30 Bite-Sized Oil Painting Projects on 6 Colour Themes (3 Books in 1) Explore Alla Prima, Glazing, Impasto & More via Still Life, Landscapes, Skies, Animals & More

Introduction

WHAT does the artist paint? Simple exercises may be all that is sought after, just to get the brushes moving. Instead, a blank art surface spurs a creative block and the brushes remain unused.

Well, this art instruction tome ensures this does not happen. An amalgamation of 3 art instruction books: 10 Bite-Sized Oil Painting Projects Book: 1, 2 and 3 means a wealth of ideas can be found here in one place. Ample demonstrations within ensure art brushes get worn, pigments are used and the art surface depicts a scene.

No need to pore over countless photos hoping to find inspiration. Learn how to paint a variety of subject matter straight away, including fruit, flowers, sunsets, water, woodlands, coasts, animals, snow, glass, gardens, vistas, old masters and more.

Subject matter has been classified into 6 colour schemes owing to the pervading hue or the focal point of the composition. Colour schemes include: ‘russets and golds’, ‘silvers and blues’, ‘pinks and reds’, ‘violets and mauves’, ‘yellows and creams’ and finally ‘simply green’. As can be seen, every essential oil painting pigment will receive a full workout.

For ease, most of the demonstrations can be completed within a few hours, making these projects achievable for artists of various abilities. Select demonstrations provide further ventures in the form of glazing, impasto, pointillism, applying detail and mixing greens.

Each project opens with an overview, outlining the art materials needed, introduction, features and challenges. Ample step-by-step images and in-depth instructions ensue, guiding the artist from start to finish.

An essential guide on the art materials and preparatory processes are described at the back of this book, explaining how oil painting can be made cheap, clean and convenient. A comprehensive glossary follows, ensuring all terminology is understood.

This book is a must for the beginner and the developing artist wishing to explore oil painting but is unsure of what to paint.

As can be seen, a blank art surface need not impede one’s first journey into oil painting or the continued exploration for some time to come.

Part 1: Russets and Golds

Exercise 1: Fur in Five Colours

Profile of a Dog’s Head 10x12in

Project Overview

Art Materials: primed board, HB pencil; blue and brown acrylic paint; oil colours: titanium white, cadmium yellow, burnt sienna, burnt umber and ultramarine blue. Medium bristle; medium and fine sables.

Time needed to complete: around 2 hours.

Techniques: soft blending and dragging paint in various directions in order to suggest fur; applying selective detail for the features.

Left: The dog’s head can fit within basic shapes such as a triangle and rectangle. As can be seen here, this will simplify the task of the sketch.

Right: Dragging the paint into the direction of fur growth will help convey sleekness.

This view of a dog’s head displays bold, flat demarcations that enable the artist to practice the rendering of fur without worrying about intricate outlines. As can be seen, the dog is not merely brown and white but a wide spectrum of each colour scheme. In order to suggest stroke-able fur, highlights and shadow need to exist side by side in a particular way. Dragging the paint in selective areas via a fine sable will bring out the sheen in the dog’s pelt.

Project Features

Selective blending of various tonal areas in order to suggest sleek fur on a dog’s face.

Working the paint in various directions in order to echo the furs’ growth pattern.

The rendering of an array of browns and russets by use of a limited palette.

Basic technique for painting dog’s features

Challenges

Over-blending the fur will result in a uniform appearance that could appear flat and dull.

Treating the brown demarcations as simply brown patches that require filling-in could appear too simplistic.

Rushing the dog’s features at the end of the session could ruin the whole effect.

Expressing the demarcations on the dog’s snout as neat rows of dots may not appear authentic.

1 I lightly drew the basic outlines of the dog’s profile via a soft, pencil expressing only the basic areas. As can be seen from the image, the dog’s head can fit into basic shapes which will make the under-drawing easier. I then overlaid the lines with thinned blue acrylic paint so that the drawing will show through the ensuing glaze. There is no need to express fine detail, as these will be rendered during the final painting.

2 Once the blue acrylic paint was dry, I placed a few drops of brown acrylic paint into a few drops of water and then I applied an even glaze of dilute paint over the entire board. The mid-toned neutral ground will help pick out the highlights of the fur, which will form the initial stages of the oil painting.

3 Once the brown acrylic wash was dry, I applied two further coats over the background, allowing each coat to dry before applying the next. The aim was an opaque finish so no water was used here. With an almost black background, the highlights of the dog will really stand out, creating ease when balancing adjacent tonal areas.

4 Once the underglaze was dry, I began with the oil painting. With a fine sable, I mixed a little cadmium yellow and burnt sienna into mostly white, and swept the brush in soft arcs from the snout towards the ear. These golden honey-hues will represent the highlights of the pervading toffee brown patches of the face. Notice how these highlights gather in certain areas, such as the temple, cheek and the piping around the ear.

5 Since these highlights can easily be overpowered by a darker hue, I applied more highlights than what would seem required. Onto the same brush, I added a dose of burnt sienna and drew the brush from the edge of the eye and snout towards the ear, applying lighter strokes on their approach to highlights. Excess paint was wiped onto a rag and the residual colour blended into the edges of highlight, retaining brush marks. This will help to suggest fur.

