	Painting in Oils ..Vincent Van Gogh sold no paintings in his life time (there is a rumour that he did sell one) .. so much for the art critics. After this lesson you will be in the same position as Van Gogh! If you + one family member like what you produce, then you've made it as an artist!
	It does sound a bit unrealistic, doesn't it? That is, learn to paint in oils in one easy lesson!? You can, but there are 4 musts:- You must like art, you must recognize it as bad if you produce bad stuff, you must have a reasonable amount of patience and you need a small area, where you can make a bit of a mess. I am going to teach you to do landscapes. The style will be impressionistic, which is a lot easier than more detailed stuff and also because I prefer it. MATERIALS Oil Paints 1 small tube of Spectrum Yellow 1 small tube of Prussian Blue 1 small tube of Burnt Umber (Brown) 1 largish tube of Zinc White (Mixing White) 1 very small tube of Cadmium Red Small Colour Wheel This will be a great help in using the above colours to approximate the shades that you are after. Some of the more obvious are: Blue + Yellow = Green Blue + Brown = Black (approx) Blue + Brown + White = Grey (approx) Red + Yellow = Orange Red + White = Pink Blue + Various amounts of White = Dark Blue to light Blue (Skies tend to get lighter as you get closer to the horizon) Brushes 1 Large pointed paintbrush that will hold lots of paint 1 small pointed paintbrush 1 small chisel shaped paintbrush (Down the track a bit you might like to invest in a couple of palette knives [miniature trowels], the one with a diamond shaped end and the other with a more rounded end) Palette Piece of Glass - fairly thick so that it will not easily break, with the edges sanded to minimize cuts and measuring about 1 foot by 9 inches. Paint Thinners A 2 litre bottle is good. Half fill 2 small fairly clean jam jars The thinners will be used to thin your oil paint and to clean your palette after completion of your masterpiece. You may be allergic to mineral turpentine and have to get the more expensive natural stuff. Rags A few baking dish sized rags. These will mostly be used for cleaning - brushes, palette etc, but often can be quite useful for painting with (See Below). Medium (Oil) You can get away with having none of this. Paper (on which to paint) A couple of A4 pads of 300 gsm acid free paper Large Piece of Plywood and 3 Bulldog Clips 2 for holding a sheet of the above paper. PROCEDURE 1. Get into some old clothes. 2. Take a landscape from your photo album (or that of friend or relative) - preferably yours (you might get some paint on it). 3. Take the 3rd bulldog clip and clip your photo to the plywood. 4. Squeeze 2 large blobs of white paint into the centre of your palette. Squeeze out 2 slightly smaller blobs of yellow, blue and brown paint widely spaced around the palette. Squeeze out 2 quite small blobs of red paint onto your palette (and use sparingly). 5. Dip the large brush into the turps, taking up plenty. but not so much as it drips. If the landscape doesn't have the sky (they usually do) go to step 8. 6. You are now going to apply your paint, working from the far distance, to the middle distance and finally to the foreground. It is much easier this way and the success rate is higher. 7. Painting the Sky (a) Take up a small amount of blue on your brush. (b) Take up about twice this amount of white on the same brush. (c) Starting from the top of the paper, apply paint to paper, left to right for about a third of the sky area. (d) Apply more white for the second third of the sky. (e) Apply more white for the final third of the sky. (f) Apply about a thimblefull of turps to a rag and wipe from left to right across the sky to ensure that your three bands of blue sky merge somewhat. (g) If you have clouds in your picture dip a clean finger into unadulterated white. (h) Apply very small amounts of this white to the sky, when it is still wet (don't bother too much if it has already dried) and spread lightly with a rag. (i) If you want to give these clouds a bit of 3D effect, you can rub with your rag an extremely small amount of grey to the underside of the clouds. (j) If it is an evening or early morning sky and there is some red, pink or orange in it, apply these colours sparingly with a rag, which has a small amount of turps on it. Gently smooth these delicates shades into the sky. (k) If the next layer of your painting consists of trees or foliage, it is a good idea to extend your sky further down the paper as this green paint sits happily on the blue. If it is, for example, beach sand, be careful not to mix with the blue of the sky. 8. Now that the sky is looking great, we tackle the next layer. If you are painting a layer of beach, do clean your brush. If you are now painting trees or bushes, use the same large brush as was used for the sky without cleaning but ensuring that the turps on it is minimal. Add some more blue and then some yellow (making green) without merging the two colours too thoroughly. For trees, which are not too dense, (some sky is showing through), apply foliage in gentle dabs. It is better to have your green slightly darker than the final version as you will be applying highlights on top. 9. Move down the painting until it is nearly finished. For distant tree trunks you can do upward strokes with a small brush with a browny black followed by slightly smaller upward strokes with browny white over the browny black - on top but without obliterating the browny black. 10. Stand back from your painting and check out where it needs highlights. For foliage use a very yellowish green and for other areas light grey to white. 11. Don't be too concerned about exact details - it is, after all, an impressionist painting. If it needs a rock or a tree or two to balance it up, put them in. 12. Oil is very forgiving. You can go back tomorrow and make some adjustments. 13. Leave to dry for a few days. 14. A frame with a mat will finish it off nicely 15. You can save a bit on framing by buying second hand frames and cutting your paper to fit before you start painting. Good Luck and happy Painting For interesting articles on coffee -->>: http://www.nearlyallanswers.com

Painting in Oils ..Vincent Van Gogh sold no paintings in his life time (there is a rumour that he did sell one) .. so much for the art critics. After this lesson you will be in the same position as Van Gogh! If you + one family member like what you produce, then you've made it as an artist!