Oil Painting Techniques - The Many Ways to Apply Oil Paint

Oil paint is one of the most versatile and adaptable painting mediums in existence today. There are many techniques and effects possible with oil paint. Oil paint can be applied in thin transparent glazes or washes, or the paint can be mixed to a thick buttery consistency and applied using a painting knife. There really appears to be no end to the wonderful ways you can create art with this amazing painting medium. This article will talk about some of the many ways you can use oil paint.
Dry brush
The dry brush technique involves using a small amount of oil paint straight from the tube. It is then brushed thinly onto your support with a bristle brush. This technique works particularly well with a rough surface. The raised parts of your surface pick up the paint, while the dips or valleys in your support do not. This creates a broken color effect where the color of your canvas shows through.
Painting On A Toned Ground
The white of a canvas can sometimes be too bright or have too much contrast which makes starting a painting a bit difficult. When you cover your support with a uniform toned ground, it makes it much easier to judge the values in your painting. You can use any color you like to tone your ground really, but the more popular approach is to use warm tones of red, yellows and browns, which provide a wonderful richness to the finished work.
Here is an example of how to paint on a toned ground using Burnt Umber and Yellow Ochre. First you create the wash by mixing the Burnt Umber and Yellow Ochre together with a paint thinner (use turpentine, or if you are like me, and are allergic to turpentine, use a water soluble oil paint). Apply the mixture generously to your support and completely cover it with a large bristle brush. Let this mixture stand for a couple of minutes and then wipe off the excess wash with a cloth.
Alla Prima Painting
Alla Prima painting, also known as "direct painting", is a technique of oil painting where the work is usually finished in just one sitting. You are probably familiar with the artist Bob Ross, who made this painting method quite popular on his TV Show. I am sure like me, you watched Bob paint in amazement as he completed a beautiful painting in under 30 mintues.
The paint is applied wet onto wet directly onto the canvas usually with no underpainting or sketches. It might be a good idea in the beginning to lay down a sketch with some thinned down oil paint. This way you will have a general idea where your colors will be placed. You must be careful using this technique as your painting can become quite muddy if you do not apply the colors correctly on your canvas. It takes practice, so don't be discouraged if your first, second or even third painting does not come out the way you anticipated. Keep practicing and let your imagination run wild. As Bob used to say, "It's Your World".
Working With Painting Knives
If you have never worked with painting knives, then it is highly recommended that you give them a try. This type of painting method is very different from traditional brush painting and when you lay down your first stroke of paint with a painting knife, you will immediately see why. Painting with a knife can be best described as spreading butter on a piece of bread and you should keep your painting at a butter or cream like consistency when using painting knives. Do not use your palette knives to paint with. They have a different construction and are not made for painting. Painting knives have more flexibility to them and come in a variety of different shapes and sizes. You can manipulate paint in a variety of different ways with a knife just by changing your hand position on the handle. You can hold your hand down low on the handle to smear the paint over your support. Move your hand up to the top of the handle and you can use your finger to gently push the blade into the paint to create small dabs of color. You can also turn your knife blade on its side for scraping away paint or for creating hard lines.
Glazing
If you never produced a painting using the glazing technique, then you should definitely give this a try as well. Your painting will have a different appearance then if you were to complete a painting using traditional color mixing techniques. Glazing tends to give colors more luminescence. The colors are not mixed together first before applying, rather, they are mixed optically using single transparent layers of color. For instance, if you wanted to create the color green using glazes, you would not mix yellow and blue together on your palette first. You would first apply a thin glaze of blue, wait until it dries, then apply a thin glaze of yellow, which would then create your green. Each layer must be completely dry before applying subsequent layers. Usually, the first step in using the glazing technique is to create a monochromatic (different values of the same color) underpainting of the subject. Using only one color will help you to focus on form and tone first, rather than being too preoccupied with color at this stage. Wait until your under painting is dry to begin applying your first layer of color. This technique is tricky and does require practice, but it is not as difficult as some may lead you to believe.

