Oil paint 30 day Challenge

1/30 oil on canvas paper

I decided to give oil paint a try ( a real try this time) and after much deliberation and research decided to buy from Kama Pigments, a small batch company located in Montreal. I also decided that a 30 day challenge would give me the time and consistency to get a feel for my new medium. I will post my progress here, but also on my Facebook page and Instagram accounts. If you are on Instagram you can follow me and my hashtag #trefiakart so that you never miss my posts.

For my first oil painting I thought I'd recreate the moon from a previous painting I did. I had the same colours so I wanted to see how the oils behaved in comparison to the acrylics. All I can say is that they are completely different! Some of my observations while painting this were:

• No smell (I really thought there would be odor from the paint or Odorless Mineral Spirits)
• The paint goes a LOT farther (literally a dab of paint can do two or three small paintings)
• It blends differently. Acrylics don't blend well unless you use mediums (or fluid acrylics, I use heavy body). Oils blend almost too well.
• The paint is smooth and creamy. I love the feel of this paint and the vibrancy of colour. I'm glad I went with a high end professional product even though it cost me a lot of money.
  
• White behaves differently. When I paint with white acrylic it tends to brighten the other colours and I don't need much. With the oil it blends into the colour already there and kind of disappears or makes a new colour.
• This will take some time. I have to figure out how to make the oils work for me and the style I want to paint in. I can see why landscape artists use it - it blends like a dream. But, for me, I'm not sure yet.
  

Please follow my adventure with oils. They won't be masterpieces, don't expect that. This is a learning journey for me and hopefully by the end I will have a better grasp of how my new paint works and how it will work for me.