New to oils

[angus147258]

Hi,
I am about to start using oils. I've never used oils before and I need some help. Is there a guide on painting with oils? What brand is best? What do I need?

Thanks in advance,
Jake

 

[Kisifer]

Hello Jake, well since you start with Oils lets take first things first. As for the brand I would suggest Windsor & Newton, since they are considered one of the best brands in the market. If you follow the following link you can find a useful guide. http://www.acesofiron.com/paint.htm
I hope that this will be a good start... and if you have any further questions do no hesitate to ask away.

Xenofon

 

[Roc]

Hey Jake, welcome to the wonderful world of oils, have fun and good luck.


Cheers
Roc.

 

[Einion]

Hi Jake, have you bought yet? Do you have any previous painting experience with enamels? What scale(s) will you be working in?

Einion

 

[angus147258]

Hi,
No I haven't yet purchased any oils...
I will be painting 25-35mm, 54mm, and 200mm. How long do oils take to dry? I have used wet blending (acrylics) for my models before. Are oils done in the same sense were you put to colors next to each other and then blend so you have a nice gradiant or do you paint in a way similar to layering?
Thanks,
Jake

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by angus147258+Feb 5 2006, 12:41 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (angus147258 @ Feb 5 2006, 12:41 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>No I haven't yet purchased any oils...[/b]

In that case I would strongly recommend you favour opaque colours because of how thinly we paint and buy a good brand* - oils will last for decades in the tube if you're careful so although the initial cost seems high for teeny 37ml tubes the value is pretty amazing

*Michael Harding, Williamsburg, W&N artists' oils, Daler-Rowney artists' oils, Gamblin, Da Vinci, Maimeri Puro, Talens Rembrandt. Unless you're buying a cheaper student/studio range though you shouldn't come across anything too bad, Utrecht's house brand is supposed to be quite good for example but I don't know anyone that uses it that paints the way we do.

Originally posted by angus147258@Feb 5 2006, 12:41 AM
How long do oils take to dry?

Depends on a lot of factors - brand, added metallic driers (many brands have these), the pigment (some have a natural accelerating action on drying, some don't) - but most modellers speed-dry them using heat which helps them to dry matt as well as reducing the time you have to wait. There are a couple of past threads on this including plans for a drying box.

If you buy a fairly typical brand of oil paint often they can be a little oilier than you'd really want (some colours much more than others) so you can soak out excess oil from the blob of paint by squeezing it onto paper, there are also past threads that mention this. This doesn't do any harm as a rule and it's nearly impossible to go too far unless you have an ultra-pigmented brand (which are probably too expensive anyway )

Originally posted by angus147258@Feb 5 2006, 12:41 AM
I have used wet blending (acrylics) for my models before. Are oils done in the same sense were you put to colors next to each other and then blend so you have a nice gradiant...

Yep, that's one of the standard techniques for smooth blends. You can also work wet-on-wet (wet into wet) and wet on dry.

<!--QuoteBegin-angus147258@Feb 5 2006, 12:41 AM
...or do you paint in a way similar to layering?[/quote]
You can do that too, adding additional coats of paint (to increase the highlights after the initial paint has dried for example is quite common) and/or using glazes to modify colours. There are lots of different wrinkles on what can be done, the only real restriction is what you want as an end result.

Einion

 

[KeithP]

If you would like oils to dry faster. I recommend that you build up a dry box with a 60W bulb. Here is a pic from Craig Whitaker that shows his box. I built one out of scrap board and hardware.

I can generally get the oil dry in 3-5 days now for most colors.

Keith

 

[angus147258]

Cool.
What paints (Colors) Should I first purchase? I am to first paint Legends Miniatures "The Dark Elf" 200mm bust.

 

[garyjd]

Originally posted by angus147258@Feb 4 2006, 12:29 PM
I am about to start using oils. I've never used oils before and I need some help.

