Want to start painting landscapes in oil, like real masters? Of course, this is not an easy task, and quality comes with experience, but it's never too late to create your first picture. Prepare everything you need, be patient, follow the recommendations. The first time you get a decent decoration for the interior.
Tools and materials
To start painting landscapes in oil, prepare the following:
- A canvas or a fiberboard sheet, preferably a small size - approximately from an A4 landscape sheet (enough for the first time).
- Soil (at home, you can use gelatin, PVA glue or buy an already prepared base).
- Oil paints (purchase separately only those colors in the right volume containers that you will need in the first work).
- Brushes (wide, medium and thin for the study of small parts - at least one at a time).
- Solvent or white spirit.
- A palette (a sheet of plastic or a porcelain unnecessary saucer will do).
- Rag for wiping hands and hands.
- Easel or sketchbook (optional).
As for the last two positions, they provide usability. Brushes still have to be washed in a solvent, but it is better to get wet with a rag. Easel painting is convenient, as you can step back and appreciate the work from afar. The sketchbook is indispensable in the open air, that is, when working in nature. If you will do your first picture at home, for example from a sample, and you are not used to drawing on a vertical surface, work directly on the table. In this case, you should sometimes put the work in an upright position and look at it from afar. It’s easier to see errors.
Landscapes with oil for beginners
It is better to start your first picture with an attempt to repeat the sample, or at least a photograph. In the first case, it is worth choosing, for example on the Internet, the simplest example made in the same technique. Performing oil landscapes from nature in nature is difficult, since a beginner needs a lot of time, and due to the movement of the sun during the day and changing weather, the picture can change very quickly. So work at a steady pace and in familiar conditions.
We paint the landscape in stages
Before you begin, you need to prepare the basis. The easiest way, of course, is to buy a ready-made primed canvas fixed on a solid basis. Pulling the canvas on a stretcher, priming the surface, even a fiberboard sheet, is not easy and takes a lot of time. So, you found a sample, prepared everything you need. Get to work. The steps will be as follows:
- Apply a contour drawing to the prepared surface. When working with a sample, it is easiest to complete this step using drawing on a grid. To do this, a transparent layer with a prepared checkered matrix is applied to the template. The same grid is made on its sheet with thin lines of a simple pencil. By analyzing how the contours go relative to the cell borders on the sample, you try to make it as similar as possible for yourself.
- When you start working with paints, first make a background with a wide brush and paint all objects without using a large number of shades. You should get a generalized system of color combinations and relationships. Start with light shades. You always have time to darken. Analyze not only the tone of a particular object, but also how it differs from the background color or the neighboring element.
- Write down (oil paintings write, rather than paint) with a medium-sized brush smaller details.
- Do not forget to leave work by placing it vertically.
- Fine-tune the detail. Please note that small details should be indicated only in the foreground. The background should be left generalized. This creates the effect of space, perspective.
- In the final touch, indicate glare in the picture — the brightest spots.
Evaluate work from afar again. If you like everything, leave to dry.
Decoration picture
So, you have mastered the phased drawing of the landscape in oil and completed your first masterpiece. To make it look complete, it must be placed in a baguette. This is a wooden or plastic frame with a flat or curly surface. Correctly selected frame gives the work completeness. Try on several different “clothes” in a baguette workshop. Let professionals recommend you which option is better. Do not take frames that are too wide, elaborate and multi-colored. This thing should complement your picture, and not play a major role.
Thus, painting landscapes in oil is not such a difficult task. The main thing is to understand the basic principles, to master the necessary methods of work and correctly draw up a picture. And also inspiration and patience should become your main companions in hard creative work.