Easy, quick start into oil painting

Oil painting materials, an adjustable, stable easel, a 16x12 inch canvas, brushes, a rapid medium, a water-based metallic tempera base, and a simple mixing palette.

Explore using a Pinterest bird reference to inspire your oil painting. Create your own version by adjusting feet and lighting, and save a chosen photo on your phone or tablet.

Prepare a do-it-yourself palette: metallic primer, tempera, and two blobs of each color on cardboard. Create a vignette with darker edges outside the center, guiding the bird for oil painting.

Sketch the bird’s shape using a large flat brush and light orange, refine the organic form from rough strokes, and compare references to sharpen edges before the next color lesson.

Set base colors by laying flat orange for surface and left wing for later overpainting; mix red into orange to shape plumage tones using a painting stick to prevent smearing.

Mix brownish tones with red and black to render the feet and feathers, then use bold black contrasts to draw the eye to the feathers and eyes, creating harmony.

Master the blue atmosphere in oil painting by applying cool highlights at the bird's edge, building blue reflections from the sky, and balancing greens and yellows for harmonious contrast.

Apply a vignette to focus the eye, finish with a diagonal ultramarine frame that follows the movement using medium, and have fun with this big brush, personal style.

Share your oil paintings in the projects gallery to receive feedback, ask questions, and support each other; the instructor will select works and share them on Instagram @JulieBoehm_art.