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Question: How much would it cost to get into oil painting!?
I'm a new artist coming to light!. I don't know if I have any talent I just want to try it without breaking the bank!. I know there are so called starving artists that make do with what they got, but I'm just looking for some pointers!. So after getting some basic oil paints, an easel, canvas, brushes, pallet, and other basic supplies how much do you think it would run!? I'm not looking for an itemized list, just an idea of what you would spend!.
I've look at online stores like dick blick and I went to Michael's, but where do you guys suggest I buy from!?
Thanks!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Here's a better answer!. About $65 will get you started!.
You can purchase a starter set of Daler Rowney-Georgian oil paints at Wal Mart for about $15 dollars!. It's a good starter set for the beginner with all the colors you need!. Daler Romney Georgian is a decent student grade paint that is very cost effective!. They have sets in both acrylic and oil!. Pick up a few inexpensive brushes, a flat, a round and a ferrel in white nylon in both small and large sizes for about $3 bucks each at Michaels!. Get a can of odorless thinner at Wal Mart for about $5!. And, buy some canvas boards and a small bottle of Linseed Oil at Walmart!. That way, you can see if you like this pursuit for about $50 dollars or less!. $65 if you buy the cheap easel that Wal Mart sells!.
Don't use the online art supply places that other people suggested UNLESS you are going to do this seriously!. They are good places and wholesale prices, BUT, remember, the cost includes the shipping and handling!. And so, lots of times, you end up paying the equivalent of retail anyway, and you have to wait for them to come!.
Now, if you go serious professional, you could spend $125 or more on a SINGLE TUBE of oil paint!. I have a collection of BLOCKX oil paints that is worth about $1200!. And, I have a bunch of Williamsburg Oil Paints that cost about the same!. The best way to buy canvas is by the roll, and stretch it yourself!. $700 a roll for the good stuff!. If you are buying like this, THEN it is necessary to buy online!. Michael's isn't going to stock this kind of paint!. Nobody is!. I like less expensive brushes, because I prefer to throw them away and buy new ones often!. But, you can get a lot of mileage out of even a cheap brush if you take care of them with some good brush soap, !. Www@QuestionHome@Com
When I started painting with oils, I went out and bought a tube of Burnt Umber, a package of canvas boards and a couple cheap pig bristle brushes!. (A round, a flat and a filbert!.) I picked up some turpentine and I used small empty tuna cans for the linseed oil, which I mixed with turpentine for thinning the paint!. I used another can for turpentine straight up to clean my brushes!. I used this one and only color for about five years!. It was a good way to learn "value"!. As time went on, I added different colors one at a time!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Hi,
I just started painting in oils this year!. I bought some books on sale at Barnes and Noble!. At Hobby Lobby a beginner paint set that came with 7 tiny tubes of paint and some brushes, a pad of disposable palettes, pads of canvas sheets, turpentine, linseed oil and splurged on a desk top easel!. I spent about $200!. Www@QuestionHome@Com
Since your just starting out Michaels would be ok just for convienence!. But they are overpriced!.
A good online place is JerrysArtArama!. They sell variuos Acrylics, acessories etc at great prices!.
For a small set!.!.!.basic colours!.!.!.!.canvass!.!.!.!.my guess is a min of $125!. Once you get going your cost will at least double!. Acrylic paints will be your biggest overhead!. Thats why I suggested online!.!.!.!.
Good Luck!Www@QuestionHome@Com
The best place is www!.aswexpress!.com Thanks for your answer on the carder method but I've been checking ebay and all over no luck yet and it has been out for some time its not new!. the price is reasonable too !. Just can't afford it and paints plus supplies!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Go to www!.craigslist!.com and click "for sale" Type in art supplies!. Loads of goodies cheap!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
NOT Michaels, unless you don't care of your materials cost almost twice as much as you need to spend! Dick Blick, Cheap Joe's, ASW, Daniel Smith, Artist's and Craftsmen's Supply, Utrecht, jerry's Artarama !. !. !. !. all are good!. !. !. I have made purchases from all of them! I go into Michaels' only for dire emergencies!. !. !. !.and never buy at big, cheap discount stores!. !. !. !. you get what you pay for (except at Michaels!)
I suggest you check the online catalogues and see how their pricing goes!. Then if one is having a sale on the brand you want, that would get you the best price !. !. !. duh! (I hate obvious answers, don't you!?)
I have been assessing the same costs, as I am a pastelist, watercolorist, and have enough acrylics to paint a barn!. !. !. but there IS something bout the smell, touch, and workability of oils, isn't there!? This is the list of colors I have had recommended by some local professional artists:
Cadmium Yellow Light
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Red Light
Venetian Red
Cadmium Orange
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber
Alizarin Crimson
Chromium Oxide Green
Viridian
Cerulean Blue
Ultramarine Blue
Ivory Black
Titanium white
Depending on which brands I think I calculated in the range of $150-300 for the paints!. If you are doing fairly large canvases (16x20, 18x24 and up) and using thick paint, doing several paintings a month, you will go through your paint about once or twice a year on average!. And there will be some colors you favor and may need to buy in greater quantities than others!. White in large tubes!. !. !. always!
