Beginning oil painting/hesitating about materials and books

[Candra H]

Yes, but you, uh, "borrowed" the paint.

Damn. I knew I shouldnt have mentioned that...

Well, in the end, cheap materials are like cheap appliances. You get what you pay for and by your own admission, if I read your post correctly, you have not
worked with enough decent materials yet to see what a difference they actually make. Not a dig at you btw.

Not really, Black Spot already said it - you can learn about painting just as easily with cheap material as with expensive. All I'm saying is that the op doesn't have to panic about getting lists of expensive equipment. Pick up some cheap affordable materials and have fun. It's like that other thread where people were talking about fancy sketchbooks versus cheap ones. Why not learn cheap and progress to the more expensive stuff when you feel you're ready. If I can figure that out, maybe the op can too.

Well I have to admit I have nothing exactly useful to contribute to this except BOXED WITH A CANVAS SETS ARE THE DEVIL.

Those put me off for acrylics for a looong time because they were so horrible (no offense to my friend who gave me that box as a gift, she had no way of knowing) and similar thing happened with oils, since I bought a super-cheap-with-lots-of-colours box set of them and ugggggh (and I was also young, I didn't even realize there were different qualities of paints and thought like "is this it, what") neither of them even blended properly.

Now you mention it, that sounds like an experience I had with acrylic paints. No canvas thrown in, which I'm kind of disappointed about now, but when I first started using them, I bought one of those beginner sets of system 3 acrylics and didn't realise there was better stuff out there for the longest time.

Trying to get them to blend was like getting blood out of a stone.

[Star Eater]

Not really, Black Spot already said it - you can learn about painting just as easily with cheap material as with expensive. All I'm saying is that the op doesn't have to panic about getting lists of expensive equipment. Pick up some cheap affordable materials and have fun. It's like that other thread where people were talking about fancy sketchbooks versus cheap ones. Why not learn cheap and progress to the more expensive stuff when you feel you're ready. If I can figure that out, maybe the op can too.

Yes really, as stated cheap materials are low quality.You are missing the point as has been stated several times in this thread. I will not encourage
beginning painters to paint with inferior paints. You will not be learning about proper application as you are depriving yourself from using real paints.
Argue all you want (though I don't know why) but cheap paints are detrimental to learning about using oils.

You cannot compare getting proper oil painting equipment to getting a sketchbook. That's apples and oranges. Sketching with a pencil is just
that, sketching. Painting with oils is something else altogether. Hence why you cant paint with oils in a sketchbook.

[Elwell]

Now you mention it, that sounds like an experience I had with acrylic paints. No canvas thrown in, which I'm kind of disappointed about now, but when I first started using them, I bought one of those beginner sets of system 3 acrylics and didn't realise there was better stuff out there for the longest time.

Trying to get them to blend was like getting blood out of a stone.

And wouldn't you have appreciated it if somebody had told you that your problems were from your materials, and not you? Honestly, you seem to be having an imaginary argument that has little to do with what people have actually said in this thread.

[Black Spot]

I'm sorry I put a spanner in the works. I did have to get more white as any boxed set will never have enough. While it wasn't easy stuff to paint with, it was quite fun working out how to get to look like how I wanted (I'm a bit cussed like that) and it was the first painting I'd done in 30 years.

Bit like my husband can make an out of key piano sound okay.

[Chris Bennett]

I bought one of those beginner sets of system 3 acrylics and didn't realise there was better stuff out there for the longest time.

Trying to get them to blend was like getting blood out of a stone.

That wasn't a problem with the cheaper quality (that is; less pigment, more binder), but the nature of water-based paints.
This picture I know to have been painted using system 3 acrylics - It's by fellow ROI member John Sprakes and it's the only paint I ever see surrounding his palette (a crappy bit of any old card found lying around) in the studio



My view regarding cheaper materials:
A fine athelete would run damn fast in cheap trainers, but the best spikes in the buisness may be the difference between first and second.
Having said that, Turner could use his spit, a finger and dirt applied to the back of an envelope to produce a fragment of heaven.

[dpaint]

Buy the best materials and equipment you can afford. I would eat top ramen for a couple of months after I ordered art supplies, when I was starting out. Its a matter of priorities, I didn't have tv or cable but I bought good paints and equipment back then and I was living on my own supporting myself. I still use Winsor and never buy Old Holland or Williamsburg paint because I can't afford it (it would cut into my wine budget).

[Deadlyhazard]

To add...oil painting brushes are not very expensive. I recommend the Robert Simmons "Signet" line - in flats - get two of each of these sizes: #2, #4 #6 and maybe one #8.

You just brought back a bad memory out of nowhere. I remember earlier this year, I saw your suggestion to get that line of brushes. So...I went out to go get some since all my brushes deteriorated from bad use. I walked in the store and asked the guy at the front if he had some "Richard Simmons" signet series brushes. He came back with a really fucking fuzzy messed up brush and it took awhile to sink in what I had said and what he just did. FML

[Candra H]

It wasn't important.

[Arshes Nei]

I have a Cotman set too but it's not the field set that dpaint has.

Just to throw something in the mix for paints. Oil paints you want the best grade possible. Cheaper grades also mess with color mixing which can be a big nightmare.

Watercolors it can depend. Frazetta was using Mickey Mouse paints. I find water more important. However for some colors where you don't want it so "jewel" like you do want to get better pigments. What matters most in watercolor is paper.

Also I feel people on the getting gift boxes of art supplies. Too often I have well meaning relatives or people who know I draw give me the stuff and I want to scream. I can...deal with Reeves watercolors and some of these cheap ass watercolor paints, but maaaan, please just give me a gift certificate to the art store (that isn't Jo Anne's or Micheals) instead of getting those sets....please

no more mannikins either!

Nothing will beat tiny colored pencils! (I have these but in a black case)
http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg/...ils%20crop.jpg


http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/Watercolors-Set


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg