Oil Painting for Beginners: What Do I Need for My First Attempt?

For oil painting as a beginner you need less than the shelves of an art supply shop suggest: five to seven colours, three or four bristle brushes, a primed painting surface, an odourless solvent, a simple medium, a palette and some rags. With this basic kit you can start right away and get to know the material without getting lost.

I am Farid Ismayilov, a freelance painter with around ten years of academic art training, and I teach painting and drawing in Cologne. In this post I explain what matters with each item – and where you can save money and where you shouldn't.

Oil painting for beginners: the basic kit at a glance

• Oil paints: titanium white, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, cadmium yellow light (or a hue), cadmium red light (or a hue), ultramarine blue, optionally ivory black
• Brushes: bristle brushes in flat and filbert shapes, roughly sizes 4, 8 and 12, plus a small round for details
• Surface: primed stretched canvas, canvas board or a primed panel in a manageable size
• Solvent: an odourless mineral spirit
• Medium: a ready-made painting medium or linseed oil
• Extras: palette, palette knife, a lidded jar for solvent, cotton rags or paper towels, pencil or charcoal for the underdrawing

Which oil paints do I need at the start?

A limited palette is not a compromise but a real learning method. With few colours you have to mix deliberately, and you understand faster how hue, value and saturation relate. Many classical painters worked with surprisingly few pigments.

Student grade or artist grade?

Student grade paints are cheaper, contain less pigment and often substitute pigments (labelled “hue”). Artist grade paints are more highly pigmented, cover better and mix more cleanly. Student grade is perfectly fine to begin with. My tip: buy white in a large tube – you will use far more of it than anything else.

Why ochre and sienna matter

Earth colours such as yellow ochre and burnt sienna are inexpensive, dry reliably and are ideal for underpainting, skin tones and warm shadows. If you could add only two colours to white, these two would be an excellent choice for practising values.

Brushes, palette knife and palette

Oil paint works best with bristle brushes or sturdy synthetics labelled for oils. They pick up the stiff paint well and leave a lively stroke. Soft brushes come later, for smooth transitions or glazes.

• Flat: for areas and crisp edges
• Filbert: the all-rounder, especially for portraits and soft forms
• Small round: for lines, eyes and highlights

A palette knife is almost more important than another brush: you mix more cleanly and protect your brushes. A sheet of glass with grey paper underneath, a wooden palette or a tear-off paper palette all work.

The right surface: canvas, board or panel

For first attempts I recommend small formats, roughly between 24 × 30 cm and 30 × 40 cm. You reach a finished result faster and keep your motivation.

• Stretched canvas: the classic feel, good for your first “real” paintings
• Canvas board: inexpensive, ideal for studies and colour exercises
• Primed panel (wood or MDF): smooth and firm, good for fine detail

Make sure the surface is primed for oils. Standard acrylic gesso is suitable. Raw cardboard or paper absorbs the oil and becomes brittle over time.

Solvents and mediums: safe and simple

You need solvent to thin the first layers and to clean brushes. Choose an explicitly odourless product rather than traditional turpentine. Odourless solvents still evaporate and should not be inhaled – no smell does not mean harmless.

Safety in the workspace

• Ventilate regularly and avoid painting in a small, closed room.
• Use a lidded jar and close it when you are not using it.
• Don't eat or drink at your painting table, and keep children and pets away.
• Oil-soaked rags can self-heat as they dry. Lay them out flat to dry or keep them in a closed metal container or under water before disposal.
• Never pour solvent down the drain. Let the pigment settle, reuse the clear solvent and take the rest to a hazardous waste collection point.

Many beginners paint without solvent altogether and clean brushes first with oil, then with soap. That is a good alternative if you are sensitive to fumes.

Mediums and the “fat over lean” rule

A medium makes paint more fluid, glossy or transparent. One ready-made medium or a little linseed oil is enough. The key rule of oil painting is fat over lean: lower layers contain less oil (“lean”, for example thinned with a little solvent), upper layers more oil. If you do it the other way round, lower layers dry more slowly than the top ones and the surface may crack later.

Roughly how much does it cost to start?

Prices change constantly and depend heavily on brand and shop, so I won't quote figures. As a rule of thumb, a basic student-grade set with a few tubes, a few brushes and some canvas boards costs much less than a large artist-grade box. Better to invest in a few good brushes and a large tube of white than in many colours you hardly use.

If you are unsure whether oil or acrylic suits you better, read my comparison Oil or acrylic for beginners. And if you are planning a course, my checklist on preparing for a painting course will help.

Typical beginner mistakes when buying materials

• Too many colours: big sets tempt you into garish, unmixed paintings.
• Brushes that are too small: you get lost in detail. Start big.
• Too much medium: the paint gets greasy and dries unevenly. A few drops are enough.
• Format too large: a big first painting takes long and frustrates quickly.

Frequently asked questions

How long does oil paint take to dry?

Depending on pigment, thickness, medium and room temperature, a thin layer is touch-dry after a few days; thick layers take much longer. Earth colours such as sienna dry fairly quickly, some whites and reds more slowly. An oil painting is only fully cured after many months.

Can I paint with oils in my flat?

Yes, if you ventilate well, use odourless solvent sparingly or not at all, and follow the safety rules for rags and disposal. Oil paint itself has only a faint smell.

Do I need an easel?

Not necessarily at first. A simple table easel helps, though, to keep the painting upright in front of you, so you judge proportions better than on a flat surface.

Can I learn oil painting online?

For a first insight I recorded the Udemy course Entdecke die Welt der Ölmalerei (in German). Direct feedback on your own painting, however, is best in a live course.

Conclusion: start small, choose deliberately

For your first attempt in oils you need a small, well-chosen kit, a safe solvent and the fat-over-lean rule. Everything else comes with practice. If you would rather not start alone, I'm happy to guide you in person: you will find my current painting courses and workshops under Courses and dates, where you learn materials, technique and composition right at the easel.