Quick answer: A step-by-step oil painting tutorial follows a fixed order: tone the canvas, sketch the composition with thin paint, block in the darkest shapes, cover the canvas with middle values, add lights, then refine edges and finish with details and highlights. Work back to front in landscapes (sky, distance, middle ground, foreground), thin paint early and thicker paint later, and use big brushes until the final stage.
Reading about oil painting only goes so far. At some point you need a complete painting to follow from blank panel to finished piece. This step-by-step oil painting tutorial walks through one full project: a small lakeside landscape with clouds, distant hills, a tree line and reflections. Every stage explains not just what to do but why, so you can reuse the process on your own subjects.
The painting is designed for a 9 by 12 inch panel and can be completed in one long session (alla prima) or split across two or three sessions.
What You Will Need
| Category | Items |
|---|---|
| Paints | Titanium white, cadmium yellow light (or hue), yellow ochre, cadmium red light (or hue), alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna |
| Brushes | Bristle flat size 12, filberts sizes 4, 6 and 8, small round size 2, rigger |
| Surface | 9 by 12 inch primed canvas panel |
| Liquids | Odorless mineral spirits; linseed oil or a painting medium |
| Other | Palette, palette knife, paper towels, pencil, viewfinder (optional) |
If you would rather use water-mixable oils, everything below works the same way; thin with small amounts of water instead of mineral spirits in the early stages, and use water-mixable mediums later.
For more guided projects at different levels, our hub of painting tutorials covering techniques for every medium collects step-by-step lessons you can work through after this one.
Before You Paint: Planning the Composition
Five minutes of planning prevents most problems later.
- Horizon placement: put the horizon about one-third of the way up from the bottom for a sky-dominant painting, or one-third down from the top to emphasize water and land. Avoid the exact middle.
- Light direction: for this tutorial, the sun is low on the left, lighting the left sides of clouds and trees.
- Value plan: sky light, distant hills light-middle, tree line dark, water reflecting sky with darker tree reflections, foreground bank dark.
- Thumbnail: draw a 2 by 3 inch sketch with these values in pencil.
Oil Painting for Beginners, Step by Step
Step 1: Tone the canvas
Mix a small amount of burnt sienna with mineral spirits to a thin, watery consistency. Brush it over the entire panel, then wipe it back with a paper towel until it is an even light tan. This removes the glare of white, gives a warm undertone that shows through cool colors, and makes judging values easier.
Why: on white canvas, every color looks darker than it really is. A mid-tone ground gives you a neutral reference.
Step 2: Sketch the composition
With the small round and thinned ultramarine, draw the horizon line, the shape of the distant hills, the tree line, the shoreline and the main cloud masses. Keep lines light and loose. If you make a mistake, wipe it with a rag dampened in solvent.
Step 3: Mix your colors
Premix these piles on your palette before painting:
- Sky blue (top): white + ultramarine + tiny touch of alizarin
- Sky near horizon: white + touch of yellow ochre + touch of cadmium red
- Cloud light: white + touch of cadmium yellow light
- Cloud shadow: white + ultramarine + alizarin + touch of burnt sienna (gray-violet)
- Distant hills: white + ultramarine + touch of alizarin + touch of ochre (cool, light)
- Tree dark: ultramarine + burnt sienna + touch of cadmium yellow
- Tree light: cadmium yellow light + ultramarine + white + touch of ochre
Why: premixing keeps colors consistent and lets you focus on brushwork instead of color matching.
Step 4: Paint the sky
With the large flat, paint the upper sky blue across the top, working down. As you near the horizon, switch to the warmer, lighter horizon mix and blend the two where they meet with horizontal strokes. Skies are usually darkest and most saturated at the top and lighter and warmer near the horizon.
Step 5: Paint the clouds
This section works as a short how to paint clouds in oil tutorial on its own:
- Block in each cloud’s shadow shape with the gray-violet mix using a filbert. Shadows sit on the bottom and right sides, away from the sun.
- Add the lit tops and left sides with the cloud light mix, using thicker paint and dabbing, rounded strokes.
- Blend the boundary between light and shadow in places, but keep some crisp edges at the tops where clouds catch the most light.
- Soften the bottom edges into the sky with a clean, dry brush. Cloud bases often appear flatter and softer.
- Make clouds smaller, flatter and closer together as they approach the horizon to show perspective.
Step 6: Paint the distant hills
With a medium filbert and the cool, light hill mix, paint the far hills. Keep their color close to the sky and edges soft. A slightly darker band at the base where they meet the tree line adds a sense of separation.
Why: atmospheric perspective makes distant objects lighter, cooler and less detailed.
Step 7: Block in the tree line
Using the tree dark mix and a medium filbert, paint the tree line as a single irregular mass along the shore. Vary heights and add a few taller trees. Then dab tree light onto the left, sunlit sides of the tree tops. Keep the right sides dark.
Step 8: Paint the water
- With the large flat, paint the water using the sky colors in reverse: lighter near the far shore, slightly darker near the viewer. Use horizontal strokes.
- Paint the reflection of the tree line directly below the trees using a slightly darker, slightly duller version of the tree dark. Pull strokes vertically downward, then lightly drag a dry brush horizontally across them to suggest a calm water surface.
- Reflect the brightest cloud areas in the water as soft, slightly darker patches.
- Add a thin, light horizontal line along the far shoreline where water meets land. This shows the water’s edge clearly.
