Oil Painting – The Ultimate Guide For Beginners – Draw …

In oil painting, there are some "rules" which you should follow to avoid your paint cracking.

Fat over lean: As noted earlier, oil paint is basically colored pigment which is held together by some kind of drying oil. The more oil present, the "fatter" the paint is and the slower it will dry. In general, you want to make sure the top layers of paint are fatter (or oiler) than the lower layers. Otherwise, the layers on top will dry faster than the layers below and the paint will crack.

Thick over thin: The reasoning behind this rule is the same as the above rule. You want to make sure the paint at the top dries slower than the paint at the bottom. Thick paint will usually dry slower than thin paint.

In practice, I will start a painting with thin paint which has been mixed with some odorless solvent. Then I start using paint straight from the tube and take advantage of the paint texture.

TIP: Visible brushwork is a fantastic element of painting, but it is often overlooked by beginners. Below is a close-up of one of my paintings which demonstrates visible brushwork. This kind of visible brushwork is only possible when you use a brush loaded with thick paint.

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Oil Painting - The Ultimate Guide For Beginners - Draw ...