Oil Painting for Beginners: A Comprehensive Guide

If you are thinking of starting your own canvas, then presumably you are of an artistic bent of mind, with "finer" sensibilities. It would help if you had a basic background in drawing. This is important, as drawing is the base on which most fine art functions. It helps in making the hand steady, and gives symmetry and beauty to your work of art.

The first step to beginning an oil painting is to purchase a canvas, which is available at any art supply store. Make sure the size is not too big to start with: a half metre by half metre size should be good for your first project. Of course, this is entirely your own choice. If you are confident that your first attempt will be worth framing and putting up, go for a bigger size canvas. Canvases are available as mounted on wooden frames or are available on a flat stretched board. I would advise against buying canvas material and preparing the surface yourself, as this is a time-consuming exercise.

Also on the list of must-haves is a set of oil paints (available in tubes), brushes comprising mostly flat brushes: sizes 12, 8, 6; round brushes of sizes 1, 0, 00 and 000 (single, double and triple zero sizes). You will need linseed oil as the medium for your oil painting, and turpentine to clean your brushes. Keep a handy rag by your side, to wipe excess paint and oil spillages.

Place your canvas on a easel or a flat table. Take care to have some old newspaper at hand; oil painting can be a messy affair, especially for those who are new to the field. Start your drawing on the canvas with a normal pencil. Pencil marks do not rub out easily, so make sure that your lines are more or less perfect at the start. The subject of your drawing may be something abstract, original, or of a painting that you liked and would like to possess yourself.

The first thing to do before you begin actually painting is, to spread a colour pallete before yourself. Take a bit of white, blue, and the rest of the shades from your box. This way you will be able to use colours freely. Begin by squinting at the painting you are copying from. Try blocking out the main colours that you see, and fill in those colours with a free hand. At this point, do not worry about the finer aspects of the painting. After the first layer of colour, it is acceptable to leave the painting to dry out. If you still want to go ahead, then take care and continue. Each layer that you do of the painting will enhance it. As oil painting has a greater advantage over water colours in that you may take your own time over it, and do it over a period of time, plus, you can modify any mistake easily.

A great fact about art is that one need not worry about the "results" of your artistic endeavour. Painting brings out the creative side of you, so unless you are aiming at an extremely realistic painting, like a portrait or an animal close-up, then do not worry about what the world will have to say about your work. Try out different genres: still life, abstract, flowers, landscapes, etc. Over time, you will discover your confidence level rising and your paintings getting better and better. The main thing to possess is perseverance and patience. No one is born a great master. Even the Great Masters had to struggle over long periods of time to get to where they are placed today.

As your painting progresses, you will keep noticing new details, and this will add to the depth of your work. Keep the linseed usage as low as you can: as a rule, the use of linseed oil will increase as the lines keep getting finer. Do remember to wash your brushes well after use, or else they will become brittle and unusable.

It is not impossible to become a good, self-taught artist. Do try to take out time to develop this wonderful hobby. The rewards are immeasurable, and give pleasure beyond words.

This article is an original one. The contents have been garnered from various sources, online, books and real life experiences. In case the reader wishes to add any new dimension to this, I would welcome it. http://littlemissmuffet19641964.spaces.live.com/

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A Guide to Revamping Old Shoes

Like a lot of women, I love shoes and have a sizeable collection. As a single mother I rarely have the money to go out and buy a nice new pair of shoes, especially since a lot of the time I will only wear them once and put them away at the back of a cupboard. I decided to combine my love of crafting with my shoe obsession and came up with a way to revamp your old shoes for under ?20! Painting your shoes is a great hobby and it gives you beautiful, unique shoes that will be the envy of all your friends.

What you will need:

· An old pair of canvas or leather shoes (or a pair from a thrift shop or some super cheap ones, it doesn't matter if they look boring, as long as you like the shape of them. Fake leather also works well.)

· Nail polish remover and cotton wool balls

· A cheap set of acrylic paints, can be found in craft stores for ?10

· A bottle of clear acrylic varnish, also found in craft stores

· Paint brushes, if like me you are on a budget you can use make up brushes. Liquid eyeliner brushes are great for painting details.

· A fine tipped permanent marker to outline details (optional)

1. Make sure you are in a well ventilated area before you start. Lay down some old newspaper on your work surface before you start and make sure you wear old clothes as acrylic paint does not wash out.

2. Soak a cotton wool ball in nail varnish remover and begin to rub it all over the material of your shoe. This will clean off all dirt and also strip away the waxy protective layer. You may want to repeat this step a few times, it is very important that you get all of the top layers off so that the paint will stay. Make sure that you get in to all the creases, the shoe should look dull once the wax has been taken off.

3. Now it's time to decide what you want the base colour of your shoe to be, you could leave it the original colour, paint it a whole new colour or maybe even get adventurous with stripes or another pattern. Whatever you decide to do, you need to remember to use more than one coat of paint, this will ensure that there are no gaps or lighter areas where the paint has been spread thin. Make sure the paint is fully dried before starting the next step.

4. If you are good at drawing you can paint all sorts of designs and pictures on to your shoes, this is where a clean liquid eyeliner brush can come in handy. It can also be useful to carefully trace your design on to each shoe with a pencil first. It is important to look for where the most creases are on your shoes and avoid painting designs there, these are places where your shoe bends while you walk and designs painted there can easily be ruined. Be sure to let each layer of paint dry before starting a new one, you don't want to smudge your gorgeous new creations! You can use the fine tipped marker to outline any drawings, it's much easier than trying to paint a thin black line.

5. Once your artwork is finished and has had time to fully dry, you need to coat the shoe in clear varnish to stop any damage being done to the paint. Your new shoes will need two separate coats of varnish, usually leaving 24 hours in between each coat to give the layers a chance to dry. Once the second coat is dry, your new shoes will be ready to show off to the world!

The best part about this whole project is that once you have bought the paints and other items needed, you can use them over and over, producing up to ten newly spruced up shoes. Why not try experimenting? You can use glitter on your shoes before applying the varnish, you could use metallic paints, stick on jewels or even use a hot glue gun to apply small items such as fake flowers or other decorative pieces. Whatever you choose to do, painting your shoes in a fun, addictive hobby with the best reward - new shoes!

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