In the spirit of educating a new generation of figurative painters, I will post a few easy to follow instructional content. If you are serious about learning, you should visit the nearest Ateliers, which have been springing up all over the world. In my mind, there should be more of these places.
If you are starting to paint human portraits or figure, you can purchase almost unreasonable number of oil paint. Well, you can, but I suggest starting with 2 basic colors: Ivory Black and Titanium White. With these two basic colors, your focus should be experimenting with the oil colors, thinner, and linseed oil. All these materials are listed below for your convenience.
Note: Instead of the Ivory Black, you can also use earth colors such as Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna. The following is a sample underpainting.
Demo
One you have the basic material and a few brushes, you want to try drawing a face. Here is a quick oil painting demo on my Instagram Page. If you have questions, feel free to post your question as a comment.
Material Recommendation
- Titanium White without Zinc – (Williamsburg: PW6-Titanium White) – This pigment is considered completely non-toxic. Titanium became the most commonly used pigment since 1940s. Be mindful that this Winsor Newton Titanium White contains Zinc White, which has been known to be problematic in the recent years.
- Ivory Black (PBk9-Ivory Black: Lightfastness: Excellent) – Ivory Black is a misleading name since it’s no longer made using Ivory. The ones that are in the market is made from Animal Bones, and is referred to as Bone Black.
- Linseed Oil – Oil Holland Bleached Linseed oil. From all the linseed oil types I have used, I like this one the best.
- Gamsol -What is Gamsol? It’s almost an orderless solvent that replaced its hazardous cousins such as Turpentine. When starting to paint, you can use Gamsol to thin the oil paint, similar to how you would use water to think watercolors. This solvent, while it doesn’t smell as bad and advertised as being safer, you should take all the safety measures when using Gamsol.
Happy Painting!