5 Things to Avoid When Creating an Oil Painting
- Thin or flat colors: This is usually a result of using paint thinner instead of linseed oil to loosen your colors. Avoid using paint thinner for any other purpose other than cleaning your supplies. Be careful not to over oil your colors which will make them watery and opaque.
- Clutter: This is commonly the result of too may colors or objects on the canvas. The key is to avoid colors and objects that compete for attention. Also make sure that the main subject is obvious and be sure not to have too many objects overlapping. The last thing you want is accidentally making you work confusing because of this common mistake.
- Empty space: Avoid large blocks of space with little or no detail. It creates a sense of emptiness and might make your art piece unbalanced. Every square inch of you canvas should serve to make you painting interesting as a whole.
- Poor perspective: the key to making any art piece pop is to develop good perspective. Four ways of separating the foreground from the background and making your main subject pop is: (1) blurring the objects in the background, (2) lighting the background colors to make them look hazy, (3) darkening the colors in the foreground, and (4) adding more details to the main subject.
- Using too much white: A very common mistake is to add white to parts of your painting to render light. Using too much white will make the painting look faded or muddled. The key to creating light in a painting is to darken surrounding colors instead of adding more white to the objects.
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