Painting in oil course

Painting the Figure in Oil

Instructor: Jura Bedic


One piece of Canson white or off-white charcoal paper, or Mi-Teintes
Tracing paper to transfer drawing to canvas
Charcoal:  soft, medium,and hard (I prefer Nitram Charcoal)
kneaded rubber eraser and fan brush
Masking tape
One or two stretched canvases.  Oil primed or gesso calcium carbonate (NO ACRYLIC GESSO) size 40x90cm, 80 x 40cm. I always use Gesso n. 4, from Rigacci Art shop.
A small canvas.  Best is a scrap piece of canvas to tape to a drawing board.  Size 20x25 cm or 25x35cm for a quick one or two day figure colorstudy.
Wooden Palette – at least 30 cm, 12 inches
Cold pressed linseed, refined walnut , black oil
Rectified turpentine mineral spirits, odorless for cleaning brushes
Jar or something to cleanbrushes, rags (also for the imprimatura)
1 palette cup
1 medium size palette knife, you choose the shape; I suggest one thicker at the base and pointier at the top, a diamond shaped trowel about 1 3/4inches long and flexible

Brushes

All brushes should be fine hog bristle.

Flats, long        or        Filberts
At least two-#8            At least two-#6
At least two-#4            At leasttwo-#4
At least two-#3            At least two-#3
At least two-#2            At least two-#2
At least one-#1            At least one-#1

Most prefer filberts and use them more often than flats.  Ifyou do not have a preference, bring some of both.  “Signet” by Robert Simmons are good brushes, but are not available in Florence, where you can purchase other fine brushes.  “Winton” brushes with thegreen handle are at Rigacci, and “da Vinci” with the red handle are at Rigacci and Zecchi.  I do not use many rounds so they are not on the list, but a small one is sometimes helpful.  When you arein the middle of the painting you could easily use 10 brushes during each painting session (see below), so keep that in mind when deciding how many brushes to purchase. 

Typical brush usage: 

2...