Tips For Designing Good-looking Oil-painted Handmade Birthday Cards

By Author: Mark Adams
Total Articles: 7
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In present times, oil painting is one of the most fashionable choices of expression by artists throughout the world, for the reason that it offers wonderful diversity and technique, strong depth of color vitality and permanence that makes it possible for a painting to endure for thousands of years.
It is too, one of the most forgiving mediums - the paint can be easily manipulated onto the canvas or Birthday Cards and if you make an error, you can always wipe the colour off the canvas (with a cloth dipped in turpentine), due to the length of the drying time.

To start painting your birthday cards in oil-paints, you ar required to have three simple things - some decent novices' equipment; a theme to paint; and a basic technique...

Choosing a Palette of Colours:
The main routine is to preserve a broad palette of about twelve colours and add to it for particular necessities. As soon as you have completed the first palette, the subsequent step is to get appropriate paint-brushes and surfaces.

What Paint brushes?
...
... Thin hog brushes contain anti-corrosion components. The genuine curve of the brush is used to retain the shape and situation of the exceptionally detailed painting. Nearly all novices need 4 brushes to start painting in oils. Below is a succinct description of how you could use some of the different brush types:

Large or Medium sized FLAT brush, No.s 6, 10 or 12 - Used for large areas of colour. The tip can also be used for thin narrow lines. Also used for blending and manipulating the colour around the canvas.

Medium sized ROUND brush, No. 6 - Used for broad areas of colour. Also good for scumbling and dabbing on small patches of colour.
Small sized ROUND brush No. 2 - For Fine Detail and hi-lighting.
Which Surface?

These days, birthday cards are created on a number of surfaces, from fabric to blank cards. Oil paints are no different, whereby they can be applied to several surfaces before being applied to the birthday cards.

Paper/Card - Oil colour paper and card has a traditional canvas textured surface, which is specifically designed for use with oils and acrylics. With a specially formulated primer applied during the sizing process, it has the right degree of absorbency for oil application.

Canvas - Stretched canvas has been the most common support for oils since the 17th century. The weave of the cloth combined with the spring of the stretched material are the features that maintain its popularity.

Canvas Board - Canvas boards have traditionally been used for sketching outdoors. Boards take up less room and are less easily damaged than stretched canvases.

Other Surfaces - Frequently artists in the UK enjoy to use different surfaces as opposed to canvases and papers. Oil can be applied to MDF, wooden furniture and panels, glass, hardboard, walls and plaster. When painting on an alternative surface it is important to ensure the surface is prepared properly. Clearly some of these surfaces are impractical for forming birthday cards, however a lot of of them are able to be painted onto before being merged to the face of a blank card in order to enhance your creations and maybe even provide a 3-D effect.

Look out for supplementary articles submitted by this writer about oil painting handmade birthday cards in the UK, more specifically, how to choose a theme and procedures for oil painting. Or why not contact the author through the shopping site www.cardy.co.uk.