How to start oil painting: everything a beginner needs to know
Oil painting has a reputation for being the most difficult painting medium to learn. Some of that reputation is deserved. But most of the fear surrounding oils is unfounded, and the rewards — its richness, its blendability, its depth of colour — are available to beginners from very early on.
What makes oil paint different?
The defining characteristic of oil paint is drying time. Oil paint dries slowly — a thin layer may take one to three days; a thick impasto passage can take weeks. But drying time is also oil paint's greatest gift. Because the paint stays wet for hours, blending is effortless in a way that is simply impossible with faster-drying mediums. Colours can be pushed, mixed, and worked on the canvas itself.
Oil paint cannot be thinned with water. Instead, solvents (to thin paint and clean brushes) and oils or mediums (to adjust consistency and drying time) are used. This is the most important practical thing to understand before you buy anything.
What you need to get started
Paint
A starter palette of six to eight colours is more than enough. A good beginner palette: Titanium White (buy a larger tube — you will use a great deal of it), Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow or Hue, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red or Hue, Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine, and Ivory Black.
We stock Wallace Seymour oil paints in 40ml tubes at Craft and Canvas — Series 1 and 2 from £9.95, Series 3 and above from £16.20. These are hand-ground artist grade oils of exceptional quality, made in Settle in the Yorkshire Dales.
Surfaces
Oil paint can be applied to canvas, canvas board, wood panel, or paper — provided the surface is properly primed. For beginners, Seawhite canvas boards are an excellent and affordable starting point — rigid, pre-primed, and available in a range of sizes.
Brushes
Hog hair brushes — natural bristle — are the traditional choice for oil painting. A small selection of rounds, flats, and filberts in sizes 4 to 10 covers most of what a beginner needs. Soft synthetic brushes are useful for blending and glazing.
Solvents and mediums
Solvents thin paint and clean brushes. Low-odour mineral spirit or Zest-It is a practical option for home studios — it performs similarly to turpentine with significantly less odour.
Mediums modify the paint itself — adjusting consistency, drying time, and finish. Alkyd mediums such as Liquin speed up drying significantly — very useful for beginners who find the slow drying of straight oil paint frustrating. Wallace Seymour Fast Drying Oil Glaze Medium is an excellent option that adds depth and gloss while bringing drying times into balance. We stock Wallace Seymour oil mediums at Craft and Canvas alongside the paint range.
The fundamental rule: fat over lean
The most important technical rule in oil painting is fat over lean. Lean paint is thinned with solvent — it has less oil, dries faster, and is less flexible. Fat paint has more oil and remains slightly more flexible. Each successive layer should be at least as fat as the layer beneath it — if you apply a lean layer over a fat one, the lean layer can crack as the fat layer continues to cure.
In practice: keep first layers thin and lean; later layers can be richer; final glazing layers can be mixed with additional oil or medium.
Starting a painting: the underpainting
Most oil painters begin with an underpainting — a monochrome or limited colour first layer that maps out tones and composition. The simplest uses a single earth colour — Raw Umber or Burnt Sienna — thinned heavily with solvent to a wash consistency, brushed in loosely to indicate the dark areas. Because solvent evaporates quickly, this layer can be touch-dry within a few hours, ready to paint over the same day.
Basic techniques to start with
Blocking in — covering the canvas broadly with approximate colour masses. Use large brushes and thinned paint. Do not attempt detail at this stage.
Wet into wet — working fresh paint into wet paint already on the canvas. Colours blend naturally at their edges. The key is confidence — too many strokes in the same area causes muddiness.
Scumbling — dragging a brush loaded with relatively dry, opaque paint lightly across a dried layer beneath. Very useful for light effects, foliage, and atmospheric passages.
Glazing — applying a thin, transparent layer of paint mixed with medium over a dried layer. The colour beneath shows through, producing a richness and depth impossible to achieve by mixing the same colours on the palette.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to use turpentine? No. Low-odour mineral spirit or Zest-It perform similarly and are much more practical for home studios.
How long does oil paint take to dry? Thin layers can be touch-dry in one to three days. Thicker passages take longer. The addition of an alkyd medium significantly speeds drying.
Is oil painting suitable for beginners? Very much so. The slow drying time that intimidates many beginners is actually an advantage — it allows more time to blend, adjust, and correct than any other paint medium.
What is the best surface for a beginner? Canvas board is the most practical starting point — rigid, pre-primed, and affordable enough to use freely for practice.
Shop oil paints, brushes, canvases and boards, and mediums at Craft and Canvas, Hebden Bridge.