Oil Painting and Shading Techniques
Oil painting techniques combine some of those used by the Old Masters with more modern techniques, allowing artists a range of shading and painting styles. Using a combination of these techniques, you can paint beautiful oil paintings worthy of display in your own or for giving as gifts to friends and family.
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Outlining
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Outlining is a technique used by professionals and beginners alike. It can be very effective for beginners because it helps provide a foundation upon which to build. Charcoal is ideal for drawing thick, loose lines on your canvas. Use charcoal to draw a simple line representation of your painting, over which you'll apply an underpainting technique. The heavy charcoal lines will help dictate where you'll apply your oils.
Fat over Lean
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Fat oil paint is the paint you use directly from the tube, as opposed to paint you dilute with turpentine. The choice of fat or lean paint depends upon the effect you want to achieve. Fat paint is darker and used often to add texture to a painting. Be careful about applying lean paint over fat paint. Fat paint will take longer to dry, and if you've applied lean paint over an area of fat, the lean paint may crack when the fat paint dries.
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Blending
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A great technique for blending paints is the wet on wet technique, which involves layering wet paint over paint that is still fresh and wet. This allows you to add one wet color over another and use your brush to create swirls and blended effects while the paints are still wet enough to mix. The effects you can create vary depending upon how wet the initial application of color is when you add the second.
Palette Knife
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Use your palette knife to paint instead of a brush. Applying oils with a palette knife can produce some beautiful effects. The application of paint with a palette knife is similar to the way you create your initial outline with charcoal, meaning your lines will be wider and more loose. Blending colors with a palette knife can produce some interesting textures and deep shadows that will give your painting depth and dimensional appeal.
Glazing
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Use glazing to bring out the details of your underpainting. Glazing is the act of adding thin layers of transparant paint over your painting, allowing each layer to dry before applying another. The more layers you apply the more depth you can bring to the painting beneath.
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