Portrait Painting in Oil Without a Brain

lol! amazing how great it works

canson paper from hobby lobby

I already see some things I need to fix.

Good start!

Good question. I really recommend you going through the course in the order it appears. The first demo leads to the second. If you skip ahead you will lose the whole method of stages that will make this success for you.

Yes, that would be fine. For years that's all I would use to thin it out. I only just recently added Gamsol because of larger paintings needing to be covered quickly.

Morgan replied to previous comment that gouache is similar and he learned oil painting by first learning gouache. Hope it helps.

PAINTING WITHOUT A BRAIN WITH MORGAN WEISTLING MATERIALS LIST These are the exact items I use in the course but you can use whatever brand you might otherwise be comfortable using I get all my paint supplies from Dick Blick except the storage cups Paints: I am using all Winsor Newton Oil Colors of these four colors: Ivory Black Alizarin Crimson Titanium White Yellow Ochre Pale If you want to buy a  Cobalt Blue it might come in handy. But it’s not necessary Brushes: I am using Dick Blick brand Masterstroke Finest Red Sable FLAT LONG HANDLE The sizes used in the course are: 1-7 You will find that as those get towards the larger sizes they are very pricey. It’s not a requirement to be able to follow along in the course and if you want to use cheaper synthetic brushes that is fine. But I do caution you that the reason I use these is because they last longer and keep their shape better under heavy use. Cheap synthetics will lose their shape pretty quickly.   It’s also recommended you get a 3/4 inch brush for large background washes but it’s a waste to buy something expensive for that. I use cheaper synthetic for that. Just make sure it’s long handle and a flat. (Not a bright) You might wonder if I would be using any bristle brushes. For this course I will not be recommending it. There is a time and place for them but not in a beginning painting course. It’s a clumsy weapon and not as elegant as a light saber. You will need a palette knife for mixing. Just a small one. Big palette knives are useless. Mediums You can use whatever mediums you like but this is what I use: M. Graham Walnut Alkyd Medium Gamblin Gamsol I mix these two together to produce my medium Any kind of small tin cup for mixing our medium in. Any Jar or Turpentine jar for washing our brush after each stroke. I do not use Turpentine or Terpenoid or Mineral Spirits. All are toxic and since I have to keep that open the whole time I prefer to not breathe that all day. So for the last 18 years I have used Straight Walnut Oil from Amazon. I don’t buy the Graham one because this is just used for cleaning my brush between mixtures. It’s not important to be of some special grade. I buy it in a gallon container. It will not say it’s an art supply. It’s used for cooking. Having said all that, you can use whatever you want. It will not affect the painting process. Most artists these days use straight Gamsol, which is the least harmful of mineral spirits. It’s your choice. Storage cups to preserve our average mixtures (a must) Hobby Lobby sell CURATE + Colour Small Storage cups- 8 pack Painting Panel: Dick Blick Premier Belgian Linen Acrylic Primed Medium Texture 12 x 16” boards are what I will be using. You can use cheaper canvas boards so long as they are acrylic primed. The gesso I use is Blick Professional White Gesso. You can use any other kind but this is the best consistency I have ever found. It spreads perfectly with a credit card or other kind of scraping tool. I use various cards, old gift cards, whatever you have. Home Depot sells a set of cheap plastic scrapers for paste type products and can be found in the section of glues. For toning the canvas board we use Liquitex Basic Acrylic paint NEUTRAL GRAY 5 In the course I will talk about spray fixing my charcoal drawing. I personally use Grumbacher Matte Workable Fixative. I also use Grumbacher Damar Retouch Varnish gloss— I spray this on my painting if I am going to paint over dry parts of my painting from previous days. I couldn’t exist without this product. I use vine charcoal in this course. The one I use is CREATIVE MARK WILLOW CHARCOAL- THIN .4MM -5MM DIAMETER Also have a typical sandpaper pad and any kind of kneaded eraser In the course I will go over the how’s and why’s of these materials.

If you share the photo I can let know my thoughts.

Absolutely. I know what it's like to be a student and seeing what I am seeing is essential. Photos will be provided.

I paint in gouache and learned to paint in oils by learning gouache first. It's very similar. This course shows how the medium doesn't matter. I even show how it applies to pastel and digital.

Thanks!