Oil Painting Supply List

Oil Painting Supply List

Oil colors

ultramarine blue , cerulean blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red light, cadmium yellow light*, cadmium yellow medium*, titanium white

*It’s helpful to have two yellows – one that is closer to orange (as are most cad yellow mediums), and one closer to green (as are most cad yellow lights). Utrecht’s cad yellow light is, perversely, more orange, so if you’re buying that brand, get a cad yellow lemon (more green) and a cad yellow light; if you’re buying Gamblin, get a cad yellow light and a cad yellow medium.

Brushes

6 (or more) bristle brushes. The brushes I use most frequently are filberts in numbers 2, 10, and 12, and rounds in numbers 0, 6, and 8. Plaza, Utrecht, and Robert Simmons bristle brushes are all fine.

Painting Knife

The ones with inverted handles are easier to manipulate than the flat-shaped kind. I use a 2” diamond.

Painting Surfaces

Masonite (hardboard) panels painted with acrylic gesso are great for working outside since the surface is smooth and easy to cover quickly. Primed (with oil or acrylic gesso) linen or cotton panels (made with hardboard, not cardboard), or stretched canvases are fine too. I’d recommend small sizes to get started, such as 9 x 12. You can buy pre-gessoed panels at art stores (Ampersand is a good brand). Alternatively, you can have some plain panels cut from 4’ x 8’ sheets at Home Depot and gesso them yourself. Paint these with white gesso (2 coats, one horizontal & one vertical OR any and all directions, as long as each coat is even) using a fine-bristled, wide, flat brush. Home Depot may charge per cut, and sometimes they won’t cut pieces that small. One or two boards/canvases per day should be plenty.

Easel and Palette

A full or a half French easel is great for painting outside—it’s portable, and it holds your palette for you while you work. My palette is a 16 x 20" piece of plexiglass that I bought pre-cut at Home Depot; I like it because it's sturdy and has a lot of room for mixing colors. You can buy plastic, wood, or disposable paper palettes at an art store. If you opt for a tripod easel, you will need to buy the type of palette you can hold while you paint.

Medium

There are many kinds of possible mediums. I use 1 part stand oil and 1 part Gamsol—a brand of odorless mineral spirits (OMS) made by Gamblin. Gamsol is one of the safer paint thinners. I mix them (about ½ inch of each) in a small, lidded plastic jar the size of a 35 mm film canister (available at Plaza in packs of 6 or so). If you can't find Gamsol, another brand of OMS is fine.

Paper towels and rags

Use paper towels for wiping brushes while painting and for cleaning up; use rags for wiping paint off painting surfaces. You can buy boxes of rags at Home Depot in the paint section.

Brush washing materials: metal scrubbie, glass peanut butter jar, vegetable oil, Murphy’s oil soap

For cleaning up: To remove the paint from your brushes, use a metal dish scrubbie in a glass peanut butter jar filled halfway with vegetable oil. Wipe excess paint off with paper towels; rub the bristles into the scrubbie; wipe off the oil with paper towels; then wash the brushes with warm water and Murphy’s Oil Soap in a sink. (This method serves two purposes: you avoid using solvents as cleaning agents (solvents are toxic to you and hard on brushes), and you get as much paint off your brushes as possible before you wash them, preventing paint from entering the water system. Later, you can recycle the paint and oil at a recycling center.

Nitrile gloves to protect your skin and make clean-up easier, available in the paint aisle at Home Depot

Flat-bottomed tupperware container to hold preserve excess paint after a painting session. I keep mine in the freezer overnight.

Food-grade walnut oil for cleaning your palette after painting (it's safer than solvents or solvent-based mediums, and food-grade walnut oil is not expensive).

Optional: Brush cleaner for cleaning brushes while painting: peanut butter jar with metal scrubbie, filled halfway with food-grade walnut oil.

Recommended reading (Abebooks.com has inexpensive used copies): The Art Spirit by Robert Henri, and The Painter’s Handbook, revised edition, by Mark Gottsegen.