How it works
Most of our students start with a passion or interest in art, maybe from painting at school many years ago or always appreciating art - whether attending exhibitions or purchasing artwork. Everyone who joins our oil painting classes is surprised by how well they do on their first painting. Painting is not only a great skill to learn but is extremely good for your well-being - taking time to pause and submerse yourself into a process that requires all your attention. You will be shocked at how quickly a 2-hour painting session will go!
Some of our students have been attending our oil painting classes for over 4 years and have improved their skill, confidence and knowledge of painting to the extent of selling their paintings! As much as we are proud of all our students - many paint for themselves. They have found an outlet for their creative abilities and made many like-minded friends in the art group, making the classes even more enjoyable.
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See below for a step-by-step process of an oil painting I completed as a practical visual reference on an A3 canvas.
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Thank you,
Dan
We believe everyone can learn how to paint.
STEP 1 - FIND
Choose an image or even a painting to work from. Detail and clarity are important to imagery as it makes it easier to paint - the higher the resolution and clearer the photo - the easier it is to paint. We recommend looking at unsplash.com if you can't find any personal photos.
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We recommend you choose an image that means something to you - a subject matter you like or something you are interested in. This could be a landscape, seascape, animal, still life, flowers, object, architecture, portraiture.... anything.
Our students thrive from painting something completely different to whom they are sitting next to - this way no one compares themselves to each other which really defines what Cheshire Art Classes is trying to do.
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Photo by Olesia Bahrii on Unsplash
STEP 2 - DRAW
Once you have found your image you'd like to paint. You will need to send it directly to cheshireartclasses@gmail.com and we will print it ready for the art class you are attending. You just need to let us know the size of canvas you want to purchase - A3 or A2.
Just keep in mind the larger the canvas - the more time it will take to complete. We recommend your first painting is on an A3 canvas.
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Everyone new to painting worries at this stage... we start to get scared about our drawing skills and whether we can achieve a level of likeness. Artists use a range of techniques to help them get the best outline of their subjects - some use a grid method - others use a projector - some freehand but we are going to use graphite paper to trace our imagery onto our canvases. This way we can get start painting quickly without any worry.
STEP 3 - COLOUR
PALETTE
Anyone who has been taught by me or knows me - knows I love to mixing oil paint and get a satisfaction of looking at a colour and being able to match it from a series of oil paints.
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A colour palette is very important to all paintings and one of the trickier things to learn when you start painting. We teach this in a very practical method with all our students by demonstrating 1-1 with each student at the start of every session. Over time with experience and confidence you will learn the basic principles of mixing and which paints do what. We use a mix of Daler Rowney: Georgian Oil Paint and Winsor & Newton: Winton Oil Paint. Colour wheels are also supplied as a visual aid to help mix your colours independently.
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We teach our students to mix their palette with a palette knife for a few reasons - keeps our brushes cleaner for longer, enables you to modify colours in a more refined process (tiny amounts) and we can also work out how we got to the 'colour' as its a more methodical process. This means if you run out of a colour - you will know how you got there.
STEP 4 - PAINTING
Finally, we are at the part you are all here for. The process of painting, especially with oils is always satisfying. We are all drawn to oils for the vibrance of pigment, ease of blending and layering. Most start on watercolours but realise the difficulties of keeping tones light and covering up mistakes. I always remind all students that if we make a mistake we can cover it up the following week. These techniques of applying paint onto a canvas are guided and demonstrated to you at every session.
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Every session you will learn something new, from a fellow student or from the tutor themselves. We are all passionate artists with techniques we have learned over years and years of experimenting.
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You will learn the pros and cons of synthetic or hog-haired brushes, how to thin paint with turpentine or linseed oil, why we thin oil paint and what oil paint is made from.
STEP 5 - BLOCKING IN
Once we've got to grips with the process of painting. The vital stage is blocking in - we need to fill our canvas. We need to focus on our imagery and capture it in its most simple form - ignore the complexity/detail and focus on the shapes. Colour palette is important in this stage as we are basically grounding our painting - ready for the layering process.
