Using oil paint for the first time can seem awful. It’s extremely messy and takes forever to dry. Luckily, during my Painting I class, I learned how to work with oil paint to make it less difficult and more fun to use. To work with oil paint, you want to have a few different things such as paint thinner, bristle brushes, and a variety of palette knives. Color theory is as important as using the tools themselves.

Bristle brushes are necessary because they are better with oil paint, rather than having a regular paint brush. Having paint thinner is great to use when you are starting out with a base layer. It makes the paint a lot more transparent and allows you to create basic shapes and outlines before adding on any detail. Finally palette knives can be used to add on top of a base layer. You can use them to make certain textures and to mix colors on your paint palette.

Color theory is a huge part of any kind of painting. Like knowing how to use any kind of tool, knowing how to use color is equally important. During this class, we would frequently start with a base layer that was composed of the complementary color of which we would paint over top of. We also learned that instead of adding black or white to a shadow or highlight to use warm or cool colors. Most of the time we were painting the human figure or landscapes which are great for finding lights and darks.