When I typically think of oil painting supplies, I think of various brands of oil paint, mediums, brushes, and surfaces. But there are a lot of peripheral items that can make oil painting easier and more enjoyable. Below are my favorite items that make my painting experience all that much better. Derwent Pastel Pencils –…
Category: Tutorials
How to Paint Over Old Oil Paintings
Today I have some old paintings I was never happy with or never finished up on the chopping block!
2019 Strada Easel 31 Day Challenge
For the month of January I will be participating in the Strada Easel 31 Day Challenge featured on their Facebook page. If you complete all 31 paintings and post them to your Facebook page daily, you will be entered in a drawing to win a Strada Easel. The rules are simple: Enter the contest before…
A Year of Oil Painting without Solvents
It has been a year now since I first began my little experiment to use walnut oil to clean my brushes. My goal was to get away from the tedious task of standing at the sink for ages to clean my brushes. In that, I have definitely succeeded. Using this method has changed how I…
Setting Up a Pepper Still Life for Painting
Painting from life is a great way to keep those observational skills sharp and is a useful skill to learn. It is a tool that should be in every artist’s tool box right next to photography. All throughout my artistic career I’ve always created from both life and photos and used them interchangeably. Right now,…
How to Photograph High Gloss Artwork
I love, love, love the look of glossy, varnished paintings. The problem? All of that gloss is hard to photograph, especially when the artwork in question is also very dark. Almost every painting I’ve painted in the last 6 months just so happens to fall in that very dark, very glossy category. My previous…
Using Walnut Oil to Clean and Store Oil Paint Brushes
Back in December 2016, I talked about using oil to clean and store brushes. This post is a follow-up on how it has worked out over the last 3 months and how I have implemented it. I have since done a 1 year follow up to this detailing some pros and cons I’ve experienced over the last…
Mixing a Nice Purple
It’s been a while since I’ve painted some still lifes. In college and for a while after, I almost exclusively painted still lifes. I enjoyed painting them, but didn’t have an audience for them at the time. I’m ready for another go though. My still life project was originally going to be a 30 in…
10 Minute Challenge
For Christmas I received Carol Marine’s book Daily Painting and immediately read it cover to cover. I really enjoyed the book and fell in love with the idea of doing 10 minute challenges. The idea is to divide a canvas or paper into 6 to 8 small sections and paint the same subject in each…
The Many Methods of Painting Over Old Paintings
A while back I asked how people paint over old paintings and got a variety of methods. Sand painting down, then gesso over using oil based gesso (acrylic won’t stick) Just gesso over it with oil based gesso Spray with oven cleaner or turpentine, let sit 20 min, wipe off (fume/fire hazard is pretty high…
Framing Art without Brackets
I visited the Halele’a Art Gallery in Kaua’i when my husband and I vacationed there summer 2016, and came across an ingenious way to hold the canvas in the frame. The artist or framer (I don’t know which) used strips of canvas in each corner in the place of brackets to hold the painting…
How to Photograph Paintings
Photographing art is easy, I promise. The whole process from start to finish takes me less than 5 minutes. There is a lot of information here but don’t let it discourage you. I try to explain the why as well as the how. The Equipment Camera – I’m one of those weirdos that carries a large…