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We usually work on the background first as its easier to work out our contrast and colours correctly of the subject. Imagine if our background was extremely dark but our subject was light - if we painted our subject first - with a bare white canvas surrounding it. Our tonal values would look completely different when the background is painted.
All students struggle at this stage the first time as we strive for detail and likeness but we have to think about the layers of a painting. We have plenty of time to add detail with texture, highlights and glazes.
STEP 6 - LAYERING
The layering of a painting is really dependent on the textures you are trying to achieve. Most oil paintings are layered but confidence is shown through intentional brush marks - painters reveal these marks by not hiding everything with a second layer.
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If we were painting an image of an animal - we would be making lots of repeat brush marks of hairs - highlights and contrasting tones to build the form of the animal. Whereas a landscape usually focuses on the textures and detail in the foreground, it creates distance and places the viewer exactly where you want them.
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Layering is the detail part - adding sharp lines of focus - highlighting the spark in the eyes or the reflection of the sea. This part of the painting is the longest and most time-consuming but extremely worth it once you step back and see the level of improvement.
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It takes a willingness to continue a painting you are already happy with - there is a chance of damaging some playfulness achieved in the first layer - but 90% of the time the determination pays off.
STEP 7 - REFINE
This stage is the last step of the painting process. A fundamental part of finishing a masterpiece - clearing up any unwanted marks (if you've accidentally smudged the oil paint)- repainting the edge of the canvas (if you're not going to get it framed). It's a quick once-over on a painting to check if any small changes can be made to refine the painting further. Again, increasing highlights in the painting is usually a must at this stage - it will draw the viewer to the subject in focus.
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You can see on the final stage of my painting I have added titanium white highlights to the pomegrante - fine dots to the apple and lines to the fabric tablecloth. A lot of these points I wanted to add on the last layer - but couldn't due to the painting being too wet.
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I also signed my painting at this stage at the bottom right-hand corner. I date my artwork by the year as it enables me to archive my paintings - and I can see how i have improved over time.
STEP 8 - VARNISH
After the painting has dried for 6-8 weeks we can apply varnish. Picture varnish creates the perfect barrier to a painting - it allows you to clean the canvas from dust or dirt safely and prevents any UV damage. Protection from sunlight is essential as it prevents whites from going yellow. Picture varnish can also even out a painting where the surface has inconsistencies in the finish - glossy patches where too much linseed was used - can be levelled out with varnish.
Varnish also brings the vibrance back to the oil paint and brings subtle tones to the front - highlighting brush marks and textures.
STEP 9 - FRAMING -optional
We all love to see a painting framed as it truley sets the painting off. We look at completetary tones in the painting to add a highlight or add something to the picture. Somtimes we choose framing to coordinate colours in our homes - but is difficult when we change our home interiors over time. Both are correct but I prefer to focus on what the painting needs.
This oil painting was an easy one for me to decide as the warmth of a solid oak box frame will help highlight the yellows and oranges in both the pomegrante and apple. I decided to leave a 10mm shadow gap around the frame to really highlight the edge of the painting. This creates a really refined look and copes with the dark viridian and raw umber tones in the background.
What do you need to bring?
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​We recommend that you bring an apron or old clothing to ensure you don't damage your clothes - oil paint isn't very forgiving trying to remove from fabrics.
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You have to take your painting home with you each week whilst the oil paint is wet, please bring a bin liner, plastic bag or cardboard to place your painting onto whilst driving home.
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We recommend you bring your painting into your home to dry - this can take 3-4 days to completely dry depending on the temperature and thickness of the paint. This is vital as your painting needs to be dry each week to be able to layer on the next session.
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We recommend purchasing your own set of oil painting brushes. Synthetic or hog-haired brushes are perfect for oil painting but achieve different textures of paint. Visit our blog for recommendations for brushes.
If you have any further questions, please do get in touch with us on the link below.