A simple guide for which oil paint, colours, brushes and mediums we recommend as a starter pack for our students.
Jackson's Artist Oil Paint is my go-to for all commissions. I recommend Jackson's artist oil paint as they are currently one of the only traditional oil paints offered in a 60ml tube. A 60ml tube is ideal for a starter set of oil paints for value and quantity for painting at home. We would recommend a 225ml tube for titanium white as this is generally used the most.
All the RED rings illustrate the must-have oil paints for a starter pack. This will give you a huge range of colour mixing from a colour wheel and is more effective than just primary colours. All the RED and BLUE rings illustrate a more comprehensive set of oil paints - enabling you to get to more hues quicker with increased colour saturation.
SET OF TWELVE - £80.03
Titanium White 225ml | Cadmium Yellow Pale Gen 60ml | Cadmium Red Hue 60ml | Magenta 60ml | Violet 60ml | French Ultramarine Blue 60ml | Cobalt Blue Hue 60ml | Viridian Green Hue 60ml | Sap Green 60ml | Burnt Sienna 60ml | Raw Umber 60ml | Ivory Black 60ml
SET OF TWENTY-ONE - £131.76
Titanium White 225ml | Unbleached Titanium White 60ml | Cadmium Yellow Pale Gen 60ml | Cadmium Yellow Med. Hue 60ml | Cadmium Red Hue 60ml | Scarlet 60ml | Alizarin Crimson 60ml | Magenta 60ml | Violet 60ml | Prussian Blue 60ml | French Ultramarine Blue 60ml | Cobalt Blue Hue 60ml | Cerulean Blue Hue 60ml | Viridian Green Hue 60ml | Sap Green 60ml | Emerald Green Hue 60ml | Terre Verte 60ml | Yellow Ochre 60ml | Burnt Sienna 60ml | Raw Umber 60ml | Ivory Black 60ml
We recommend that you start with the set of 12 and over time increase your colour palette by purchasing colours that interest you. We have the whole set from Jackson's artist oil paint and there are some tubes we never touch and some we unexpectedly use all the time. We also do not limit our palette to a brand - we use a range of paint from Michael Harding, Lukas: Studio and Gamblin. Each colour may have the same name but the hues and saturation are vastly different due to the quality of pigment and the increased range of colours.
When we talk about brushes for oil painting - we have two options synthetic or hog hair. Through my experiance of teaching most students prefer using synethtic brushes - a softer brush which can produce sharp lines and soft pillowy textures. A hog hair brush increases brush mark retention - which basically means your marks are thicker, the brush holds more paint and your marks are more noticable on the canvas. For this reason most of my paintings have a mixture of both synethic and hog hair. They are two different tools. I generally use the hog haired brushes for my final layers to my oil painting to add texture and highlights.
I would recommend purchasing a set of both synthetic and hog hair brushes to test. Over time you will lean towards one type of brush over the other. Brushes need to be looked after to ensure a lifetime of use - all oil painting brushes need to be cleaned using a brush cleaner. Once the majority of the paint is off the brush - clean in the sink with washing-up liquid. This will prevent the bristles from going stiff and remove all the paint from the fibres of the brush.
The links below are just a small range of brushes I love to use but you can purchase brushes from almost anywhere.
PRO ARTE: BRUSH WALLET SET - STERLING ACRYLIX - (x3 brushes)
£17.90 - Link Here.
PRO ARTE: MASTERTOUCH: REFLEX: FLAT OIL BRUSH SET (x6 brushes)
£14.70 - Link Here.
JACKSON'S: AKOYA WHITE SYNTHETIC BRUSHES: SERIES 363/364/365/366/367/368/369
From £3.20 per brush - Link Here.
JACKSON'S: ONYX: SYNTHETIC BRUSHES: Series 571/572/576
From £2.90 per brush - Link Here.
Oil painting mediums are used to change the viscocity and flow of a paint. Artists experiment with mediums to acheive a variety of textures and layers in their paintings, some offering transparency and some offering a increased thickness and body to the paint. In our art classes we mainly experiment with turpentine and linseed oil. There is a huge array of mediums from liquin, beeswax, impasto gel and glaze medium.
The main oil painting medium everyone needs would be turpentine. Turpentine is not only used to clean your brushes it can also be used to thin the oil paint, and to increase flow and transparency for layering processes. The turpentine we use is called Zest - It which offers an odour-free spirit which is safe for oil painting. I prioritise this medium as it is nicer to paint within your own home.
Refined linseed oil is used in the same method of thinning your paint - but you cannot use it to wash your brushes. Traditional oil painting techniques use linseed oil to bind into the paint - you have to be careful with the amount of linseed oil you use as it can outbalance the pigment which leads to cracking and splitting of the paint. It also can give an unwanted sheen to the painting surface - this can be cancelled out with a varnish coating at the end of the painting.
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