What is the Oil Painting?
Oil painting is an art technique that uses coloured pigments mixed with siccative oils. This combination allows to create long-lasting and luminous art works, with a wide range of colours and textures. The slow drying of the oil gives to the artists the opportunity to work on their works for a long time, creating unique effects of depth and transparency.

Oil Painting: What is it and How to use it?

What is Oil Painting?

Oil painting is a technique that uses pigments mixed with oils, usually linseed oil, to create paintings with intense and vivid colours. This technique has been used by famous artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt and Van Gogh for its versatility and durability. Oil paintings are known for their chromatic depth and the ability to be worked on for a long time before the colours dry out completely.

How to use it?

Prepare the surface
- Choose a canvas or a different media: the canvas is the most common medium, but you can also paint on prepared boards or cardboard.
- Apply a primer (plaster or acrylic chalk) to the canvas to seal it and create a uniform base on which to paint. This step helps prevent oil from penetrating into the fabric and improves colour adhesion.
Choose the materials
- Pigments and oils: The oil colours can be bought ready-made in tubes, but it is also possible to mix them manually with the oil
- Brushes: Use brushes of different sizes and shapes, depending on the desired effect (usually plates for pitches and rounds for details).
- Medium: You can add specific media such as linseed oil, turpentine or petroleum essence to change the fluidity, brilliance or drying time of colours.
Set a composition
- Before painting, plan your composition. You can make a preliminary sketch on the canvas using charcoal or diluted oil paint.
- Focus on the proportions, volumes and distribution of lights and shadows.
Start with a “subframe”
- Create a monochromatic base, called subframe, that defines the main light and shadow areas.
- Use neutral colours such as brown, ocher or grey to establish the main tones and build the structure of the painting.
Using of colours
- Work progressively, starting from the dark tones and moving to the lighter tones.
- Remember the “fat on lean” rule: apply the greasiest colours (with more oil) over the thinnest colours (with more solvent), to avoid cracks during the years.
Model the details
- Once the base has been created, gradually add the finer details. You can use fine brushes to refine contours, fine lines and details such as textures or reflections.
- Take advantage of the slow drying time to blend colours and achieve smooth transitions.
Let dry and varnish
- Oil painting can take weeks, sometimes months, to dry completely. Make sure each layer is completely dry before applying the next one.
- Once finished and dry, you can finish the painting with a protective varnish to preserve its colours and increase durability.

Conclusion

Oil painting requires patience and precision, but it offers extraordinary results in terms of depth and colour quality. Experimenting with different techniques and tools is the key to mastering this fascinating art form.