Then you would need Gamsol or some odorless solvent to clean brushes and thin the paint, linseed oil, and of course!. !. !. brushes!. Brushes can be pricey, but online, again, you can find some good bargains!. They come in hog bristle, sable, synthetic, and a few combinations!. !. !. but I prefer synthetic!. Depends on how you handle your paint!. Brushes can cost anywhere from a couple bucks each to over $10-20 a brush !. !. !. and don't buy a bunch of little brushes (1-5's) if you plan to paint big!. I hover in the 8's, 10's, 12's and up for 11" x14 " and up canvas size!. I buy a good assortment of rounds, brights (short bristled flats) and flats (longer bristles), filberts (arched tipped flats)!. and one or two big brushes from Lowes (1 1/2" and 4-5")!. All-in-all you might be able to outfit yourself with some decent brushes for $50-75 !. !. !. I buy at least two of each size, as this helps you keep moving and you always have a clean brush!. Brushes wear out quickly if you paint a lot!. !. !. so I don't buy very expensive brushes!. the ultimate test for a brush is that bristles don't fall or pull out easily, and the ferrules (the metal band holding the bristles) is tight and secure!. Oil brushes ARE often different than acrylic brushes in that they are not mean to be cleaned with water, and the metal ferrules might rust if they are left wet !. !. !. but other than that, I would use any brush suitable for either medium!.
Canvas can be purchased online, but if you do , buy enough quantity that you spread out the shipping charges!. Many online stores give free shipping if you spend over a certain amount, usually around $200 !. !. !. which you could easily do in outfitting your studio for oils!. If you plan to hang your finished oils unframed, buy canvas at least 1 1/2 inches deep !. !. !. up to 3 inches!. !. !. !. and make sure you either paint the edges or keep them clean!. If you are going to frame, 3/4 inch deep canvases are fine!. Make sure they are well-wrapped and that the staples are all on the back side!. Very large canvases should have stabilizer bars across the center!. When you are ready to hang your canvas, d o not use sawtooth hangers!. !. !. brackets and wires will help you hang them straight more easily, is more professional, and is required if you enter shows or hang in a gallery!.
There will be incidental costs, like palettes, palette knives for mixing paints, and varnishes for when your paintings are dry and ready to be sealed and protected!.
I think I once calculated that I would need a gift card to Daniel Smith's for around $400-500 to just get started!. !. !. and I already have some brushes and canvas! If you are unsure, you can always start with a smaller selection of colors and paint smaller until you get the bug for oils!.
A-ha! The easel! Again, depending on the size of your intended canvases, how many you plan to produce, and how big your studio space is, you can get a decent easel for anywhere from $150 for basic, to over $1500 for fancy, double, or gi-normous! If you think you might want o paint outdoors (en plein air) a good solid French easel can also be used in the studio ($150-300)!. That is how I started out!. I now own more easels than I have rooms to put them in !. !. !.but that is just me!
Good luck and have fun shopping! Www@QuestionHome@Com
Join an artists group!. Oil paint is a great medium to use and some tuition is needed otherwise you're going to waste an awful lot of paint and canvasses!.
Oil painting is quite different from using acrylics (they're slower to dry)!. Acrylics are brighter in colour but tend to lose a lot of their brilliance when dry!. Oil paint on the other hand, being suspended in oil, retains its enamel like lustre!.
Talk to your friends or relatives, maybe some of them tried to use oil paints at one stage and gave up!. They might have some old tubes of paint that they would like to get rid of!.
Go to garage sales!. Quite often you'll see the results of 'abandoned oil painting', and are able to pick up lots of goodies to get you started!.
Nick
I only use acrylics for underpainting, but always finish in oils!.
Www@QuestionHome@Com
here's the supply list for the first oil painting class i ever took:
Palette knife
Palette scraper (if using plexiglass palette)
Plexiglass (optional)
1” brushes: flat, filbert, bright (2,4,6)
Paints: titanium white, cad red light/medium, cad yellow light/medium, pthalo blue, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson (red), burnt umber
Silicoil jar
OMS [odorless mineral spirits]
Galkyd [paint thinner]
Squirt bottle (or glass jar with lid; will be used for medium)
Rags or paper towels [to wipe away]
Disposable palette [pad of pallete paper]
12-15 small canvas boards, size of standard sheet of paper or less
6 pre-stretched canvases, larger size; one must be 18” x 24” or larger for self-portrait project
keep in mind------
there's no need to by secondary colors!! (orange, green, purple, etc!.!.!.) you can easily mix them yourself! also, it's better NOT to buy black, infact, buying a tube of black is completely unnecessary! you can also easily mix that with ultramarine blue and burnt umber, and it will produce a deeper, and realer looking black!. that's a big money saver!!
also, even though the list says to buy a plexiglass pallete and scraper, i found that i very much prefered palette paper because you can just tear off the palette when you're done and not worry about washing it! the good thing about plexiglass though, is that if you want to save the paint on your palette, you can just cover it with a bit of plastic wrap and it'll stay wet for several days!.
one more thing, about the canvases: i suggest getting a lot of small/medium sized canvas BOARDS to start out with!. they're much cheaper and best for practicing!. when you want to produce a nice piece to hang on your wall, go back to michael's or pearl paint, or whichever store you prefer, and buy a stretched canvas of whatever size you'd like!. this would save a lot of canvas and money!!
and also, one last tip!. before starting a painting, it always helps to dip a rag or paper towel in your OMS and mix it with some burnt umber on your palette, and then wipe the canvas with this to tone it!. it always helps to paint on a toned canvas rather than one that is white!
i hope this helped you! good luck!Www@QuestionHome@Com