Oil Painting Lesson 1: Paint, Supplies & Workspace
If you’ve never used oil paints before, this lesson will help demystify which paints, brushes, and other equipment are essential for the projects in these lessons. You’ll also find practical advice for setting up a comfortable and useful painting workspace.
Paint Choices
It can be confusing walking into an art store and seeing row upon row of colorful tubes of paint. There are so many to choose from, and it isn’t always easy to know which ones to pick, especially if you are new to oil painting.
In this lesson, I’ll explain the different qualities of the many types of oil paints that are available. Listed below are the paints that form my basic palette, along with their different qualities.
1. Titanium White PW6: This slow-drying, opaque white is really useful for bright highlights and for mixing with other colors to create solid backgrounds and foregrounds. I recommend getting a larger tube of this paint, as it is probably the one you’ll use most.
2. Ivory Black PBK9: It’s useful to have a small tube of this even though we can mix our own chromatic blacks. This is perfect for those really dark occlusion shadows.
3. Raw Umber PBR6: This fast-drying, semitransparent brown pigment has greenish undertones and is one of the fundamental “Earths.” It is perfect for roughly painting compositions and blocking in shadows.
4. Burnt Umber PBR6: Fast-drying and semitransparent, this Earth color has more red-brown undertones than Raw Umber and is brilliant for underpaintings.
5. Cadmium Red PR108: This fast-drying, rich color can be expensive, but I love its warmth and opacity. It is ideal for making red apples pop.
6. Permanent Magenta PV19: This is a rich, deep red-violet color that makes lovely pinks and purples and can also be used as a glaze.
7. Cadmium Yellow PY35: Another more expensive color, but I find it indispensable because of its intensity and ability to create warmth. It is very opaque and has rich undertones—ideal for painting lemons.
8. Lemon Yellow PY3: Unsurprisingly, this is a great yellow for painting lemons. A transparent, slow-drying pigment with green undertones, it becomes beautifully luminous when mixed with white.
9. Cobalt Blue PB28: This fast-drying, semitransparent, fresh blue is, in my opinion, one of the cooler blues. It is fairly expensive but lightfast and mixes well, creating beautiful greens.
10. Ultramarine Blue PB29: This warmer blue is one of my favorites, with rich and intense undertones. It produces lovely violets.
11. Permanent Green Light PG7, PW6, PY74: This mixed-pigment, semitransparent color is extremely lightfast and permanent. It is a vivid, bright green that I love using when painting green pears or apples.
12. Yellow Ocher PY42: This greeny-gold Earth color is always on my palette and is great for darkening yellows.
What are “Earth” colors? As the term suggests, Earths are brown colors that occur naturally in the earth and are considered some of the oldest pigments, going back to prehistoric times. They include umbers, siennas, and ochers.
Optional Extra Colors
This list includes suggestions for a starter set, but as you become more familiar with oil paints, you can add or replace colors with your own favorites.
As an extra—but not essential—addition to the colors above, I also like to have a tube of Kings Blue Deep because I use it frequently. Other colors I love include Burnt Sienna, Indian Yellow, and Alizarin Crimson.
Artist-Quality and Student-Quality Paints
As you browse through tubes of paint, you will notice that there are two main categories of oil paints: artist-quality, sometimes called professional-quality paint, and the less expensive student-quality range.
If you are new to oil painting and do not wish to spend too much initially, student-quality paints can be a good option. Less expensive than artist-quality tubes, they allow you to get a feel for oil paints and experiment without worrying too much about waste.
As you become more accustomed to working in oils, consider switching to artist-quality paints. They cost more, but the paints are generally more vibrant, more permanent, and available in a much wider choice of colors.
Here are some recommended brands and ranges:
- Winsor & Newton: The Artists’ Oil Colour range offers professional-quality paints, while the Winton range is the more affordable student-quality option.
- I use mostly Michael Harding Oils along with some Winsor & Newton artist-quality paints.
- There are many other reputable oil paint brands available worldwide. Visit your local art store if possible—the employees are often artists themselves and can provide useful advice and guidance.