Reflections are always directly below the object, and they are usually slightly darker than lights and slightly lighter than darks.
Step 9: Paint the foreground bank
Mix a dark warm green (tree dark + burnt sienna) and paint the near shore along the bottom of the canvas with a filbert. Add grasses with upward flicks of a smaller brush. Add lighter yellow-green touches on the tops of a few clumps. The foreground should have the strongest contrast and most texture.
Step 10: Refine and add details
- With the rigger and paint thinned with a touch of medium, add a few tree trunks and branches visible through the tree line.
- Add horizontal light streaks on the water with a palette knife edge or small brush to suggest ripples.
- Strengthen the darkest darks in the foreground and the lightest lights in the clouds.
- Soften any edges in the distance that look too sharp.
Step 11: Step back and evaluate
Look at the painting from six feet away. Squint to check values. Ask: does the distance recede? Is there a clear focal area? Are there any distracting spots? Make small adjustments, then stop.
Oil Painting Techniques for Beginners Used in This Tutorial
| Technique | Where used | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Toned ground | Step 1 | Value reference, color harmony |
| Premixing | Step 3 | Consistency and speed |
| Wet-into-wet blending | Sky, clouds | Soft gradients |
| Atmospheric perspective | Hills, clouds | Depth |
| Dark-to-light | Trees, foreground | Clean lights over established darks |
| Vertical pull + horizontal drag | Water reflections | Calm reflective surface |
| Thick over thin | Clouds, highlights | Luminosity and texture |
Brush Handling Tips for This Project
How you hold and move the brush affects the result as much as color choice. A few habits make this landscape noticeably cleaner:
- Hold the brush farther back on the handle for skies and water. It loosens your strokes and prevents fussy marks.
- Use the flat side for broad areas and the edge or tip for thin lines like the shoreline and distant tree tops.
- Wipe, do not always rinse. Wiping the brush on a paper towel between similar colors keeps it from carrying excess solvent into your paint.
- Keep separate brushes for lights and darks once you reach the trees and foreground, so light mixtures stay clean.
- Lift at the end of each stroke for grasses and branches. The taper makes them look natural rather than blunt.
Practicing these motions on the edge of your palette paper or a scrap panel for a few minutes before you start is a simple warm-up that pays off throughout the session.
Splitting the Tutorial Into Sessions
If you prefer layered painting or have limited time:
- Session 1: steps 1 to 6 (tone, sketch, sky, clouds, hills). Let dry.
- Session 2: steps 7 to 9 (trees, water, foreground).
- Session 3: steps 10 and 11 (details and adjustments), plus optional glazing to warm the sky near the horizon or deepen the water.
Follow fat over lean: use mostly solvent in session one, little or no solvent with a touch of medium in session two, and slightly more medium in session three.
Water Mixable Oil Painting Tutorial Notes
Water-mixable oils follow the same process with a few adjustments:
- Tone the canvas with paint thinned with water instead of solvent.
- Avoid adding too much water, which can make paint chalky and weak; use water-mixable mediums for flow in later stages.
- Clean brushes with soap and water.
- Drying times are broadly similar to traditional oils once the water evaporates.
Troubleshooting
The sky looks streaky
Use a larger brush, more paint and long horizontal strokes, then gently blend with a clean dry brush.
Clouds look like cotton balls
Give them a flatter base, more varied shapes and clear light and shadow sides. Keep some edges soft and lost.
Hills look too close
Lighten them, cool them with more blue and white, and soften their edges.
Reflections look wrong
Reflections must be directly below the object and slightly darker or duller. Pull strokes straight down.
Muddy foreground
Let darks set a little before adding lights, or load more paint and place strokes once.
Where to Go Next
Once you have completed this landscape, try variations to build skill:
- The same scene at sunset with warm, saturated sky colors and dark silhouettes.
- A winter version with snow and blue-violet shadows.
- A night sky project; our space galaxy painting tutorial offers a fun change of pace for practicing blending and highlights.
- A simple still life of fruit and a mug under one light.
- A portrait study in burnt sienna and white to practice value.
FAQs
What is the easiest oil painting for beginners to follow step by step?
A simple landscape with a sky, distant hills and a tree line is a common starting point because it teaches blending, depth and basic shapes without complex drawing.
How long does a beginner oil painting tutorial take?
A small 9 by 12 inch landscape like this can take two to four hours in one session, or two to three shorter sessions if you let layers dry.
How do you paint clouds in oil?
Block in the shadow shapes with a gray-violet mix, add lit tops with thick warm white, blend in places while keeping some crisp edges, and soften the bottoms. Make clouds smaller and flatter near the horizon.
Can I follow this tutorial with water-mixable oils?
Yes. Thin with small amounts of water in early stages and use water-mixable mediums later. Cleanup is with soap and water.
What order should I paint a landscape in?
Generally back to front: sky, distant elements, middle ground, foreground, then details. This lets nearer objects overlap distant ones naturally.
Do I need to let oil paint dry between steps?
Not if you paint alla prima in one session. If you want separate layers, let each layer become touch dry before painting over it.
Next Step
This tutorial covers the full arc of an oil painting: toning, sketching, premixing, working back to front, blending, reflections and final refinements. Repeat it with different times of day or locations, and the process will become second nature.
For your next project, browse our collection of step-by-step painting tutorials for stunning artworks and pick a lesson that stretches a new skill.
