Oil paintings come in all shapes and sizes, and may be based on a variety of themes to appeal to all tastes. They may be painted on different types of material, such as canvas or cardboard. Original classic oil paintings are among the most valuable works of art that exist; some are valued at millions of dollars. While a number of valuable oil paintings are displayed in museums, private collectors who buy art for their personal enjoyment or as an investment also own some.

The ensuing discussion provides top 7 techniques of Oil Painting. Lets look.

Creating Fundamental Structure. All the forms in an Oil Painting are created from the basic five shapes viz., Sphere, Cone, Cylinder, Cube, and the doughnut shaped Torus.

Color Blending. The gradual transition from one color of Oil Paint to another is called Blending. As Oil Paints, take time to dry, the wet Oil Paints easily move around on the Canvas. This easy movement of wet Oil Paints on the Canvas, makes the Blending easy. The Paint Brush is dragged back and forth between the colors until the suitable Blend is achieved.

Matching colors. The artist handles colors with the help of a Color Wheel. The Color Wheel, an essential tool for matching colors, is a Circle, sporting basic 7 rainbow colors. It is arranged with Yellow, the lightest value color, on the top, and with Violet, the darkest value color, at the bottom. The band of colors on a Color Wheel are divided into Warm Colors such as, Yellow-Orange, Orange, Red-Orange, Red, and Red-Violet, and Cool Colors such as, Yellow-Green, Green, Blue-Green, Blue, and Blue-Violet.

Contrast. The correlation between the lightest light and the darkest dark shades in an Oil Painting is called Contrast. The representation of Color Value from Black to White is called Value Scale. The distances between the values on the Value Scale decide the levels of Contrast.

Texture. This is another significant factor in Oil Painting. It is clearly seen at the transition of light to the shadow. The sharpness of the focus on a picture decides the smoothness of the object. The same object would have a better texture in direct light than in a shade.

Glaze and Wash. The Transparent Layers in Oil Painting are called Glaze. Glaze is a thin, see-through color, used over another dry color to create a third color. Glaze always darkens a color. Translucent Layers in Oil Painting are called Wash. Wash is a thin opaque color, used over another dry color.

Shadow. Shadows are of three types, Shadow, Cast Shadow, and Proximity Shadow. The dark shade an object creates is called its Shadow. Cast Shadow is the absence of light caused by the object in its environment. It is easily identified, as it is always the darkest and is mostly focused near the source. Proximity Shadow is the Dark Shadow formed when the objects touch each other. This is considered the darkest part of an Oil Painting.

Oil painting as a painting medium, the usage of oil in combination with other pigments counts back to 1400. Prior to oil painting, painting in general dates its history back to the period of stone age, painting in that era was made with the usage of binders unlike oil painting mixed with some kind of pigments like egg in tempera paints.

The fifteenth century was seen as a transitional period in Europe, there was some sort of reality visualized in art. Art was changing from the decorative style and mythological during a middle age to a period of revival and rebirth with the beginning of renaissance. There was a realization among the artists, they were beginning to understand the mathematical laws behind the outlook and there was a scenario prevailing where the artist were interested in portraying more sincere and portrays that were more realistic in nature. They had initiated the usage of nature as a source of inspiration for their paintings.

Jan Van Eyck (1395-1441), a painter of the northern renaissance wanted to mimic nature and its scenic beauty along with his painting brush on the board. He wanted to paint every tiniest detail on his board to portray his paintings to be more scenic and livelier. Finally he realized that if he had to portray every tiny detail of painting to his fullest satisfaction, he had to improve on the technique of painting. Thus with this zeal to portray tiny detail of nature with clarity he became the inventor of oil painting. Initially Van Eyck and all painters during the period of renaissance did not buy ready made colors. They grounded their pigment from natural sources like plants and minerals and in turn they added binder to form a paste with which they could paint. During the middle ages the binder which was used was egg and the end- product thus formed was tempera paint, this had the tendency to dry very quickly. This property of quick drying agent did not permit smooth transitions in shading. But smooth transitions were necessary to achieve as sense of reality which Van Eyck was attempting to portray. Thus he initiated the usage of oil instead of egg. The work with oil as a binder was much slower and accurate to the satisfaction levels. An oil binder permits to provide a glossier look. With this technique he was able to apply tiny detailing with the help of pointed brushes. Later the new technique of oil painting was appreciated and there was a general acceptance of oil painting to be used as a widely used suitable medium of painting. There are many other mediums of oil paintings available but we still adhere to the usage of oil painting invented by Van Eyck.