment on a piece that is not that important to you and figure out the pros and cons.

Using green paint?

Green is a really tricky colour, think light yellow and on top light blue or a darker yellow and blue, pick the wrong green and you are in real trouble as it needs a red to kill the colour but also kills the vibrancy, only greens worth considering are very light and vibrant and pop on darker colours.

Painting a portrait

I leant to paint painting portraits, should say the worst starting point ever to learn to paint oils as like learning to drive in a formula 1. 

Ok that aside, gesso canvas, start from a really good image printed on as good a quality printer as you have access to preferable a printers printers as better , grid it out on photo, ideally the same size, grid it out canvas and draw it out on canvas with biro.

Mark it out on canvas, it needs to be absolutely 100% perfect as no fixing later on,  a  underpainting is tonally shades of green and white should also look amazing or will not work, veridium or similar

Old school technic, Next you need a seriously expensive lead based white and darks and lights are red and blue and reds be very easy on the as reds can quicky go south, gentle and build up.

Portraits are not in any shape  for for beginners unless you can handle baptism  by fire. 

Paint a landscapes or landscape,  commercially portraits make zero sense to paint unless serious money.

Wet n wet painting?

Not for beginners, very little if any margin for error.  Your are adding wet paint on top of wet paint and with a very light touch and you need a really good understanding of colour and pressure, would advise don’t even try it for at least a few years and even then find someone that is exceptional at it and watch what they do before attempting as trust me is not easy.

Pallet knife work?

Not easy and not for beginners however does give you a technics that you can’t do with a brush. Get really good at painting then look at this and ideally find someone that is an expert and learn from them.

Colour shapers?

Not a beginner technic and not something you will learn in any UK art schools, more a Florence school of art technic, ideal for those thin base layers, sky block in, ships rigging some layers of sea. Just be aware it exists and may be a few YouTube videos but likely not much out there but is an amazing technic.

Painting with pigments?

We are know talking seriously vibrant colours basically you are taking a ground power and a medium and using an egg, real old masters school technics but vibrancy is outstanding. Another Florence school of art technic and chance of getting any info on this online is pretty slim,  more a top end pro technic and and if you can find anyone to show you how then fantastic but again not a beginner technic.

What do I need to buy to start oil painting?

I have written a separate article on this as quite a bit more to discuss. What do you need to buy to start oil painting – My Top 12 Tips

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