Oil paintings began in the Mediterranean during the era of the
Greek and Roman civilizations. The Egyptians also used paint
techniques that were rich in bees wax, pigments of such
minerals as copper, iron and manganese oxides and tempera.

While historians have noted that the Mediterranean
civilizations of this time were aware of flax, walnut, poppy
seed and other vegetable oils there is not definite proof that
they were used in oil paintings of the time.

The tempera these early oil painters used were organic mediums
mixed as fluid with water and volatile oil additives. Italian
artists of the next century used organic binding ingredients
such as materials containing protein from whole eggs, animal
glue or milk.

From the Roman Empire's demise to the 15th century Renaissance
era oil paintings and tempera painting became prevalent. In
Greece and Italy olive oil was the preferred based for pigment
mixture preparation although this made for a long drying period
and great difficulty for human models. Theophilus, a German-born
monk and oil painter in the 1100's dispensed with olive oil in
his oil paintings. In Japan a substitute for oil paintings was
perilla oil, applied after a lead application as early as the
8th century. During the 1300's the Italian Cennino Cennini
created oil paintings that were a combination of tempera and
several layers of light oil.

Much later Leonardo DaVinci, who lived until 1519, created his
own oil paintings concoction made by adding up to 10 percent
bees wax to his oils and then boiling the combination.

If you'd like to follow in the footsteps of these great
painters there are some simple preparations and techniques
before and during your creation of oil paintings.

The first important technique is to dress for it, including
gloves. Your tools include two containers, one with paint
thinner, and the other with a combination of two parts thinner
to one part walnut oil. Make sure you've made room in easy
reach for your paint brushes, your palette and its knife, your
containers, paint tubes and paint rags.

Your palette should start out with only 2-3 paint colors.
Generally you'll need cadmium red, cadmium yellow and
ultramarine blue to start.

Your palette knife is the oil paintings tool you use for the
technique of mixing colors. Keep in mind that oil paints have a
short blend life, so if you try to make a color change and it
doesn't work right the first time quickly take a paint rag and
wipe it off the canvas and start over.

One of the advantages of oil paintings that make the correction
technique so much easier is that they take nearly a full day to
dry. So, you have lots of correction time. On the other hand,
because oil paintings take so long to dry and excessively heavy
coat can slow your painting process considerably.

The brushes you use in your oil paintings must be cleaned well
between each change of color. This technique is crucial. The
first thing you do is remove as much of the paint as you can
with the paint rag and then place the brush in the paint
thinner. Swish the paint brush around in the thinner, and then
dry it with the rag.

You must wait 24 hours after your first complete oil paintings
application before you start your second or the first
application will smear.

About The Author: Breiana Cecil of http://www.overstockart.com
graduated from Ball State University with a Bachelor Degree in
Interior Design and in Studio Art. Breiana is an avid
enthusiast of the art and design world and intends on
continuing her contribution to the industry. Talk to Breiana on
the http://www.blog.overstockart.com today!

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