A Week Of Oil Paintings - BEGINNINGS

BEGINNINGS

Oil Painting - 9x12

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When painting with watercolors the rule is to paint light to dark. With oil painting it is the complete opposite, dark to light. You would think it wouldn't be that hard to switch but after years of starting with my lightest colors and saving the white of the paper it was EXTREMELY hard for me to begin the oil painting with huge areas of dark colors!

It totally goes against all of my creative instincts and muscle memory to even think about the darks at the beginning of a painting. I LOVE  building up my darks in watercolor with each layer and creating a pathway with them to create an exciting composition.

It is still a struggle for my but I have learned that the key with oils is to use transparent darks for that first layer of color so that you don't get mud when you start to paint lighter, opaque colors on top. I still find myself coming back in with darks at the end to strengthen certain areas of the composition but at least I am getting better at it:)