The Most Important Part of an OIL PAINTING Is The Start and This Is How I Do It

MY BRUSH SET
Painting Books I Like
Materials I like

Water Mixable Oils

Water mixable mediums

Filming

Hi, I am the son of two artists and began painting in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia before I could walk. I was a rare combination of artist and athlete so I moved to Los Angeles in 2008 to play football for USC. I left the team my sophomore year to focus on painting and filmmaking, applying the same focus and discipline from my football career to my art. I primarily work in oils, and spend most free days painting "en plein air" in my new home of Sarasota Florida.
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[leebok]

Honestly Chris you are the only person I have followed so religiously in terms of learning how to oil paint. From watching your videos on YT I was able to improve but joining patreon was a GAME CHANGER!! Join his patreon because firstly he deserves the support but second it is such a valuable resource!! Thank you for all you do, you are so wonderful.

[smritipathak]

This is so helpful 👍 I enrolled
Into your Fundamentals of oil painting recently and so far I am enjoying it a lot! Thank you for simplifying oil painting for us beginners! You are awesome 😊🙏

[corelian]

This is one of the best painting channels on YouTube! Thank you Chris!

[geraldmiller]

I am glad to hear you echo what Ian Roberts and Malcolm Dewey and others have been saying about composing and building from the darks. I appreciate your Paint Talks and have picked up some very helpful tips even though I work in Acrylics, Thanks.

[Mimmimok]

When I see you painting everything looks so easy.

[danielgwillym]

I love all these videos, must have seen about 20 of them! This one is a really good one to help start out to painting, some really good concepts and help to understand what oil paining is all about.

[mailie]

Sometimes it's hard to explain a method in words, but you do it very clearly & it is easy to understand. Thank you.

[tatianaantoinette]

You have such a great, "KISS" - keep it simple - approach. Oil painting can be so complicated. I always appreciate your videos. Going to look at the brush application vid now.

[DannySabraArt]

The cutting out paper idea is really creative. Great info here Chris! I also think the more we plan ahead the easier the road will be.

[powderriverfarrier]

The man's explanations in his videos are unmatched.

[JaredCullum]

You’re so great at putting everything into words. Really enjoyed the demo and talk.

[kenneth]

All the secrets are right in front of us. Paint from life and keep eyes and ears open.

[eamonnleahy]

Best painting channel on YouTube by far. Great tips! Thank you

[lacymacdougall]

I already thought you were the best paint teacher but this video is the icing on the cake. Thanks!

[RatusMax]

Great info, I lived by it and got good within a year! Getting the big shapes down and making sure they follow the form of the scene/objects, will make that foundation structure. So that later when adding details you won't look back and say "wow this looks nothing like them." No amount of detail will fix it. You may be in an endless loop of denial trying to add more details to fix it. (I was there some time ago) Just move on to the next painting and really focus on the beginning portion of it.

For those of you who are new like me, don't think about the cup, fruits, person, etc. Think about random objects and how they are interacting with light. Everything has a base color that you want to chose slightly darker than the actual color. Do not think about what details make them what you know them as. Choose that to block in the shapes.

Look at 2:48 he saw the cup shadow and cup color. Then blocked in those two colors first. Then he started adding the brighter colors in there. When you are mixing the paint, moving dark to light, you will be able to get that dark/base color on the painting and mix paint to place the lighter color you need to place on there.

Mixing colors is different for everyone but should end up in the same place. For example the reflection of the the lime. He saw exactly what the color was and went for it. For myself, I would have probably added the reflection later after blocking in the green limes. Then mixed the color of the green with some of the brown orange and some yellow. (Over time I should get better at this and lower my times lol)

For me disassociating things at the beginning to just objects and shapes that light interacts with helps me get that beginning foundation of shape blocking down. I don't care who or what's in front of me. I am not thinking about capturing the details at the beginning, just the form of objects that light interacts with. Then just over the half way mark I add vague details that give the objects some identity. So I can add more shapes. Then at the 3/4ths mark I go into more details and start bringing the objects back to full familiarality/association.

That beginning part is crucial and will dictate if your likeness is on point or not. You'll be able to shape the big random shapes until you have the form/structure right. Then the details of what makes that person or thing them.

I tried running to the details after blowing passed the form and it always came out messed up. It was until I said to myself "are these vague shapes forming the thing in front of me?"

You'll see some artists just start in one small corner and blow it into high details and move on to a next portion of the painting and do the same. We are not ready to do that. That's something they built with years of experience. I personally hate seeing painting done that way. They paint in the eyes first in full final details, then move to the nose, then move to the mouth, then cheek. Nah, no thanks!



The only way I accept is DrawMixPaints way how he leaves out some areas to be painted later. There is a difference between what I just said in the previous paragraph and what he does.

[indee]

Planning out my paintis digitally layer by layer has been the most helpful thing

[annifanni]

I love how you make things so simple! You are a great teacher, Chris! I always look forward to hearing more tips from you 😁 love your paintings. Wish I could get to even 1/5 of your talent!

[laowaistudieschina]

The cut paper analogy is really helpful to me! Thanks for making this video!!

[kermit]

The painting came out so well! It looks realistic and at the same time very painterly.

[chelseamatic]

These oil painting videos are so helpful!! Thank you