This oil painting tutorial is the first of a three part series which looks at how a commissioned painting is developed from start to completion.
Oils painting is a very forgiving medium and with the development of low odour and quick dry mixing mediums is much more user-friendly to use than it used to be.
This tutorial covers the basic compositional ideas and the initial underpainting, with a tonal sketch created on the canvas.
When you're preparing the canvas for a detailed portrait in oils or acrylics, you want the surface to be smoother than a regular canvas texture. This video shows you simply and clearly how to go about it.