OIL Paint

If someone was starting out with oil paints, could you recommend a good basic selection of colours and say a little about your choices?

I get asked this question quite a bit. The easiest thing to do is to simply purchase one of my introductory sets, which contains the primaries and several other colours of great use: Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Lake, Scarlet Lake, Yellow Ochre Deep, Burnt Umber and Titanium White. I selected these specific colours because you can mix them to get almost any colour one desires.

If one is a serious portrait painter, I recommend acquiring Warm White, Genuine Naples Light, Rose Madder, Italian Green Umber, Burnt Umber and, of course, Genuine Chinese Vermilion. These colours are gorgeous, and the Genuine Chinese Vermilion mixed with Warm White and Genuine Naples Light make an incredibly beautiful flesh tone.

I invite artists to simply acquire colours their eyes are drawn towards since colour no doubt appeals to them. Logically these are colours which should work for them. I