JustBeginning
Beginner's guide

So you're getting into oil painting

Oil painting has a five-hundred-year track record for a reason: the paint is blendable, forgiving, and produces depth no other medium can match. The learning curve is real — solvents, drying times, fat-over-lean rules — but none of it is complicated. Here's what to buy first and what to ignore.

By Colin B. · Published May 15, 2026 · Last reviewed May 15, 2026
woman in black and brown floral long sleeve shirt holding painting of man in blue denim

Photo by Subhkaran Singh on Unsplash

The 60-second version

If you only buy 3 things to start:

  1. Winsor & Newton Winton Oil Color Paint Set, 10 Tubes — The benchmark student-grade oil paint. Ten tubes, trusted brand, and enough range for your first year of mixing.
  2. Gamblin Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits, 32 oz — Gamblin's Gamsol is the safest solvent to start with — nearly odorless and far less toxic than traditional turpentine.
  3. Fredrix Artist Series Primed Canvas Panels, 8x10, 12-Pack — Canvas boards are the right surface for learning — cheap enough to paint freely, rigid enough without an easel.
Budget total
$80
Typical total
$150
Oil painting has a higher startup cost than acrylics — solvents and mediums add up. A functional starter kit (paint set, brushes, canvas boards, Gamsol, and a tabletop easel) runs $80-150. Spend less if you're unsure it'll stick; spend more on brushes if you know you're committed.
At a glance

Our top pick in each category

The fastest path through this guide — each best-starter pick by category. Scroll for the budget and upgrade alternatives.

CategoryTop pickPriceWhere to buy
PaintsWinsor & NewtonWinsor & Newton Winton Oil Color Paint Set, 10 Tubes$$ See on Amazon →
BrushesWinsor & NewtonWinsor & Newton Winton Long Handle Bristle Brush Set, 5-Pack$$ See on Amazon →
Canvases & SurfacesFredrixFredrix Artist Series Primed Canvas Panels, 8x10, 12-Pack$ See on Amazon →
Mediums & SolventsGamblinGamblin Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits, 32 oz$$ See on Amazon →
EaselMEEDENMEEDEN Table Top Easel, H-Frame$$ See on Amazon →
Before you buy anything

A few things worth knowing first

Start with student-grade paint, not professional. The pigment concentration is lower, but the difference is invisible to a beginner. Spend that money on canvas to paint more freely — you'll improve faster through volume than through marginally better paint.

Get Gamsol (odorless mineral spirits) before you get anything else. Traditional turpentine and cheap brush cleaner have fumes that are genuinely unpleasant — and potentially harmful over time. Gamblin Gamsol is the modern standard: nearly odorless, effective, and far safer. Do not skip the ventilation.

Learn the fat-over-lean rule before your second session. Each subsequent layer of oil paint should contain more oil (fat) than the layer beneath it (lean). Reversing the order causes top layers to dry faster than bottom layers, eventually cracking. It sounds technical. It is not hard. Look it up once, follow it forever.

The gear

What you actually need

three paint tubes near paint brushes

Photo by Andrian Valeanu on Unsplash

Paints

Student grade vs. artist grade is the first question everyone asks, and the honest answer is: don't buy artist grade yet. Student-grade paints have less pigment and more filler, but for your first year you won't be able to tell — you're still learning to mix and apply, not to detect subtle pigment quality. Buy a set rather than individual tubes. The reason: you don't yet know which colors you'll reach for constantly and which you'll ignore. A starter set lets you experiment freely, and you upgrade specific colors to artist grade when you run out and know you love them.

Paints — what's the difference?

A few common shapes, each making a different trade.

Student Grade

More filler, less pigment. The right choice for your first year — the gap from artist grade is invisible to beginners.

Price per tube
$3–8
Pigment load
Lower
Mix clarity
Good

Best for First year, learning to mix, experimenting freely

Tradeoff Colors slightly less vibrant; some hue replacements for expensive pigments

↓ See our pick
Artist Grade

High pigment concentration, single-pigment colors, excellent lightfastness.

Price per tube
$10–30+
Pigment load
High
Mix clarity
Excellent

Best for Painters with 6+ months of experience who want to see the difference

Tradeoff Expensive to experiment freely — hard to paint big or paint often at this price

↓ See our pick
Best starter
Winsor & Newton

Winsor & Newton Winton Oil Color Paint Set, 10 Tubes

$$

Winton is the benchmark student-grade oil paint — the set most art teachers recommend first, and for good reason. Consistent pigment, reliable colors, and a brand that's been making paint for nearly two centuries. The 10-tube, 21ml selection covers the whole spectrum without overwhelming you with choices. Titanium white goes fastest; buy an extra large tube separately.

Watch out for: Winton's Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow are hue replacements, not real cadmium. That's fine — cadmium pigments require extra safety precautions, and the hues are excellent alternatives for students.

