How to Use Oil Paints

Video Transcript

"In this segment, I'm going to show you how to use oil paints. Oil painting technique is really something that is a an an acquired technique. You don't just get onto a a canvas and start painting in oils. You need some lessons, and you need some lessons by someone that knows what they're doing. This is a painting made in the 1920's of an artist. It's actually his self-portrait. His last name is Anderson, and what Anderson has done is he's created a painting that has a great deal of interest, because he doesn't just look at you in the camera. He's actually creating a painting of him contemplating, perhaps one of his works. To use oils, what you need to do is to do a drawing first. Then, shade the areas that are in dark, light the areas that are in light, and then, work to each different section by creating two colors that are going to bring the painting out. This is at the beginning of impressionism, and you can see that some of the colors have been put, placed together to pop the painting out. You can see the very impressionistic, Monetish way that his pallet is painted, and you can also see that there's a lot of realism in the painting, but painting in oils is a very difficult skill."