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SEXY GLAM
MAGAZINE - JULY / AUGUST 2014
1) Know what you
are working with:
Before using oil paint, it
is important to know what
it is. Oil paint is a mixture
of pigment and linseed oil;
therefore, it should never come
in contact with water, which will
ruin your paint. The western world
credits the discovery of oil paint to
Jan van Eyck, a Flemish painter of the
early 15th century; however, there is
evidence to suggest that oil paint was
discovered much earlier in the eastern
world.
2) Prep your surface:
Before painting your surface (the
most common surfaces are stretched
canvas or wood panel), the area must
be prepped with gesso paint, which is
an acrylic medium. If the surface is not
prepped with gesso, the oil paint will
be absorbed into the surface rather
than resting on top of the surface. Not
to say that it is necessarily ‘wrong’ to
paint
on an
unprepped
surface, in fact, Jack-
son Pollock never prepped his
canvases before dripping paint onto
them. It truly depends on what you
want your final product to look like.
Remember: in art rules are sometimes
meant to be broken, prepping the
surface is merely the traditional way to
begin an oil painting. When prepping
the surface with gesso, it is important
to use a large brush or paint roller for
larger surfaces, such as the ones you
can find at the hardware store. Using
a larger tool to cover more surface
area at once, helps achieve a smooth
surface to apply the oil paint. I usu-
ally find it helpful to paint on two thin
layers of gesso, making sure the first
layer is dry before applying a second
lay-
er, to
make sure there is
a solid barrier between my
canvas and the oil paint. I have a
specific brush that I use for gesso and
nothing else. Because gesso is an
acrylic medium, it does not mix with
oil paint, and using the
same
brush to paint with oil
and acrylic mediums
will cause cross
contamination
between the
two paints
and mess up
your brush as
well as the paint that
has been cross con-
taminated.
3) Choose your mediums:
When your gesso is completely dry,
you can begin prepping your paint!
Not to say that you cannot simply
apply pure paint to the canvas, a
technique called a’lla prima, however