11 Best Oil Painting Tutorials

Compiled from our favourite oil painting tutorials, pick and choose a guide to learn more. Alternatively, work your way through each article, to get an in-depth understanding of the medium and a thorough introduction to the world of oil painting.

 Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate painter or you just want to relearn some of the basics, there will be a tutorial to help you improve your skills.

1. Oil Painting Supplies

Before embarking on your oil painting journey, you’ll want to make sure you have all the essential supplies. This tutorial covers choosing the best paint, canvas, brushes, easels and other tools you’ll need to get started.

2. Oil painting techniques tutorial

In this oil painting tutorial, learn twelve oil painting techniques. From the more common, like blending and blocking-in, to the more obscure, like sgraffito. Some techniques are easy to master, but others require skill and practice. If you’ve ever wondered how to create an oil glaze, or how to paint ‘alla-prima’, then this is the tutorial for you.

3. Clean up after oil painting

The cleaning up process in oil painting is often something that puzzles and sometimes even puts beginners off learning the medium. 

Oil cannot be cleaned from materials with water alone. Luckily, you don’t need to get harsh solvents to wash oil paint from your brushes and other materials. Read our tutorial for an easy to follow, solvent-free cleaning method to keep your brushes in perfect condition and your space free from heady solvent fumes.