Introduction to Oil Painting Techniques

Recommended Tutorials

Painting Surface Supply Lists

Pre-made surfaces
canvas paper, canvas board, stretched canvas

Stretching canvas on a stretcher bar frame
standard stretcher bars, staple gun, staples, canvas keys, canvas or linen, sandpaper, canvas pliers

Stretching paper flat
Rives BFK or watercolor paper, china bristle brush, towel, large flat tray for water or bathtub, acrylic gesso, paper tape, 3/4″ thick plywood, utility knife

Stretching paper on a stretcher bar frame
standard stretcher bars, staple gun, staples, Rives BFK or watercolor paper, china bristle brush, towel, tray for water or bathtub, acrylic gesso

Clear gesso on masonite/wood
W&N clear gesso, untempered masonite, 3/4″ thick plywood, other types of wood,  sandpaper, china bristle brush

Rabbitskin glue & oil primer
canvas or linen, rabbitskin glue, tablespoon measure, plastic container for rabbitskin glue, boiling water, oil primer, palette knife, gloves, linseed oil, china bristle brush, canvas pliers, standard stretcher bars, staple gun, staples, canvas keys

Taking a canvas apart
screwdriver or needle nose pliers

Heavy duty canvases
heavy duty staple gun, heavy duty staples, heavy duty stretcher bars, cross braces, canvas pliers

Oil Painting Supplies

Partial Video Transcript, Painting Surfaces

Alex: “Painting’s an interesting medium because there are so many choices and options. Not least of all, the surface you paint on.”

Prof Lieu: “I think a lot of it depends on your situation, like the amount of time that you have and also the type of work that you’re doing.”

Alex: “Yeah, I did a big painting that was commissioned and they really wanted archival quality materials including canvas, gesso, the stretchers, all of it. And then if I’m just at home, practicing with a new color or testing out a new type of paint, I’ll even paint on an old cardboard box, you know?”

Prof Lieu: “Or sometimes when I was in art school and I didn’t think about it in advance, I was running to painting class like, ‘Oh shoot I need something to paint on!’ I’d run to the store, grab a stretched canvas, and go to class.

Alex: “They all serve their own purpose, but you can definitely notice when you’re painting on a pre-stretched canvas, or a piece of cardboard obviously, or a really nice canvas you’ve stretched yourself. It’s so hard to get into painting because they can seem just like a monumental feat to get all the paints you need, all the supplies, the brushes, the canvases. When you’re starting to test something out, I don’t think that a cheaper, pre-stretched canvas is going to make or break your experience.

Prof Lieu: “I don’t think so at all. I mean definitely, I have personal preferences. For example, I tend to really like rabbit skin glue and oil primer, but whenever I’m teaching a beginning painting class, I don’t start with that because it’s overwhelming.”

Alex: “There were so many painting classes where you start off and the supply list is just like, ‘I’m sorry, whAT???’”

Prof Lieu: “I’m just going to break the bank to find the basic supplies and I would say if you’re just dipping your feet into the water, I don’t think it’s worth it to stretch your own canvas. I think just a pre-stretched canvas, that’s totally sufficient for your needs. I really think it’s people who are concerned about the archival nature of their work – if it’s going to last long term – that’s when you really need to spend time on it. And some of these processes take a long time.”

Alex: “Oh yeah!”

Prof Lieu: “Oil primer takes like two weeks to dry. Gesso is overnight.”

Alex: “Like you said, you’ve developed your own preferences for it. You have to learn the medium in general to see what those preferences are.”

Prof Lieu: “Probably, the most affordable option for a surface to paint on would be canvas paper. It usually comes in a pad so you can get many sheets at a time. It’s pre-primed, so you don’t even have to bother with gesso-ing it. This is for when you have no time at all and you really need something to paint on right away.”

Alex: “More-so, I use this for things like on-the-go. I don’t often do plein air painting, but when I do, something like this is great because if you tear out the individual sheets, you can roll them, fold them. And then if you just get some painter’s tape around to box it off, I can roll this up in a backpack, stick it in with my paints, and then you can just do a quick little painting study without needing to set up an easel or stretchers, or anything like that.

Prof Lieu: “But I think one of the disadvantages of it is that you can see it’s just floppy. So it’s really flimsy, it’s not going to be a very sturdy surface, and you have to tape it onto something else. So it’s not terrific in terms of being really sturdy compared to the other options our there.”

Alex: “I think that that difference is so vast, that if you’re just trying out- like let’s say you’re just looking into whether or not you like acrylic or oil better. I would say that this is not an accurate representation of what either of those mediums can do. This is the thing where if you know what you’re working with, then you recognize how this is a different surface and you kinda plan for that. But if you just kind of start painting for the first time on this, it can be a completely different experience.”

Prof Lieu: “The next step up from canvas paper, I would say, is a canvas board. So this one here is made by Fredrix’s and it’s basically just canvas paper with a board behind it.”

Alex: “They come in all different sizes and I get some of the smaller 8x8s, and anytime I’m doing color studies, or film studies or something like that, they’re just perfect to sit on your lap as you sit on the couch and just play around with the painting.”

Video Transcript, Glass Palette

Alex: “Anytime I use acrylic paint since it dries so quickly, I’ve never really thought about the palette. Like it ruins any palette that you’ll get and so I end up just using pieces of scrap paper, cardboard.”

Prof Lieu: “Are you serious?”

Alex: “Yea! Because I just don’t know a way to work around it, but you were telling me that like a glass palette will change everything”

Prof Lieu:  “I’m like horrified that you use a piece of cardboard as a palette. That to me is just..”

Alex: “Just sort of like whatever I can grab can be used as a palette.“

Prof Lieu: “That’s just awful!”

Alex: “I used an envelope once, it was a small painting.”

Prof Lieu: “Alright, well the glass palette is just such a game changer. I think one thing is that it’s a really sturdy stable surface that you can paint on. Where as a piece of cardboard is not really like that. But, mostly for me, it has to do with the cleaning part. Because what you do is when you have the paint on the glass palette, you just use this window scraper and this has a razer blade at the end and you just scrape it off, and it comes off like magic.

It’s the greatest thing and so if the paint is dry, it just comes off. If it’s wet, you scrape it up and then you take a rag and you just wipe it off.  Then it’s like a perfectly clean palette every single time. So you end up with a really clean set of brushes.

You can use it for acrylic paint too. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing oil or acrylic. To make a glass palette, you want to start with a sheet of foam board, a sheet of grey paper, and then a sheet of glass. “

Alex: “Why do you have to use a gray paper?”

Prof Lieu: “You don’t have to, I mean if you really want to have a white palette you can. My argument for it is that , if you have a middle gray, it allows you to see your whites much better. Because, if you have a white palette and you put  white paint on it, you don’t really understand how bright that white really is. Where as if you put white paint on a gray palette, it’s really clear how bright that white is.

You take the three items, you’re going to put the gray paper on first. This is the glass right on top like this. Making sure that all the corners line up. Then you’re going to take some duct tape. You’re going to make the duct tape a little bit longer than one of the sides of the palette. A pair of scissors.

You want to put the duct tape so it’s like half of the duct tape is over the glass. So you’re going to put it down like this, press it down like that, and then you just lift this up and bend this over to the other side. The duct tape is really strong, so once you have it on there, it’s pretty much not going to go anywhere else. So that’s one edge and then you go through and you do all four edges. Then, when you’re all done, you can end up with this beautiful glass palette.”

Alex: “ Perfect!”

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