Five tips for painting layers with oils

While there are many techniques of painting with oils, let’s talk about painting layers with oils. Most of my paintings follow layering technique of oil painting. This is a slow process of painting in comparison to other techniques but the results are worth the wait.

Tips for painting layers with oils:

There are many reasons for layering with oil paints. Here are some tips for painting layers with oils a smooth experience for you:

• Painting layers with oils allows you to keep refining your painting at each stage of layering. However, you should still aim for the best possible look at each layer to get the maximum benefit of layering.

• As the number of layers increase, the canvas gets covered with more paint. As a result, the painting looks richer. Hence, it’s a good idea to postpone the last finishing touches to the later layers.

• It’s easier to blend oil paints on canvas after you have applied one or two initial layers. Hence, you can opt to use a medium tone in the under layer; just fill in the tones in the under layer or blend slightly in under layer.

        Remember that, if you use a very dark layer underneath, it will show though in the next layer especially in case of transparent colours. Hence, choose the shades in your previous layer wisely even if you decide to blend in later layers.

• Painting layers with oils works in perfect combination with slow drying time of oil paints. You get enough time to paint each layer. Additionally, you can keep studying and improvising your painting with each layer of oil paint.

      If you are worried about a long waiting time between layers, consider using liquin. Liquin speeds up the drying process of oil paints while still giving you ample time to paint. Using liquin gives you that sweet spot in drying time that you are looking for.

You can view how I progressed with each layer while making the painting entitled “Fantasy of a Butterfly” of “The Butterfly Series“.

• Painting layers with oils gives you an added advantage of correcting your painting in case something went wrong in the previous layer. You are free to explore, correct and elevate your painting. However, remember that the best practice according to me is to be as planned as possible beforehand. If the vision of your painting is clear beforehand, there is less room for mistake.

    You should always be open to flexibility while painting but avoid some major mistakes that can take up additional time. There are times when you will just want to go with the flow without much previous planning and that’s absolutely fine too. Even at such times, the forgiving nature of layering with oil paints will come to your advantage.

Time to bring layering to oil paintings!

Now that you have above tips for your guidance, I encourage you to try layering while painting with oils. Remember that patience is your best friend while attempting this technique. Do you have any tip or painting layers with oils? Please do mention in the comments section.