Canvas Preference
There are many different types of canvas available and it is difficult to tell you which one is best. It comes down to just a personal preference. After many trials and experimentation, my canvas of choice is smooth or portrait grade cotton duck.
I do not paint and I prefer my students not to paint on canvas panels. They are extremely rough and do not allow for any spring back. Also, over time, they will warp. I find canvas that is rough destroys brushes extremely fast. Also, for my style of painting, it is much more difficult to achieve a smooth finish. Once again, though, it is a personal choice. If you are purchasing the cheaper two-pack of canvas from the hobby stores be aware they are rough.
For my portrait method, I first coat any canvas that I purchase with two coats of tinted gesso. You can achieve smoothness this way.
There are many sources of good quality canvas out there. My suggestion is that if you do a lot of painting, it would be beneficial to order or purchase a case lot. It usually is only six at a time.
Please note my classes are all posted on my website now and am currently taking new students!!
Caring for your Brushes
Now that you understand what type of brush to use, the next most common question I get is….How do I care for my brushes? Because good brushes can be an expensive investment, good care should be taken when cleaning and maintaining them.
First of all, when you purchase a brush, it quite often comes with a protective sleeve on it. When removed, do not attempt to put it back on. This will bend, break and fray the tiny hairs. Just throw the sleeves away!
Next, a new brush will contain sizing, making them stiff. This allows them to hold their shape and prevent damage while on a store shelf. This sizing must be removed before any painting is done. Gently soak the brush in warm water and use a gentle soap. This should remove all the sizing and your brush should be soft.
I don’t generally clean my brushes until I am finished painting for the day. Throughout the day, I just wipe them carefully by pulling them gently through a paper towel. Do not rub your good brushes on a paper towel to clean; this will break off tiny hairs. Also, if possible, use a good quality paper towel such as Viva. It is soft and smooth, and will help preserve your brushes longer.
At the end of the day, rinse your brush in “used” thinner. Then rinse again in clean thinner. Next, apply a brush cleaner appropriate for oils (Art Gel, Pink Soap, or Murphy’s Oil Soap) and work out all the remaining paint. Next, I use Baby Oil and, using a soft paper towel, I squeeze the bristles to reshape them.. There should be no color that appears when squeezing the bristles or your brush is still dirty. I leave baby oil in my brush, shape the bristles back to the chisel edge, and put away.
By cleaning your brushes this way, they will last you for a long time. However, they do eventually wear out and must be replaced. Keep that in mind that when you begin to feel it is time for a new brush, trust your instincts, you are probably right!! Pull out a new one and experience the wonderful feeling of a Brand New Brush!!
More on Brushes
I am going to continue my discussion on oil paint brushes as I have had several more thoughts after finishing my last post.
I don’t ever encourage a new student to use student grade anything; by that I mean brushes or paint. Someone who has painted for a long time can produce fabulous work using inferior brushes but a student needs the best tools to start with to prevent frustration. It is difficult enough at the beginning to know how to work a brush let alone trying to work a very poor quality brush.
Price does not factor in to the quality of a brush!! Some manufacturers price a line of brushes very high because they contain some special hair but that does not mean it makes it good to paint with. Other manufacturers make outstanding brushes at very reasonable prices. Brushes become the most personal tool and by learning about them you can choose the right brush for your style.
Purchasing the kits in the hobby stores which advertise “these brushes are good for watercolor, acrylic and oil” , in my opinion is wrong and misleading. You must pick a brush according to the medium you are working in. A general rule : the thicker the medium, the shorter and stiffer the brush should be. Therefore it would be very difficult painting in oils with a very soft watercolor brush that won’t even pick up the paint. That being said, of course, the brushes you choose are a personal preference. Consider though, if you are in a class and not getting the results the teacher is getting, you may be using the wrong kind of brushes.
