Oil Painting - FAQs
- Pragati Gunasekar
- Jun 22, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 9, 2022
CANVAS PRIMING
1. Is priming the canvas must? and what material can be used for priming?
Answer: Yes, if you want better results or if you don't want the grains of the canvas showing visibly. However, it is not required for practice.
Oil gesso or Acrylic gesso can be used to prime canvases. Most canvases are already primed, but you can prime them again, if you want. You may also use MDF boards, if you want. Though these boards have smooth surfaces, they still need to be primed again.
BRUSHES
1. How to take care of brushes. Can we clean brushes with hot water after cleaning it?
Answer: Use turpentine to clean or use lemon and warm water to soak and then some soap to wash them.
However, if you use turn tin (as show in image) to store the turpentine/solvents, they help remove pigments from the brush easily. It's an amazing storage for solvents. You can store solvents for years, unlike waste water (for mediums like watercolor/acrylic) that you have throw after every use.
PAINTS
1. The amount of oil to be used while painting, and what if excessive oil is used will it have any impact on the painting?
Answer: With Taklon/smooth synthetic brushes, you can take only very less amounts of paints. Excessive oil paints will create an effect called the impasto effect. In fact, oil paints give better results when you use thick amounts of paints. They tend to reflect light in such a way that results in a very glossy, glow-y finish in your paintings.
2. How different is using the Camlin brand vs other brands?
Answer: Basically fillers/binders are more in Camlin compared to other brands. They have less pigments and more binders. Why does pigment quantity matter?
Well, high pigment content means high color purity. This helps you achieve color mixing with high accuracy. This will also influence longevity, light-fastness, permanence of your colors. Nevertheless, it can be still used for practicing.
MEDIUMS
1. While using oil paint, sometimes turpentine can give headaches. How to safely use turpentine? Is there any specific distance we have to keep from the canvas while using oil paint.
Answer: You can try the water mixable oil paints or odorless mineral spirits. Keep windows open while working with turpentine, its fumes are not safe.
2. Do I have to change turpentine/solvents after every use?
The best part about turpentine/solvents is that you can store solvents for years, unlike waste water (for mediums like watercolor/acrylic) that you have throw after every use.
1. How to construct a portrait such that it resembles the reference picture
Answer: I will demonstrate in the session :)
2. Are we going to use a picture as reference?
Answer: Yes
3. How to mix colors? How to blend them?
Answer: I will demonstrate in the session :)
4. Do we need a print out of the reference image?
Answer: You can use another device, or take a print out, if you can.
5. Will you be teaching the proportions of the face?
Answer: Yes
6. This might sound a bit nerdy, but are there any books that you recommend to understand the face proportion from different angles?
Answer: Of course, I read a lot of books on art myself. I recommend - 100 Faces and Figures by Chris Legaspi. Try attending life drawing sessions, here models make 10 different poses in 10 minutes. When you make multiple quick sketches within 1 minute, it trains your brain to comprehend and draw different angles of the head/face.This is definitely a good exercise.
DRYING AND VARNISHING
1. Since oil paint is a slow drying medium, sometimes dust particles stick to the color and after drying it is visible (this happened with my painting while practicing). So, how can it be avoided or any suggestions regarding that?
Answer: Place it inside a room and leave the fan on and cover it with these huge/small mosquito net boxes (that are used to cover fruits, vegetables etc). You can use this as well. I personally, leave it in a room and leave it to dry.
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