6 I continued to blend highlights into the deeper rustic tones, reflecting the furs’ pattern of growth. A little burnt umber was added to reinforce shadows around the underside of the ear and around the eye.

7 Further burnt umber was applied to the outlines of the ear, the back of the head and around the eye. Care is needed not to allow the burnt umber to overpower the rustic patches just rendered, or the tonal balance of the browns will be upset.

8 With a clean, medium sable, the white patches of the face were illustrated, moving the brush into the direction of the furs’ growth. Sections of the brown underglaze were left exposed where the bluish shadows would reside. The white was ‘scumbled’ around the snout and sections of the neck, allowing for demarcations and embellishments.

9 On a clean sable, I added ultramarine and a little burnt sienna to the white to achieve a warm, slate blue. I then worked this shadow colour over the underside of the neck, moving the brush in gentle inclinations in order to suggest the furs’ growth. Lighter strokes enabled the blending of shadow colour into pales.

10 Notice a bluish highlight around the rim of the eye and how it varies in width. A fine sable bearing ultramarine, white and a little burnt umber was tracked around this rim. A separate sable bearing burnt umber and ultramarine was used for the dark outer edges of the eye. Great care is needed not to go over the bluish highlight just applied. Pure burnt sienna was dabbed into the eye, darkened with ultramarine for illustrating the pupil. A dab of blue-white just above the pupil brings a dewy quality to the eye. This soft blue was also dabbed around the snout for illustrating the demarcations.

11 Burnt umber, ultramarine and a little white were used to illustrate the nose and the mouth. Highlights were placed first via mostly white. The nose is roughly triangular in shape with edges that blend into surrounding pales. The mouth resembles a soft ridge that varies in tone. Strands of pale fur traverse this ridge, moustache-like. A little white was dragged over in places.

12 Deliberation over detail and fine blending was necessary around the dog’s features, as these form vital focal points. Finally, with a medium sable, I sketched in patches of ultramarine and white onto select areas of the background. With a separate bristle, I covered the remainder of the background with ultramarine and burnt umber. I blended the edges of the blue patches into the dark greys for a coarse, mottled effect. The aim is to provide interest to what would otherwise be a flat background.

Exercise 2: The Clashing Colours of Dusk

Stratocumulus Sunset 10x12in

Project Overview

Art Materials: primed board, HB, pencil; blue, brown and green acrylic paint. Oil colours: titanium white, ultramarine blue, phthalo blue, burnt umber, burnt sienna, cadmium red and cadmium yellow. Fine, medium and wide sables; wide bristle.

Time needed to complete: around 2 hours.

Techniques: smudging out, daubing, selective blending and blocking-in solid colours.

Left: Notice how complementary colours placed adjacent to one another creates a dazzling display.

Right: This close up of the silhouetted landscape shows definite hues within its outline. Reds, yellows and violets can be perceived.

Melting bands of stratocumulus formations often result in the most brilliant sunsets where oblique sunlight catch the upper reaches of cloud. Here, we can see golds and russets set against smouldering brown and greys. This provides the ideal opportunity to express a wide array of tones from white to black as well as conflicting colour temperatures that appear to shimmer against one another.

Project Features

The expression of cloud linings via outlines of varying thicknesses.

To express the nature of clouds as a solid form and a central subject matter.

The rendering of abstract shapes via bold brushstrokes without constraints.

Strategic blending of steep tonal values in order to convey sunlight catching cloud bases.

Employing definite hues in order to express silhouettes’ outlines.

Challenges

Although deep tones can be seen in cloud bases, going too dark and uniform will make the clouds appear as heavy smudges rather than ethereal formations.

Giving clouds harsh outlines will cause an unwanted jarring effect that will suggest anything but a melting sunset.

Care is needed not to allow the blue sky to sully the neighbouring red hues on the cloud linings

Creating smooth blends throughout the sky area will fail to suggest fracturing clouds.

1 Since this sunset features dazzling colours, a series of acrylic glazes were applied first. These would comprise conflicting hues to the overlying oil paint in order to bring contrasts. A loose sketch of the clouds was conducted above the skyline. Blue acrylic paint was roughed-in over the cloud bases, getting narrower towards the horizon.

2 Brown was added to the blue to achieve black (or black acrylic paint will do). An opaque layer was blocked into the foreground up to the skyline. A fine sable may be needed for intricate outlines such as branches and rooftops. A second acrylic wash may be needed for extra coverage.

3 Once the paint was dry, I applied a dilute wash of green acrylic paint over the remainder of the sky. Any brash colour will do, so long as it conflicts with the pervading colour scheme of the subsequent oil paint to be applied in step 5. Violet or magenta will inject a warm undercurrent to the sky area, whereas turquoise (or in this case, green) will cool it down.

4 Once the green acrylic wash was dry, I applied a second glaze to deepen its hue. A single coat of dilute acrylic paint does not always provide the depth of tone needed and could leave unwanted streaks. These brash, cool underglazes will inject interesting undercurrents to the painting, as flecks of blue and green will continue to glimmer between the oil paints’ loose brush marks.

5 Once the underglazes were dry, the oil paint can be applied. I began with the psychedelic lining of the melting clouds. Via a fine sable, I applied white, a little cadmium yellow and burnt sienna, and illustrated the backlight to