Frustrating experience using oils for the first time.

[bif]

I bought a basic set of W&N oils that clean up with soap and water. A lot different than painting with acrylics. Pretty disappointed in my first painting. Here's my lame attempt at an oil painting:

https://markdomincreative.blogspot.com

[ret5hd]

1. Everything I do for the first time goes perfectly!

(i still draw stick people)

[femmedem]

2. Maybe it looks different in person but I don't see why you are unhappy with this.

Last edited Sun Oct 24, 2021, 04:57 PM - Edit history (1)

I always work in water-mixable oils (different brand) and I do generally work from background to foreground as you did here. Sometimes I do an underpainting one day in monochrome--usually transparent red oxide and white--to understand the lights and darks, then go over it in color after the underpainting is dry. Sometimes I dive right in with color. Either way, I draw some rough outlines so I know where I'll place everything, then lay in my shadow shapes first. I do try to cover the whole canvas with something rough before I paint in any details. That way I can compare what I'm putting down to what's already there before I get too caught up in details. Also, I never, never use water to thin my water-mixable oils when I paint. I always use the medium made specifically for them, and I use as little as possible. What I love about oils as opposed to acrylics is that the slower drying time makes it easier to vary the edges: softer edges in the background and crisper edges in the foreground. But there are mediums you can use with acrylics to slow the drying time, too. Whatever you like most! I just hate to see you give up on something after your first attempt.

[bif]

3. I'm definitely not a quitter

I'll come back to them for sure. I just need to be selective about what I paint next in oils. And approach the painting different. I think the reason I enjoy acrylics is the fast drying time.

[Ocelot II]

4. The painting looks fine, but there are some things about oils that don't apply to acrylics at all.

I use traditional oils, not the water-cleanup kind, but I assume they work the same way because oil mediums are used with them and water is used only for cleanup and not as a mixing medium. You'll be less frustrated if you get familiar with these aspects of oils:

- You can do either direct painting (doing the whole thing at once) or paint in layers after a layer dries. I prefer the second method because it allows for more precision and the use of glazes.

- Some oils are opaque like acrylics and some are transparent (check the small print on the back of the tube). This turned out to be a really important thing to know.

- Glazing is the use of transparent paint over a dry underpainting. The use of glazing is why Van Eyck's paintings of jewels and glass are so beautifully realistic.

- Paint light colors over dark ones, not the other way around like with water colors.

- Any transparent color becomes opaque if you mix it with white.

- Different paints dry at different rates (for example, white takes a long time while raw umber dries pretty fast); and the mediums you use make a difference, too: alkyd mediums and turpentine will make paint dry faster; linseed and poppy oil slows it down.

I like oils a whole lot more than acrylics, which to me are too flat-looking and lack depth. I hope this info will help you be less frustrated!

[bif]

5. Thank you both for the info!

Great advice. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge. I really appreciate it.

I'll most likely stick to acrylics for now and dabble in oils from time to time.

[pansypoo53219]

6. oils are a different animal. art school helped, but i wasn't one to follow the rules, but contrastin

g under paint helps. i also loved black gesso. if you wanna see some, i put art on my pansypoo's rant page blog fridays.