3 Things I wish I knew when I started oil painting

In this video I discuss some of the mistakes I made in my learning process with oil paints.

Materials
Titanium White
Cadmium Red Hue
Cadmium Lemon
French Ultramarine
Yellow Ochre
Cerulean blue

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" around Los Angeles.

Where to find me:

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[pizza]

I took up oil painting because you Chris, and you are the only one i want to learn from because you make oil painting fun, simple to understand, and cheap to get into and i like your style of painting, and so for the next few years your my only teacher

[Paul-kidg]

True, true, true. One thing that helped me is that drawing and painting is
"a likeness" like this, like that. Staying honest to what I maybe experiencing or what experience I may bring the viewer to is my goal. Technical skill and good draftmenship is important but at times may negate the honesty of a moment of time and place

[susanzendzian]

You are phenomenal! A wonderful artist (hard to do, there are many) AND a wonderful teacher (also hard to do, but there are very few). I wish you lived next door or across the street or something like that. Thank you, and keep working and posting!

[michaelmcewan]

Excellent tutorial again, massive help thank you

[brendadavies]

Thank you! You have just made sense of my journey in learning to draw and painting and now I feel more positive x

[t.j.]

Great tips and reminders to watch before a painting session, thank you.

[tipper_b]

Great advice, I got so much from this, thank you :)

[Smack]

If this is your first video...Keep watching! I have also learned more in one evening than in many hours of tutorials. Im also a self taught via online material artist. Im brand new, I thought I'd love watercolor but find mixing colors a mystery. I haven't touched oil due to considering it way out of my league. But with his quick informative and to the point instructions, Chris has inspired me to order my full set of basics which he provides links to everything. I was nervous about mixing color. Watch his mixing color videos from primaries, all of a sudden it clicked. Chris was right about finding someone you can learn from and that you should stick with them. Im super excited about painting again. He's super informative with out wasting a minute of your time! Thanks Chris!

[julienielsen]

I started learning from the books I bought from NorthLight Book Club back in the early 80s. I have a whole library. And Artist's magazine, and American Artist magazine.

[dorrisgonnawreckyou]

Had a big breakthrough moment in my plein air paintings (im new and rubbish) thanks to your videos on layering paint and the whole distance stuff. Massively helpfull, i follow so many youtubers but in just a couple days having watched about 20 of your videos i feel i have learnt more than the last 6 months. Many thanks!

[BabySquirrelBeading]

This was really helpful. Thank you. ✍️ Back to sketching.

[yovow]

Andrew Tischler would definitely agree with the first piece of advice!

[ZnHolEminD]

I have no idea what im doing when it comes to oil painting, but i am pursuing ...thanks for this video Coach.

[davidturner]

Question - Would you recommend using Geneva Oil paints that have mediums already mixed in? Dave

[rosiepenning]

Chris, do you host any oil painting Workshops? I live in Napa and am currently taking a weekly class from a local artist but I’d like to take additional workshops also when I can.

[gabimartens]

Hi Chris, I’d be really interested in seeing you test out different brands of oil paints and hearing your opinion on them. I’ve heard a lot of great things about Geneva oil paints by Mark Carder (YouTube Channel draw mix paint). Would you ever make a video trying them (and other brands)? I think people would really appreciate your opinion. Cheers, your channel is really great, keep up the good work and content :)

[post-westernart]

This channel will be a paint demo channel starting this week. I think your right about choosing one style and focusing on it. No so much style but technique I guess. Another thing I think people should do is actually use good quality paint. And then just draw and not even paint yet until they get good paint. The student grade paint is so awful. Also, I would try new surfaces. Ac more style canvases are terrible quality. Wood panels with boiled rabbit glue gesso are what masterpieces are made of and they are not expensive to make or buy

[dianehoweart]

I really enjoyed this, you came across as so honest and what you said was heartfelt. Thank you for this video. One question, when you do surround yourself with artists who are better than you and you look at their work and say to I still have so much to learn. How do you stop yourself from are so many artist out there who are so much better than me at landscapes, portraits or whatever, what is the point of me even trying? I don't think this often, but must admit I am sometimes guilty of thinking this way if I am having a bad week.

[marcusleonard]

Hey Chris I have a question. Okay so I've been consistently oil painting/mix media painting for about 6 years now. I started off drawing, im really good at it. I used to draw on my canvas 1st then would paint. That is until I took a painting class in College where my teacher taught me NOT to draw 1st (don't draw with pencil). He said I should draw with the brush or whatever it was. Well since then (5yrs ago) I rarely draw on the canvas 1st, I jump straight to painting. I want to go back to drawing 1st, but my brain in stuck on painting 1st. I get to impatient to draw 1st. I draw on paper but canvas is impossible. Chris how can I un-train my brain from teachings I don't like?
Thank you

[hgzmatt]

You talk about constantly jumping between artists and their styles/methods and that being a waste of time.. I don't think so. I think you have to go through a number of them to find one that resonates with you. It's inevitable in order to get to that stage where you can just do. Like understanding why they chose these materials so you know when it makes sense to use them or not.
Let's say you want your art to feel more traditional but you are working digitally.. you have to really try and learn traditional art to understand some of the process.
Art is incredibly difficult and you never stop learning.. I'm not sure if you can really streamline the learning process.
It's just consistency over a long period of time.