Jake

Jake, Did you paint with acrylics before? I would highly suggest Shep Paine's figure painting book if you do not own a copy.~Gary

 

[Einion]

Hi, some older threads to look at:
http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7879
http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5991

Einion

 

[angus147258]

I've been painting with acrylics for 2 years.

Is there a basic palet for oils? I have heard alot of different oppinians.

 

[KeithP]

Look at the 2 threads that Einion posted. That should get you going....

 

[angus147258]

I did.

I heard about someone that quikened the drying time to 4 hours by baking his mini in the oven. I'm painting a resin mini. would it melt?

 

[geaugan]

Rather than building a light box or off gassing oils in your oven you can bop on down to Walmart and buy a cheap crock pot for a few bucks. Just make sure it has a temperature dial. All you will ever really need is low. Oils will dry matte overnight.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by angus147258@Feb 7 2006, 01:42 AM
Is there a basic palet for oils?

There isn't one palette no Jake, a lot depends on personal likes and dislikes.

Sticking to a good core palette has a lot of advantages, not least because it's cheaper, but also because it's far easier to learn how your paints interact when you only have a dozen or so than if you had two or three times this number.

On another forum just the other day I spotted a post by one of the oil painters showing his collection of red earths - maybe 20 of them!! That's more tubes of paint than most professional painters use for all of their work so that's something you want to avoid if possible

Einion

 

[angus147258]

They sell "starter" paint sets that come with ten paints for $77.15 (or $52.99 if you get it from Dick Blick), would this be a good thing to buy?
Here's what they say about it:
Winsor & Newton Artists' Oil Color Sets

Few companies are willing to pay such scrupulous attention to detail as Winsor & Newton. These fine quality Artist's Oils are unmatched for purity, quality, and permanence. See Winsor & Newton Artists' Oil Colors for replacement colors and open stock.

10-Color Introductory Set — This set contains ten 21 ml (0.7 oz) sample-size tubes, including Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Umber, Indian Red, Indigo, Ivory Black, Titanium White, Winsor Blue (Red Shade), Winsor Green, Winsor Yellow, and Yellow Ochre.

 

[Einion]

Beware of sales blurb! Really, some of it is misleading as hell (just read Old Holland's flowery nonsense, ditto with Blockx) and no matter what the product might be like it's intended to make it sound as good as possible.

Originally posted by angus147258@Feb 7 2006, 04:39 PM
They sell "starter" paint sets that come with ten paints for $77.15 (or $52.99 if you get it from Dick Blick), would this be a good thing to buy?

In terms of price it could be, might be worth breaking it down to a unit price per ml and comparing with the 37ml tubes if you bought separately.

The problem is that it doesn't feature pigments that you'd necessarily choose yourself if you were picking individually.

With a couple of exceptions all of the colours in the artists' oils range from W&N are very good, but I wouldn't suggest you buy and get used to genuine Alizarin Crimson as there are better paints out there in terms of permanence and with regard to mixing. Indigo is also a "Why bother?" colour, when one of the phthalo blues and French Ultramarine are the two cornerstone blue pigments today.

The other colours in this set are all made from fine pigments but there are no cadmiums, which represent the best opacity commonly available in their respective hues. Winsor Yellow is too transparent for our purposes really and Phthalo Green, while a kick-ass pigment, might be very hard to get used to; Chromium Oxide Green is a much better bet overall for the kind of thing you're likely to need in the hobby.

Einion

 

[KeithP]

I'll give a plug here to Einion's very useful article on complimentary colors.

http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=mod...rticle&artid=36

This helped me a great deal when it came to selecting paints. I find myself choosing a pigment now rather than a label on a tube of paint.

Once I saw this I found that I had several tubes of the same pigment but with different paint color "names".

This is another good way to pick yourself out a oil pallette!

Keith

 

[boot25]

I've a used a food dehydrator to help speed along oil drying time. They usually dry for me in 24 to 36 hours.

 

[angus147258]

What are the dangers of oil paints? Turpentine is flamable, is Turpenoid?