Yea, I'm new to oil painting

I suppose I have to start somewhere, and it's usually best to start at the beginning.

I'm entirely new to oil, new to traditional painting altogether in fact.

I have however done a lot of digital art (both painting and 3D graphics) during my career, and loved it. Color and light absolutely fascinate me. I'm the kind of person who can spend hours staring at something shiny. I've also done a fair amount of drawing - nope, you can't see it. I don't enjoy it, never have, and it shows. But the good news is that both of these experiences together turned out to be pretty good prep for oil painting! 

Like many people who suddenly start creating really small oil paintings, I'd been following Carol Marine's blog on daily painting for a while. I've always been fascinated by her style. It's so efficient and full of confidence, and her compositions are really inventive! I read her book on daily painting and she sure made it sound easy peasy. At least that was my first impression. I re-read it later and discovered the bit where it took her 20 years to get to where she is now, but by then I'd already started painting...

 

It took a few hours of research on the internet to figure out what I'd need in terms of materials. There's a whole lot of different advice on what you need to start, so I decided to spend as little money as possible:

I drew the line at buying kids' paint, so I bought the cheapest student-grade oil paint I could find. It's still expensive! Red, yellow, blue, brown and white. I'd read about split primary palettes but I figured that was something to get into later on, as needed.

I got brushes and canvases from craft stores - 5 for $5, yes please!

The only other thing I bought was linseed oil as a medium. I steered clear of solvents so I wouldn't annoy my smell-sensitive family too much.

I repurposed a plastic tupperware lid as a palette.

Old jam jars for brush holders are traditional I think, so I went with that.

I built an "easel" from a kitchen table, with a small kids' play table balanced on top, then a shoe box, then a mini wooden A-frame from the craft section at Kmart. That was another $5 well spent. I stuck everything together with some blu-tack and congratulated myself on a job well done.

 

Total cost so far: about $100.

Professional look & feel: about 1 out of 10.

This is my oil painting setup. Calling it an "easel" would probably offend someone. In hindsight, putting it right next to the laundry rack was also a bad idea...

Here is my first batch of oil paintings:

Flower Studies (5x7")

This is my very first try. Ok, not the very first one, but it's the first one I'm going to show to anyone. I figured I'd enjoy painting flowers for their colors and fun shapes, but turns out they're really tricky to do! I don't have nearly enough control over my colors and values to make it work. On to something simpler...

 Cherry Studies (5x7")

I call this my first success. Turns out cherries make a good subject for beginners! They've got simple shapes, it's totally okay if they're a bit wonky, and they sure have pretty colors. I love color & light, and cherries have a fascinating balance between warm and cool reds. They live right on the edge between orange and purple, never straying too far either way.

Also some more flowers, with predictably messy results.

 

Mushroom A (4x4")

Next up I tried my hands at a mushroom. I'm not sure why. It turned out pretty messy and I wasn't really happy with it. Something something values, shapes, colors, not right, mumble...

Mushroom B (4x4") 

 

I decided to try again, certain that all it needed was some better values and better colors and better... art, I guess. It turned out pretty much like the first time. I guess my lesson here is "If you don't know why it's not working, don't try again and hope for the best"!