Why learn oil painting?

• You may have tried it before and became discouraged by a failure.

• You presently paint in another medium but can’t seem to get the results you see from other artists within their oil paintings?

• You may be really new to art and just wanted to look and found this site.

No matter the background, lets talk about why I feel that to learn oil painting is something very important. It is something that every artist should try and add to their tool kit for creating great art.

I felt that as an artist, to learn oil painting is so important, this entire site is dedicated to it!

Here’s a statement I make on my home page:

Since as early as the 18th century, painters have been obsessed with the idea of a Secret Formula, or Golden Key, a piece of knowledge or a technical oil painting technique trick that would unravel the mysteries found with the art of painting. Artists, authors, historians, and manufacturers have all claimed to discover a piece of this puzzle. Something that would unlock the secrets of painting, and how to learn oil painting, so that it could be mastered without effort and with such ease as to be done in one sitting!

None of these oil painting techniques or tricks have proven to be THE SECRET, but, we have found pieces to the puzzle. The idea persists and painters continue to seek a simple solution to learn oil painting. Of course you already know what the answer is!

There is no such thing! There is NO GOLDEN KEY. No material, no medium, no recipe, no single piece of knowledge, can overcome a lack of technique or understanding of the materials you are using.

The true SECRET to oil painting lies within the possession of a COMPLETE body of information on material and technique that must be acquired over time, study, practice and experimentation on the part of the artist.

Now that's saying a lot! Basically, when you learn oil painting, it simply needs to be done step by step. (Like any craft or skilled labor)

So, when you learn oil painting, lets start by talking about oil paintings history and then some merits to the medium. When you search the internet, you will find hundreds if not thousands of "learning oil painting" sites. Most are out to sell you something, some give you their idea of how to learn oil painting, and why their method is the best. (Me Included!)

Historical perspective of why we should learn oil painting.

Take a trip back to 10,000 BC. Lets look at pre-historic man during the Upper Palaeolithic period (40,000 to 10,000 BC), and in particular the Magdalenians, a group of peoples who flourished in Europe from 18,000 to 10,000 BC (1)

They actually had a system for Art. They are our “Cave Paintings” that you undoubtedly have read a little about. The best Magdalenian art, in particular the polychrome paintings, were the work of professionals. Indeed, it is likely that this art, and system of art throughout the hundreds of caves we have found, was the first of the human professions.(1)

The art that has been produced there was not only difficult, but expensive to produce. We know they had a sophisticated scaffolding to get to the top of these caves. They had lighting in the form of long lasting torches, but most intriguing, they had a form of oil pastel crayon or stick, and they had egg/oil mixtures within the paints that they used.

We know now that they used mortise and tendons to grind minerals into pigment. They used brushes, and even utilized a form of air brushing (by blowing pigment out of a small diameter bird bone). (2)

Learn oil painting, why it's important.

Why tell you this?

Well, just to let you know that there are paintings in existence today that were created tens of thousands of years ago that used ground pigments and oils as a binder.

Not that modern materials will last that long.

These caves were sealed for those thousands of years, with no air, molds, bacteria, or sunlight. Once the caves were opened, within 6 months, some paintings were completely destroyed. Most are now sealed with air conditioning and limited access in hopes of preserving the images for future generations.

Our modern day oil paints have now been discovered to have been used in Buddhist Paintings by Indian and Chinese painters in western Afghanistan sometime between the 5th and 9th Century.(3)

It is believed its practice migrated westward during the Middle Ages. Its popularity however, exploded during the 15th Century when the van Eyck brothers, Huybrecht and Jan, added oils to their mixtures that would allow for a longer drying time, thus enabling a smoother transition in the shadow work of their paintings.

This one thing allowed for a more realistic painting than what was ever dreamed possible. This was the birth place of oil painting that we know and practice today.

Although all the other forms and mediums of painting are practiced for certain advantages they may have over oil painting, the later remains standard because the majority of painters consider that its advantages outweigh its defects and that its range, scope and flexibility surpass water color, tempera, fresco, and pastel.(4)

I’m not knocking other mediums, as I enjoy what can be accomplished with watercolor, acrylics and pastels. I talk about those experiences elsewhere on the site. Heck, if it were not for a watercolorists that painted large flower paintings at our local art show, I may have taken a different career. But I am absolutely passionate about what you can achieve when you learn oil painting.

The Merits of Why we should Learn Oil Painting.

• The ease of its manipulation and great flexibility, wide range of varied effects that can be produced. Basically said, if you can see it, you can paint it, with oils.
• You can combine transparent and opaque techniques, glaze and body color in a full range within a single painting.
• The colors that you use will not change between that when it is wet verses when it is dry (other than a mat finish on dark colors which is restored with oiling out).
• A great number of effects (textures, etc.) can be produced with a single simple and direct approach.
• Very large pictures can be produced and done on light weight canvas’s which can also be transported. (Even if it’s on the roof of your sub compact car!)
• A universal acceptance of oil paintings by artists and the public, which has resulted in a universal availability of supplies, highly refined, developed, and standardized materials and pigments.
• Its principle defects found in much earlier works (over one hundred years of age) are the darkening, yellowing of the oil, and the possible disintegration of the paint film by cracking, flaking. The former has been all but eliminated with the super refinement of linseed oils, and other material. The later has been all but eliminated with the proper use and handling of the material. (Fat over lean compliance, impasto effects kept to a minimum, and many among other things discussed within the site on use of materials)

Now, having gone through just some of the reasons that I love to learn oil painting, (I try to pick up a new tip everyday!) I hope you’ll try it too!

And do keep me posted of your paintings progress! Here at Your oil painting tips.

References:
(1) http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/cave.html
(2) http://www.primitiveways.com/paint_a_mammoth.html
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan
(4)Ralph Mayer, The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques. 1957.


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