---
title: Oil Painting
description: Oil painting is the medium of the old masters. You will learn materials and safety, colour mixing, fat-over-lean layering, alla prima and glazing, and study from the classical tradition.
category: arts-design
subcategory: painting
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/oil-painting
---

# Oil Painting

Oil painting is the medium of the old masters. You will learn materials and safety, colour mixing, fat-over-lean layering, alla prima and glazing, and study from the classical tradition.

## Available Resources

3 Books • 1 Websites • 1 Papers

## Papers

### 1. National Gallery Technical Bulletin (free archive)

**Author:** National Gallery Scientific and Conservation Departments

The National Gallery London's journal of scientific examination of paintings, published since 1977. The archive offers free PDFs analysing grounds, pigments, layer structure and working methods of painters such as Titian, Rembrandt and Van Eyck. It shows through cross-sections and pigment analysis how the old masters actually built their paintings.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/research/publications/technical-bulletin

**Tags:** technical art history, pigment analysis, painting conservation, old masters, oil painting materials

## Books

### 1. Traditional Oil Painting: Advanced Techniques and Concepts from the Renaissance to the Present

**Author:** Virgil Elliott

Virgil Elliott's account of indirect oil painting methods, from the Flemish and Venetian traditions to modern practice. It covers grounds, imprimatura, underpainting, glazing and scumbling, fat-over-lean layering, mediums, pigment properties and archival permanence.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0823030660?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** indirect painting, glazing, underpainting, painting mediums, old master techniques, archival permanence

### 2. Alla Prima II: Everything I Know About Painting – And More

**Author:** Richard Schmid

Richard Schmid's treatise on direct, wet-into-wet oil painting. It covers palette setup, colour mixing and colour charts, values, edges, and painting from life across still life, landscape and portrait, with many demonstrations.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/096621174X?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** alla prima, color mixing, values and edges, painting from life, oil painting technique

### 3. The Science and Practice of Oil Painting

**Author:** Harold Speed

Harold Speed's 1920s manual on oil painting practice, covering tone, colour, brushwork, mediums and grounds, with analyses of old-master methods. The full 1926 Chapman and Hall edition is free to read and download at the Internet Archive.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://archive.org/details/sciencepracticeo0000haro

**Tags:** oil painting technique, tone and value, color theory, brushwork, old master methods

## Websites

### 1. Studio Safety Guide: Create Without Compromise

**Author:** Robert Gamblin

Gamblin's practical guide to a safe oil painting studio. It covers solvent choice and aromatic content, ventilation rates, pigment toxicity (cadmium, cobalt, lead white), solvent-free painting, and preventing spontaneous combustion of oily rags. The manufacturer mentions its own products (Gamsol), but the guidance applies to any brand.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://gamblincolors.com/studio-safety/studio-safety-create-without-compromise/

**Tags:** studio safety, solvents, ventilation, pigment toxicity, oil painting materials

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