Beauty in Art

Beauty is an essential element in life. It is already a reality in Nature's creations but in human life and culture requires deliberate creative enterprise if we are to be capable of reflecting something of the quality of beauty in our own lives and in what we create.
In art, beauty is a harmonious quality whether integrated into design in architecture, colour in painting, costuming and music in ballet, harmony and melody in music, or perfection of form in sculpture. It is perceived in the excellence of mechanics, engineering, and rocket science as in the more abstract sciences and mathematics.
Both idealism and material realities have always had to co-exist and in art, when twinned successfully within the nature of the artist, have been responsible for creations of enduring greatness that nourish the soul.
Classical art was always considered to be inspired by the 'Muses' or the gods of inspiration whose purpose was to influence the human to be an intermediary for expression of certain spiritual energies or truths. Muses are associated with, or considered identical to, angelic consciousness of beings that inhabit spheres beyond the human plane of existence. These beings are nearer to heaven and therefore seen as more refined and ethereal than our mundane world in which we move and have our being.
An artist at work must have a Muse whether a human or spiritual one, else his creation is likely to be limited as an expression of negative states. This is evidenced in the hundreds of examples in galleries and foyers that express the artist's confusion, bias, or at worst is a product of mental disease or an outlet for his own subconscious demons and unresolved inner conflicts.
To create beauty we must be inspired by beauty whether beautiful forms, emotions, thoughts or spiritual aspirations. It is no coincidence that some of the finest surviving human creations from past ages were created as monuments to the highest reaches of spiritual thought, religion or philosophy. And the related institutions in societies supported and financed these enterprises.
With the decline of the powerful mass influence of religion in modern life and thought we tend to be left to our individual expressions in art. There is little evidence of great works of beauty being created although great canvasses of great commercial value have damaged and reduced art works to items of trade.
With painting is allowed to be reduced to a 'craft' which allows bizarre images, uncensored crudities and additional various materials other than paints to be attached to the canvas it must be time to re-evaluate what passes as mindless art in modern times. It is revealing to try to recall when you last stood in wonderment before a beautiful modern painting. Generally, and regrettably, it is a rare experience.
When music is without melody and fine sentiment and we tolerate the immensely popular noise of 'rock' bands that are the antithesis of harmony and beauty and allow the public to suffer sounds which are beyond the safe level for the human ear without damage -it is time to re-evaluate modern music. It is our good fortunate to be able to enjoy classical music of the highest standard as an alternative choice.
Social dance has slipped into the primitive mode of separate 'partners' gyrating to their own purpose having surrendered grace and the shared enjoyment of the music that typified social dancing of the past century. We are bereft of national dances in many western countries with little alternative way to enjoy dancing. Dance or ballet when cultivated as an artform for public demonstration and display has developed to embrace dramatic human dramas rather than the purely romantic accent of previous eras. When grace and beauty disappear from dance, it is urgently time to realise we have lost our way.
When accolades are given to authors who 'realistically' describe only the darker sides of human life but who deny proper use of the beauty and wealth of our English language, it is an affront to the literary art. If we allow inferior material, which once would have been censored, we are allowing negative influences and states of depression to be nurtured in the minds of readers that can only result in eventual violent behaviour. This is no gift to culture.
Architecture has endured periods of practicality, devoid of the aim to offer aesthetic satisfaction. We see bizarre efforts to construct the tallest building, the greatest in size, most extreme in technical innovation as we see perfect replicas of ancient grace in architecture that makes us acutely aware of the sterility of so many modern buildings. There are many professionals with skill and capability who could offer a real and beautiful contribution to architecture in this era providing they also feel inspired.
Enduring classical art is always beautiful - whether by design in architecture, colour in painting, costuming and music in ballet, harmony and melody in music, or perfection of form in sculpture.
Beyond their perception of everyday life, inspired artists know the powerful influence when they inject the familiar with a touch of magic - either by their special insight or their own spiritual energy to offer the viewer or the recipient an opportunity to journey beyond personal limitations into new and rewarding experiences or realizations of life.

However, today art has become a plaything of fashion. Galleries generally favour and display works of haphazard, unskilled, primitive and childish techniques over the works of painters, past and present, whose techniques and skills have the power to nourish our aesthetic needs and to satisfy the enduring appetite we naturally have for beauty - the vital ingredient to nourish our souls.