Getting Started with Oil Painting

September 10, 2026

Essential Supplies for Getting Started with Oil Painting

Rich, luminous, and timeless, oil painting is appreciated for its vibrant colours, smooth texture, and exceptional versatility. Its slow drying time gives artists the freedom to blend colours, make adjustments, and create soft, seamless transitions.

Used by artists for centuries, oil painting is equally suited to portraits, landscapes, abstract works, and contemporary art. Whether you'd like to paint for enjoyment, explore a new medium, or develop your artistic practice, getting started simply requires a few fundamentals and the right supplies.

Discover the tools and tips that will help you gain confidence with oil painting and create your first works.

1- Choosing Your Oil Paint

Before selecting your paints, take some time to explore the different ranges available. This will help you choose the one that best suits your experience level, painting style, and creative goals.

Made from pigments mixed with a drying oil, most commonly linseed oil, oil paint gradually dries through oxidation when exposed to air. This longer drying time makes blending, soft transitions, and adjustments much easier, which is especially helpful for beginners.

Several types of oil paints are available. Here are the main categories to help you choose the one that's right for you.

Student Grade Paints: Designed for learning and everyday practice, student-grade paints, sometimes called studio-grade depending on the brand, offer an excellent balance of quality, ease of use, and affordability. They're ideal for exploring colour mixing, learning fundamental techniques, and becoming familiar with different painting methods.

Discover: Winsor & Newton Winton Oil Colour, Pébéo XL Oil and Van Gogh Oil Colour.

Professional Grade Paints: Professional-grade oil paints offer a higher pigment concentration, exceptional colour richness, excellent lightfastness, and a texture that allows for precise control and expressive brushwork.

Most colours are formulated with a single pigment, producing cleaner, more vibrant colour mixtures while making it easier to control the shades created on your palette.

They are an excellent choice for artists who want to create long-lasting works with remarkable depth and subtle colour variation. Once a painting has completely dried, applying a final varnish is recommended to protect the surface and preserve the brilliance of the colours over time.

Discover: Gamblin Artist's Oil Colours, Winsor & Newton Artists' Oil Colour and Rembrandt Artists' Oil Colour.

Water-Mixable Oil Paints: Water-mixable oil paints provide a painting experience similar to traditional oils while allowing brushes to be cleaned with water instead of solvents. They can also be used with mediums specially formulated for water-mixable oils. They are an excellent option for discovering oil painting while simplifying cleanup and reducing the need for solvents.

Discover: Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Mixable Oil Colour

Also read: New to painting? Explore our article 7 Creative Projects for the Labour Day Long Weekend for more beginner-friendly ideas and creative techniques to try.

2- Essential Colours to Get Started

You don't need an extensive collection of colours to begin. A carefully selected palette is all you need to create a wide range of colour mixtures and discover the full potential of oil painting.

A versatile beginner palette includes: Titanium White , Cadmium Yellow Pale or Primary Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Light or Primary Red, Alizarin Crimson or Quinacridone Magenta, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Phthalo Green or Permanent Green (optional), Ivory Black (optional).

Transparent and opaque colours also produce different effects. Transparent colours are ideal for glazing and layering, while opaque colours are better suited to solid coverage and more opaque mixtures.

A well-balanced palette helps you better understand colour mixing, create natural colour harmonies, and gradually develop your own artistic style.

Oil painting sets are another excellent way to get started. They include the most commonly used colours in a practical format that's perfect for learning colour mixing.

Tip: Keep a sketchbook or a sheet of paper nearby to record your colour mixtures. You'll be able to recreate your favourite colours much more easily in future projects.

Discover: Oil painting sets.

3- Mediums and Solvents

Mediums and solvents play an important role in oil painting. They allow you to adjust the paint's consistency, drying time, transparency, and finish to achieve a variety of effects.

Mediums: Oil painting mediums, such as linseed oil, make the paint more fluid and extend its working time. Other ready-to-use mediums can speed up drying, increase transparency, or alter the finish, whether matte, satin, or glossy.

When working in multiple layers, it's important to follow the fat over lean principle. This means using paint thinned with more solvent in the first layers, then gradually increasing the amount of oil or medium in subsequent layers. This approach promotes even drying and helps ensure the long-term stability of your painting.

Solvents: Solvents are primarily used to thin paint in the initial layers and to clean brushes. Odourless mineral spirits are often preferred because they make working with solvents more comfortable while offering the same performance. Regardless of the product you choose, it's always recommended to work in a well-ventilated space.

Tip: Use two separate containers: one for cleaning your brushes and another for your mediums. This helps keep your colour mixtures clean and uncontaminated.

Discover: Linseed oil, Gamblin mediums, Winsor & Newton mediums, Gamsol and Sansodor.

