GettingStarted

PAINTING: GETTING STARTED         by Penny Bearman 2022

This is a basic guide to painting equipment.
Each painting you do may only require a few colours and brushes, but this broad selection allows you the freedom and variety to mix any colours and textures you have in mind.

This selection of colours consists of 2 of each of the primary colours and a strongly pigmented green, these colours I call the spectrum colours, precisely because with these you can achieve the full brilliance and range of the rainbow..

SPECTRUM COLOURS:

Cool Yellow:   Cadmium yellow pale or Lemon yellow (O)
Warm Yellow: Cadmium yellow or Chrome yellow (O)
Warm Red:     Cadmium red or vermillion (O)
Cool Red:       Alizarin Crimson, Magenta (ideally both), Rose madder (T)
Warm Blue:     Ultramarine, Cobalt. (T)
Cool Blue:       Phthalo blue, prussian blue, (T) cerulean blue.(O)
Cold Green:    Phthalo green, viridian.(T)

The names of the pigments listed above are what you will encounter in the art shops. In some instances manufacturers will invent names or use their own name, such as "winsor blue" instead of phthalo blue, or "winsor red" instead of cadmium red hue. There are also certain tricks they use to conceal the substitution of a cheap pigment for the original more expensive one. For example, cadmium is an expensive pigment so if you see "cadmium hue" that means they have used cheaper dyes to replace the cadmium. "hue" is used as a code for a cheap replacement pigment in the same way that "orange juice drink" means there may not be any actual orange juice in the carton.

Primary colours (red, yellow and blue) have traditionally been used to mix the secondary colours (green, orange and violet), but unfortunately buying only one of each primary will not make 3 pure secondary colours. Also some new secondary colour pigments are so strong that it may not be possible to mix as bright a colour using your primary colours, so I have included phthalo green above.
I have listed the pigments above in a precise order in which they can be mixed to make a smooth transition into a full spectrum or a rainbow. If you position them in a circle you will get a colour wheel which can be used to show opposite colours (called complimentary colours) this will help achieve the effects used by many of the famous painters such as Van Gogh and Monet.

I also suggest that you buy as many earth colours as you can find, they are cheap and it is by using earth colours that you can add some subtlety to your colour, making them more realistic. Earth colours are also good for initial drawing-in of your design.
I include White and Black as earth colours, White is cold, Black is warm (in my opinion).

EARTH COLOURS:

Yellow ochre (O)
Raw Sienna (T)
Burnt Sienna (T)
Venetian Red, Mars Red, Light Red, Mars Violet (O)
Burnt Umber (T)
Raw Umber (T)
Lamp Black is very opaque, (Ivory Black is transparent)
Titanium White (Flake white is warm, opaque and poisonous, lead based) Zinc white is transparent.

BRUSHES.

Bristle brushes (originating from the course hairs on a pigs back) are the only brush that can hold enough opaque oil paint to paint with successfully. However some paint effects require more runny paint or detail in which case nylon brushes can be used, or sables, though these can get damaged easily. I suggest you also buy at least 1 large, possibly decorating brush and a triangular shaped painting knife.
It is worth noting that palette knives are sometimes inflexible for cleaning the palette, so you will also need a palette knife with a tungsten tip for painting with. Make sure that you feel the tip when you buy...

PAINTING SURFACES.

You can buy cheap canvases and canvas boards from the High St. poundshops initially, then when you want a more durable surface, buy more expensive better quality materials from art shops.

PALETTES

For water colour it is more important to have a palette that contains water, such as ice-cube trays from the freezer or egg holders from fridges, than having a flat surface to mix on. You can then fill each compartment with water and add paint to achieve the right density of colour.
Acrylics can be used in a wet runny way like water colour in which case jam jars are useful, or they can be used thickly like oil paint, in which case a flat palette is more useful.

For oil paint, you need a large flat surface to mix the colours you want while you paint, and often before you start. Most commercial palettes are not big enough, so I recommend you find a large piece of white plastic, or melomine-coated hardboard from a wood yard, alternative glass shelves are good. These can also be cleaned really easily.
The traditional wooden palettes have a thumb hole and are designed to be held while you walk backwards and forwards to view your painting in the studio, or to enable you to work without a table outdoors. The traditional wooden palette is a good colour if you like to wash a dark earth colour onto your painting before you start, a style used from Renaissance times to the Victorian era, examples include Titian, Rembrandt and Walter Sickert.
From the 20th Century the impressionists popularised working onto a white "ground" or painting surface. If you like the impressionist style ( such as Monet, Cezanne, Pisarro) you will be better off using a white palette than a brown wooden one, because when you mix your colours you will need to mix a tone that will work on your painting, so in short, you need to match the colour of your palette with the colour of your painting surface.

SOLVENTS

For water-colour and acrylic paint all you need to dilute them is water. You may come across tubes or jars of water-colour or acrylic "medium", this will allow you to put layers of transparent paint thinly, with a more elastic texture than just water.
For oil paint you will need either white spirit or turps. Traditionally we are told to mix the paints with turps (turpentine) and to wash the brushes in white spirit, though recent studies have shown very little difference between the two solvents and have suggested that genuine turpentine is slightly worse for our lungs, so it is ok to use exclusively white spirit. Don't get tempted by the cheapness of turps subsitute, it is horrendously smelly and is too strong to use with paint. For cheapness, get white spirit from the hardware shop or wood yard, not the art shop. It is possible to buy low-odour thinners from art shops (eg Sansodor by Winsor & Newton or Zest it, made from oranges) if you are planning to work at home and stay friends with your family.

MEDIUMS

Oil painting mediums fall into two categories, linseed oil is cheap and traditional, the more processed variety from the art shop is better than boiled or raw linseed oil from the wood yard. Linseed oil yellows with time, and slows down the drying time. Modern mediums speed up the drying time of your painting and don't yellow, but are more expensive and can only be bought from art shops. They often have the name of the manufacturer such as "rowney oil painting medium" or "wingel" made by winsor and Newton. Also liquin is a more liquid version of a gel medium. These mediums will create glazes or layers of paint to achieve effects such as used by Turner, Rembrandt, Titian. Whenever you wonder how to paint glass or sea or gold, the answer is invariably to use multiple layers of paint, with a thick layer of light colour underneath and a runny layer over the top. A painting medium would be essential for this otherwise the thin top coat would sink into the lower layers and appear dull and life-less when dry. The medium must always be mixed sparingly with the solvent otherwise you will have overly shiny, sticky paintings that don't dry.
Acrylics are based on a plastic medium called PVA, you can buy this as a glue in craft shops. It is often a white colour which is transparent when dry, there is now a clear version which is much easier for using on a painting. This is available from The Works (shop in High Streets and Outlet centres)

SUBJECT MATTER

All subjects are good, the trick is to find what inspires you. So don't listen if people attempt to restrict your choice. Photos are fine, copying paintings or prints is fine. It is a very important thing to find and keep your "thread" or your train of thought, so any choices you make, or any direction you want to go, should be respected and valued. Every inspiration you feel is a clue, hang on to it.
Finally don't worry if your friends and family don't get what you are doing. Most artists only achieve recognition once they have sufficiently honed their technique and interests. So hang on in there and join an art class!