Snap is also very important in the right brush. Snap is the speed and quality at which a brush returns to its original shape after loading and completing a stroke. Too much snap will make the brush stiff and hard to control, too little snap will be very limp. You will after some time figure out the right brush for you!
The Right Brush for the Job
I am always amazed when a new student comes to class or when I go out to teach a seminar, that when I begin talking about brushes, the students have brought the cheapest brushes they could find. There must be some significant meaning behind this but I have not quite figured it out yet. People feel they can produce masterpieces with sticks!! You must have the proper tools for any craft to achieve good results.
Having said this, I would like to explain the brushes I use. Now, this is not to say this is what every oil painter uses. We all differ but I would hazard a guess that most use high quality and high density brushes. I generally use a flat, or a bright. These words describe the length, width and thickness of the bristle. This is usually labeled on the handle of the brush. A bright is shorter and thicker than a flat but flats work just fine. Also, for general painting I will use a badger or a mongoose hair brush. Now here is where I do differ from a lot of oil painters because they will most often use hog bristle. I have moved away from that type of brush because I prefer a smoother finished product but if students bring those to class I let them use them. Then I have them try mine and 99% of them switch.
For my portraiture, I use a synthetic sable as my portraits are very smooth. Also, something I had to consider was the amount of painting I do and the number of brushes I wear out. I go through alot of brushes, therefore I use the best brush for the price and I find synthetic sables are fabulous. We need several different sizes from large to small as paintings differ and we must strive to use the size of brush equal to the size of area to paint. For example, don’t use an little #4 flat to cover a huge background; get out the big bad boy and get it done. Also, the bigger the brush for the area, the fewer brush strokes with be used and seen. A couple of Liner brushes should be included and they are thin long haired brushes used for branches of trees, squiggly lines or very tiny areas. When these start to fray open, it is time to buy new ones. These are not expensive brushes and therefore easy to part with for new ones.
Finally, I would suggest if you are new to oil painting, contact the teacher for a list of brushes needed before you go out and buy all the wrong items. I see this all the time and know it is frustrating for you the new painter and for the teacher who really justs wants you to achieve success!
My Style
Everyone has their own “style” of painting. It becomes extremely apparent the more one paints. As an instructor, I can observe this in my students relatively quickly. I am painter of photo realism. Photo realism is taking a landscape, still-life , portrait or whatever it is one is observing and painting it as close to exact as possible. In my opinion, this is extremely challenging. Many critics of this style feel that if you want an exact painting just take a picture with a camera. I feel that trying to capture the exactness is much more difficult that splashing on some paint that somewhat resembles the photo or leaves the viewer thinking that maybe that is what it was supposed to be. In my portraiture, I think the ultimate challenge is to totally capture the personality of the person, be it the twinkle in the eye of a mischievous child, the sadness of waving goodbye to someone or just trying to maintain the appropriate age of the person. This means, for example, painting a young person and not making them look much older than they are. Although there are many who choose a different spectrum of painting, in my mind that is the beauty of creating; everyone can have their own style, and we should have an appreciation of them all. I never try to change a student’s creative style. Because of that, my studio at times has many beautiful variations of paintings!
You’ll Never Know
It was very interesting today. While teaching a class, one student asked me how, when and why I started to paint. It became very clear to me as I began to explain that I started to paint not because I really had any passion to actually paint but that I wanted to be around painting people. I never held a paint brush until I was thirty-seven years old. I was encouraged by the warmth of others to……..give it a try, you’ll never know unless you try. So I did!! The rest is history and it (the act of painting and creating) lit a passion in me that keeps pushing me forward in the most positive and fulfilling way.
So I am always telling people who say they could never paint to just give it a try. No one really knows what lies deep within them just waiting for someone to make the subtle suggestion to try it. I am not saying you will sit down and create a masterpiece but if painting for the first time makes you the tiniest bit interested in more then seek a class with a good instructor that can guide you along your way. There are basic fundamentals to learn and from then on you make it your own personal journey.
Hello Everyone!
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