No Need for an Easel or a Mahl Stick: Oil Painting for the Absolute Beginner Made Simple
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About this ebook
YOU HAVE JUST purchased your first set of oil colours. Now what? A blank art surface may reflect an uncertainty of what to paint. Where does the beginner begin? Is an easel needed? What about a mahl stick, stretched canvases and a kidney-shaped palette?
The aim of this book is to show that such paraphernalia are not essential. Oil paints can be odourless, clean and the starter kit may comprise just a few items that can be stored in a tool box. Infinite colours can be mixed with several pigments via a few brushes.
This makes oil colours the ideal choice for the beginner who wishes to try a truly versatile art medium. Find basic oil painting exercises aimed at getting that brush moving, even if it means laying each pigment into rectangles to get to know each pigment.
Exercises progress steadily onto shading, mark making and applying glazes. These rudimentary exercises provide the springboard from which to paint a first landscape and more.
The myths of colour theory is dispelled, making dirty colour mixes a thing of the past. Find chapters that explore complementary colours, alla prima, glazing, using a limited palette, working with linseed oil and expressing a jigsaw of marks.
Each chapter concludes with a summarizing bullet point list of what has been covered so far, helping to reinforce what has been learned. As will be seen, oil paints have many surprises in store and can be fun to try out – without the fuss, mess or cost.
Includes a shopping list for the beginner, glossary and hundreds of colour images.
Rachel Shirley
I have practiced oil painting from the age of six and have since been involved in countless projects and commissions. A graduate from Kingston University, Surrey and with a PCET teaching qualification from Warwick University, I have won competitions, taught life drawing and have written several books and many articles on oil painting and teaching art.
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No Need for an Easel or a Mahl Stick - Rachel Shirley
No need for an Easel or a Mahl Stick
Oil Painting for the Absolute Beginner Made Simple
Rachel Shirley
This edition published in 2014 by Rachel Shirley
Text, photographs and illustrations © Rachel Shirley 2014
ISBN: 9781310391934
The Right of Rachel Shirley to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 Section 77 and 78. No part of this publication may be republished, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the copyright owner. This book is sold subject to the conditions that all designs are copyright and are not for the commercial reproduction without the written permission of the designer and copyright owner. Smashwords Edition License Notice: this ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author
Dedication
To Harriet and Joseph
Some of the paintings featured in this book
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section 1: The Myths & Truths of Oil Painting
Chapter 1: Fragrance-free Oil Painting
Chapter 2: Just a Handful of Pigments
Chapter 3: No need for an Easel or a Mahl Stick
Chapter 4: Low Cost Knick-knacks for Oil Painting
Section 2: A First Encounter with Oils
Chapter 5: Laying Down the Paint
Chapter 6: A Simple Shading Exercise
Chapter 7: Red and Blue Makes Brown
Chapter 8: The Ever Darkening Bands of Spherical Fruit
Chapter 9: Mark Making
Section 3: From Brush Marks to Paintings
Chapter 10: A Composition of Straight Lines
Chapter 11: Glazing Technique
Chapter 12: A Painting in Two Layers
Chapter 13: Shading a Complex Form
Chapter 14: A Jigsaw of Marks
Chapter 15: Working with a Limited Palette
Chapter 16: Building Confidence in Oils
Section 4: The After Matter
Glossary
Paintings Featured within this Book
Other Books by the Author
Introduction
YOU HAVE just purchased your first set of oils. Now what? A blank art surface may reflect an uncertainty of what to paint. Where does the beginner – begin? Is an easel needed? What about a mahl stick, stretched canvases, pots of solvents and brushes?
The aim of this book is to show that in fact, oil paints can be cheap, odourless and simple to use. Bulky equipment is not needed. In fact the starter kit can comprise just a few items that can easily be stored in a tool box.
Infinite colours can be mixed with ten pigments or so; just a few brushes are needed to make any mark the artist wishes.
But oils are also much more than this. They are ideal for experimentation for their versatility. Oils can be applied in washes like watercolour, ladled on thickly like plaster, brushed evenly like emulsion, blended smoothly like an airbrush or scratched into for textured effects – all with just a few art materials.
Oil painting projects can be simple and convenient, as can be seen in this book. A small room or even a corner will often suffice. This makes oil colours the ideal choice for the prospecting artist who wishes simply to try something different.
Oils’ many techniques: with just a few art materials, oils can be applied in infinite ways from thin washes and detail to impasto and opaque layers.
A Most Robust Medium
Oil paints have been around for some 500 years and for this reason have gone through many innovations regarding quality. Oil paints now have high tinting strength and an endless choice of colours.
As for cracking? This has never happened to me but as with any art medium, there are dos and don’ts in oils that are simple to apply. Oils are in fact remarkably robust. I have an attic full of oil paintings that look as fresh as the day they were painted. Pigments have great stability and dry to a tough, plastic-like finish. Furthermore, oils can be completely odourless or used without spirits at all.
Today’s artist need not worry about fugitive pigments of yesterday. Oil pigments have great tinting strength, permanency and dry to a tough finish.
This book includes oil painting exercises aimed simply to get the beginner painting, even if this means laying each pigment into rectangles. Find basic exercises on darkening colours in stages, shading technique, mark making and applying glazes. These rudimentary exercises provide the springboard from which to paint a first landscape or still life. In this vein, find in depth demos on painting a rapeseed field, colourful fruit, a lake edge, fuchsia heads and a goose.
Also find in depth chapters on colour theory and the myths of pigments, making dirty colour mixes a thing of the past. Find chapters that explore alla prima, working in layers, using a limited palette, working with linseed oil and expressing a jigsaw of marks. Each chapter concludes with a summarizing bullet point list of what has been covered so far, helping to reinforce for the beginner what has been learned. As will be seen, oil paints have many surprises in store and can be fun to try out. They can also be surprisingly simple.
So from the beginning, what are oils, what materials does the beginner need and what are the truths beneath the myths?
Section 1: The Myths & Truths of Oil Painting
Chapter 1: Fragrance-free Oil Painting
TRADITIONAL OIL PAINTS, as the name suggests, are oil based, meaning they cannot be thinned or cleaned with water (with the exception of water based oils, explained in a moment). But even then, powerful solvents need not be used for cleaning the brushes and thinning the paint. In fact, the opposite can be true. To understand this, I shall explain some basic facts about oil paints.
Conventional oil paints consist of powdered pigment suspended in an oil vehicle known as cold-pressed linseed oil. Safflower oil is the vehicle for pale colours, since it is non-yellowing. The blend of pigment and oil results in a buttery consistency to the paint which can be applied in infinite ways.
Since traditional oils are oil-based, do not dry by evaporation as water-based paints, but by oxidization. This means that the paint dries slowly as it hardens from inside out