oil painting setup

Student Resources Home.

This video shows the simple studio painting setup that I use, and a color palette that I’ve found to work for most subjects – Note: since filming this I have switched out two of my colors, noted below. We’ll use a color palette similar to this for most months – with the exception of some of the limited palette experiments where we also use the optional colors listed below.

NOTE – use safety glass to avoid injury.

Supplies

Paint colors – basic palette – substitutions encouraged, but avoid student grade paint.

Titanium White
Cad Yellow Medium
Cad Red Medium
*Rose Matter Hue (or Quinacridone Magenta, Alizarin Crimson, or another magenta)
Ultramarine Blue
*Manganese Blue (or Cerulean Blue)

Optional convenience colors used in color mixing lessons
Yellow Ochre
Black
Thalo Blue

About substrates

Small Canvas I use

For small works, I prefer art panels, either with canvas affixed to board or gessoed board.

Canvas I use for larger paintings

Blick Premier Cotton Canvas

Favorite paint brushes

1/2″ Flat Golden

Silver Brush Grand Prix Super Brush – Filbert, Long Handle, Size 2

Silver Brush Grand Prix Super Brush – Filbert, Long Handle, Size 4

Mediums

Sometimes I use no medium, but oftem I use either Archival Oils Lean Painting Medium or Gamblin Solvent Free Gel Medium.

Brush Cleaning

Brush cleaning methods are highly personal. When my brushes get too crunchy to make nice marks, I use Murphy’s Oil Soap to soak and then wash them.

If you use OMS to clean your brushes, make sure you have an air-tight container, to keep your studio air healthy.

Questions welcome!