Tips to improve your sense of color, understanding of values and drawing skills! When you are new to oil paint you’ll soon discover that there are a few different components that need to work together to produce a good painting. To know a little bit about drawing and to understand values and colors will help you convey a good sense of light, atmosphere, and form. To focus on all these different components at the same time can be a bit overwhelming, at least if you are still in the process of learning about them. What I did myself to improve my understanding of these different elements, and wha ..read more

Hi there, and welcome to my blog here at the Oil painting Journey, where I share oil painting tips, information, and inspiration for people who would like to begin painting with oils! Today I’ll be sharing the 5 main reasons why I think oil paint is a much more friendly and forgiving medium then watercolors. After you’ve read this post you’ll know the 5 main differences between the two mediums and you’ll be aware of the specific challenges with watercolors compared to oils. Hopefully, this will convince you that oil paint is an awesome medium that will provide you with a bunch of flexibilit ..read more

 Have you ever wanted to be able to paint shiny textures like gold or brass in your paintings? It's no secret that introducing different textures, especially textures that create effects like glow and shine, will make your paintings more interesting and exciting! In this post, I'll share my top 5 tips to help you paint golden textures that look and feel more realistic and believable. Let's go!   1. Look for color variation A common misconception about golden, shiny surfaces like gold or brass is that they only have golden colors like yellow or orange. The truth is that golden textur ..read more

7 TIPS TO HELP YOU PAINT LIFELIKE FLOWERS THAT LOOK AND FEEL REALISTIC White flowers are my favorite kind of flowers! I especially love the symbolism behind white roses, a flower that I love to include in my paintings. The white rose, the oldest rose, is an ancient symbol of pure love and peace. This beautiful flower express feelings of love, friendship, peace, respect, and hope. It has been painted by many famous master painters throughout history including Henri Fantin- Latour, John Singer Sargent, and Emil Carlsen. In this post I’ll share 7 of my best tips to hopefully help anyone wanting t ..read more

Color intensity, hue, and saturation - what do they all mean? Something I've often thought about since I started painting with oils is how similar learning how to paint is like learning a new language. There are all these new words, terms, techniques, and concepts you need to understand to be able to transfer what you see to your canvas. In this post, I'll cover some of the most common words and terms you're bound to come across at some point as a new painter, all relating to the world of color. When you’re more familiar with these words and terms and know what they’re all about, it will be a ..read more

Let's take a look at a common, but extremely frustrating situation; You sit down in front of our new canvas and look at the image or set up you're going to paint and feel super excited to get started! You are hopeful that this will be the day you paint something truly special. Something you can be proud of, something that looks like magic mixed with paint! ... But halfway in, you can feel it's not going to happen. Nothing on the canvas feels right, and when you step back to get a good look at what's going on, you just want to leave the room. Everything on the canvas looks slightly off, you fee ..read more

During my 15 years of painting with oils, I've got a lot of advice and gained a bunch of experience when it comes to what works to improve your paintings, and what doesn't.  One of the best advice I ever got is something that I experienced myself and saw many people benefit from as well. This advice is something I've used as my mantra in many situations, and I think it can work as an inspiration and line of encouragement to anyone feeling stuck or like they don't have what it takes to become a great painter. And the advice is this; Hard work always beats natural talent. Now, I think this ..read more

Today I'm going to write about one of my favorite subject matters to talk about when someone's just starting on their oil painting journey. It's the very first step in a four-step method I always use to structure my painting process, and it's a step that's going to make it a lot easier for you to feel confident about the drawing and values in your painting. The name of this stage is the underpainting stage. It's a stage that I know will set me off on the right track, and it's a stage that I think is crucial to having a good painting experience. I like to call this stage your painting roadmap ..read more

Today I'm going to share three things I wish I had known about oil paint when I was just starting on my oil painting journey. Now, I'm super excited to talk about these three things, because when you know how to use these elements in the early stages of your painting journey, getting good results and advancing with your paintings, is going to be a lot easier and quicker than without them. So let's start with point number 1!   1. You don't need a lot of materials to be able to start painting. When I was just starting, I thought I needed to buy a bunch of different colors, brushes, medium ..read more

I think everyone has a way to get ready for their painting session, whether its something they are very aware of, or not. Lately, I've been thinking about this topic, so today I will be sharing the 5 things I do every time before I start my painting, that always helps me have a great painting session. I’m so excited to share them with you in this post, so let's start! 1. Cleaning my brushes. The very first thing that I do is, I make sure that all my brushes are clean. So, if I've been a bit lazy and haven't cleaned my brushes the day before, this is where i start! If any of my brushes have pai ..read more