Traditional Oil Painting Practices

Traditional oil painting technique frequently start with the oil paintings artist sketching the stature onto the canvas with charcoal or a "rinse," which is thinned paint. Oil paintings can be varied with turpentine or artiste grade mineral spirits or other type of solvents to make a thinner, faster aeration paint. Then the artiste builds the figure in sheets. An essential rule of oil paint appliance is 'fat over lean.' This means that every additional layer of oil paintings must be a bit oilier than the layer beneath, to allow correct drying. As a painting gets extra layers, the oil paintings have to get oilier or the last painting will break and peel. There are many other painting medium that can be use in oil painting, which includes resins, cold wax, and varnishes. These additional medium can assist the Oil painter in adjusting the transparency of the paint, the shine of the paint, the thickness or 'body' of the paint, and the aptitude of the paint to hold or hide the brush stroke.

These variables are strongly related to the expressive ability of oil paintings. When we look at original oil paintings, the various character of oil paint permit one to sense the choice the artiste made as they apply the paint. For the spectator, the paint is still, but for the artiste, the oil paintings is a fluid or semi-fluid and must be stirred 'onto' the painting surface.