4- Choosing Your Brushes and Painting Knives

Brushes play an important role in oil painting because they influence texture, brushstrokes, and the way paint is applied. The type of fibre you choose depends largely on the style and effects you're looking for.

Natural hog bristle brushes are among the most popular choices for oil painting. Their firm, resilient bristles move heavier paint with ease, making them ideal for impasto techniques while leaving visible brushstrokes that add character to the painting.

Modern synthetic brushes also offer excellent performance. They replicate many of the qualities of natural fibres while providing outstanding durability, resistance to solvents, and easy maintenance.

Long-handled brushes are especially popular for oil painting because they make it easier to work at an easel. They allow you to step back from the canvas more comfortably, making it easier to evaluate proportions and the overall composition of your painting. Short-handled brushes are still an excellent option for smaller formats or detailed work completed on a tabletop.

A few basic brush shapes are all you need to get started.

Flat Brush: Ideal for broad strokes, large areas of colour, and applying even layers of paint.

Filbert Brush: A versatile brush that's perfect for rounded shapes, soft blending, and smooth transitions.

Round Brush: Perfect for details, fine lines, and finishing touches.

Painting knives are also valuable additions to your studio. They can be used to mix colours on the palette, blend mediums into paint, or apply paint directly to the surface to create impasto effects, texture, and expressive marks.

Tip: Try different brush shapes on the same practice sheet. You'll quickly discover which ones work best for the lines, broad strokes, details, and textures you enjoy creating.

Discover: DeSerres, Princeton, and Raphaël brushes, as well as DeSerres painting knives.

5- Choosing Your Painting Surface

The surface you choose affects both the appearance of your painting and its long-term preservation. Because oil paint contains drying oils, it's important to work on a properly prepared surface to prevent the oil from gradually penetrating the support over time.

Canvas: Canvas is the classic surface for oil painting and is suitable for both beginners and experienced artists. Pre-primed canvases coated with gesso are ready to use and work well for most oil painting techniques.

Wood Panels and Canvas Panels: Wood panels and canvas panels are excellent choices for studies, small-format paintings, or projects that require a more rigid surface. Wood panels should be primed with gesso before use, while canvas panels are generally ready to paint. Their rigidity makes them especially well suited for detailed work and paintings built up in multiple layers.

Oil Painting Paper: Specially designed to resist oil, oil painting paper offers a practical solution for sketches, studies, and finished works on paper. It is treated to prevent oil from penetrating the fibres, helping preserve the quality of the painting over time.

Whatever surface you choose, make sure it has been primed with gesso or is specifically designed for oil painting. This promotes proper paint adhesion and helps ensure the longevity of your artwork.

Tip: Before starting your painting, test your colours, brushes, and mediums on a scrap piece of the same surface or an extra sheet of paper. It's an easy way to experiment without affecting your composition.

Discover: DeSerres canvases, Arches Oil Paper, Canson Figueras paper, and DeSerres panels.

6- Essential Accessories

A palette is essential for mixing colours. Wooden palettes are especially popular among oil painters because they provide a comfortable surface for mixing paint. Glass, plastic, and porcelain palettes are easy to clean and make it easier to judge colours accurately. Disposable palette paper is another practical option that simplifies cleanup.

Brush washers and medium cups help keep oils and solvents within easy reach while you paint. They can be clipped directly onto your palette or used separately, depending on your preferred setup.

Easels: An easel provides a more comfortable working position and allows you to paint vertically. This makes it easier to step back and evaluate proportions, values, and colours as your painting develops. Compact tabletop easels are ideal for smaller spaces, while larger studio easels offer greater stability for bigger canvases.

Rags or paper towels are useful for removing excess paint from brushes, cleaning painting knives, or creating certain effects directly on the canvas.

Finally, a quality brush soap or brush cleaner helps maintain the flexibility of the bristles and extends the life of your brushes.

Tip: Keep a clean cloth nearby throughout your painting session. It will come in handy for wiping your brushes and quickly removing excess paint from your canvas.

7- Putting your knowledge into practice

Before creating your first artwork, take the time to experiment with the paint’s consistency, colour mixing and the effect of different mediums on its behaviour.

Creating a colour chart or making a few test pieces is a great way to better understand the opacity, transparency and working time that are unique to oil paint. A light graphite pencil sketch can also serve as a guide before applying the first layers of paint.

Don’t hesitate to work gradually, building your artwork step by step. The slow drying time of oil paint allows you to adjust colours, rework certain areas and create smooth transitions before the paint fully hardens.

Learning books and practice workbooks are also excellent resources for discovering basic techniques, exploring different approaches and progressing at your own pace.

Tip: Keep your first experiments, even if they don’t feel perfect. Looking back at them after a few weeks is a great way to see your progress and appreciate how far you’ve come.