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Why rush a painting? Oil paints work slowly, allowing artists to take their time.

The beauty of working in oil paints is that time is on your side. A valuable tool in your collection of art supplies, oil paints dry slowly, allowing you to work the paint into the canvas for quite a while, almost molding the paint like a living form. Plus, after the paint has dried, more layers of paint can be added for intricate detail without disturbing the original paint. Oil paints are an ideal medium as they can easily be molded to adjust to your creativity.

Oil paint is thick, almost like butter, but it can easily be diluted to adjust to your specific considerations, even molded with other colors to form an ideal shade. Thinners can transfer the thick paint to a transparent wash, so thin you can almost see through it.

Traditionally, oil paint comes in tubes. But don’t skimp on the quality. It’s best to buy quality primary and secondary colors, mixing a variety of shades for even greater options. They’ll get you farther than a range of cheap paints, which will impede the color and quality of your work.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend a lot on the quality. Discounts are readily available on the Internet as supplies and demand fluctuate. A search through Google or a one-stop site that has all the selection under one roof will reveal discount prices on top quality art supplies; oil paints needn’t be bought off the shelf at full retail value.

Thinners work to dilute oil paint, and also serve to help clean up brushes and other painting materials. Turpentine is often traditionally used, maintaining the oily quality of the paint while adding texture to the painting.

Mediums can be used to dilute color, as well as increase gloss and transparency, while reducing drying time. Various forms of linseed oil are ideal and safer to use than more chemically based materials.

Stiff hog hair brushes are ideal for thick oil paints. Cheap brushes work just as well as the more expensive variety, although they don’t last as long. Softer brushes create a stroke free of texture, while harsher brushes add the texture of the brush to the painting, creating an almost breathing thickness.

Oil paints have their advantages, including time and versatility. They give the artist options, while also allowing the artist to scope the paint to better adjust to the creation, almost as if it were a living thing. Thick paint can be diluted, and colors can be blended according to your exact desires. The possibilities are as endless as your creativity.