Starting with oil paint: choose paint, surface, brushes and medium

A sensible first oil-paint setup: buy fewer materials, test the surface and keep mediums simple.

By Cyanoprints
2 min read
Blue, ochre and red oil-paint tests on a primed canvas beside a palette and brushes

Your first oil painting does not need a large box of supplies. Start with a few colours, a suitable primed surface and two brushes. Try the paint straight from the tube before deciding whether a medium is needed.

Which paint should a beginner choose?

A small palette with a light colour and a few mixing colours teaches you more than ten similar tubes. Compare the coverage and mixture of each colour. Our oil-paint collection includes Sonnet 46 ml oil paint for colour and brushwork studies. Student-grade paint can be useful for practice, but check each tube or manufacturer listing for opacity, pigment and lightfastness rather than assuming an entire range shares those properties.

Check the surface before painting

Use a support that its manufacturer identifies as prepared for oil paint. Untreated absorbent material may draw binder from the paint. Preparation varies among canvases and panels; check whether primer or gesso is present. Make a small test with a thin stroke, a thicker mark and a mixed colour. Does the paint handle and adhere as expected?

Brushes first, medium later

A flat brush handles areas and edges; a round brush makes lines and detail. Choose two suitable sizes from our brushes rather than buying a large set immediately. Paint from the tube at first. If you later want different flow or drying behaviour, select one product from painting mediums specifically labelled for oil paint and follow its mixing and safety instructions. Acrylic and oil mediums are not interchangeable.

A first exercise worth keeping

  1. Make three small colour swatches on the same primed support.
  2. Apply one thinly and another more generously; note the tube and brush.
  3. Mix two colours on the palette and paint a transition without adding several mediums.
  4. Observe surface drying over the following days; a dry-feeling surface does not prove the whole layer is cured.

Drying varies with pigment, thickness, medium and conditions. Ventilate, follow product labels, and store oil-soaked rags safely: bunched rags containing drying oil can self-heat and ignite. Varnish only after the work has cured sufficiently for the materials used.