See on Amazon →
Budget pick
ARTEZA

ARTEZA Oil Paint Set, 24 Colors

$

More colors at a lower price per tube than W&N Winton. The pigment quality is a step below Winton, but for learning color mixing and building brush confidence, it's entirely adequate. Good pick if you want a wider range from day one without the Winton price.

Watch out for: Some ARTEZA oil colors are more translucent than labeled. Check the opacity rating on each tube before deciding how to use them.

See on Amazon →
Upgrade pick
Gamblin

Gamblin 1980 Oil Color Exclusive Set

$$$

Gamblin's 1980 line sits between student and artist grade — high pigment load, no cheap fillers, priced for painters not ready for the full artist-grade jump. This Exclusive Set includes 8 colors in 37ml tubes plus a free cradled wood panel. Once you've been painting a few months and want noticeably cleaner mixes, this is the right step up.

Watch out for: Gamblin 1980 paints lean toward transparency in several colors — use them in glazes and layered passages, not as flat opaques.

See on Amazon →
Specialty pick
Winsor & Newton

Winsor & Newton Winton Oil Color, Titanium White 200ml

$

You will go through titanium white three times faster than any other color — it's in almost every mix. Whatever starter set you buy, pick up a large tube of white separately. This is not optional.

See on Amazon →
assorted paint brushes

Photo by Steve A Johnson on Unsplash

Brushes

Oil painting brushes come in two main types: hog bristle (stiff, natural, good for thick paint and visible texture) and synthetic filament (smoother, better for blending and fine detail). Beginners should start with a bristle set — oil paint is thick, and bristle brushes move it the way it wants to be moved. You'll want a few flat or filbert shapes in sizes 4, 6, and 8, plus a small round for details. Don't buy 20 brushes. Buy six.

Best starter
Winsor & Newton

Winsor & Newton Winton Long Handle Bristle Brush Set, 5-Pack

$$

A well-curated five-piece set covering the shapes most used in oil painting: a round, filbert, flat, bright, and fan. Good quality hog bristle that holds up to scrubbing and heavy paint loads. The step up from dollar-store brushes is immediately noticeable — these move paint intentionally, not randomly.

Watch out for: The fan brush in this set is more useful for blending than for painting — don't try to paint with it like a flat. The round, filbert, and flat are the ones you'll reach for constantly.

See on Amazon →
Budget pick
Royal & Langnickel

Royal & Langnickel Zip N' Close 12-Piece Brush Set

$

Under $15 for a full set of white bristle brushes in a reusable zip pouch. Not as well-made as W&N, but entirely adequate for learning — they move paint, they clean up, and losing one or ruining one through misuse doesn't sting. The right starter if you're not sure you'll stick with oil painting.

See on Amazon →
Upgrade pick
Princeton

Princeton Aspen Series 5-Piece Brush Set

$$

Synthetic filament brushes come into their own once you're doing blending and glazing work. The Princeton Aspen series is specifically designed for oil, gouache, and acrylic — softer than hog bristle, they spring back cleanly and are excellent for smooth transitions, fine detail, and applying oil mediums. Add a couple to your kit once you've been painting for a month or two.

See on Amazon →
A woman paints in an art studio.

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Canvases & Surfaces

For beginners, canvas boards (rigid, flat, inexpensive) are better than stretched canvas (softer, springy, more expensive). The rigid surface is easier to work on, won't flex under heavy paint, and doesn't require an easel — you can lean it against a stack of books. Canvas paper pads are even cheaper for practice, but the surface texture feels different from canvas and can create bad habits. Start with canvas boards at 8×10 or 9×12 — small enough to finish, large enough to paint with a real brush.

Best starter
Fredrix

Fredrix Artist Series Primed Canvas Panels, 8x10, 12-Pack

$

Fredrix has been making painting surfaces since 1868 and their canvas boards are the industry standard. Primed cotton duck, consistent texture across the pack, and cheap enough that you can paint freely without anxiety. Twelve boards means twelve paintings — more than enough to learn with. Buy two packs.

See on Amazon →
Budget pick
ARTEZA

ARTEZA Canvas Boards, 8x10, Pack of 14

$

Competitive price per panel, and close enough in quality to Fredrix for learning. The surface texture is slightly smoother, which some painters prefer. Good backup stock for studies and color experiments when you don't want to 'waste' a good board.

See on Amazon →
Upgrade pick
Fredrix

Fredrix PRO Series Archival Linen Canvas Board, 8x10

$$

Linen is what most serious oil painters eventually migrate to. It's smoother, more durable, and has a natural tooth that makes paint feel better to apply. The archival linen surface changes the experience of painting noticeably from cotton. Try one after you've painted 10-15 cotton boards and see if you prefer it.

Watch out for: Linen boards can show weave texture through thin paint layers. Apply a smooth coat of Gamsol-thinned paint in your underpainting to seal the surface before building up layers.

See on Amazon →
brown and white plastic containers on brown wooden table

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Mediums & Solvents

This is the category that trips up most oil painting beginners. You need exactly two things to start: a solvent (to thin paint and clean brushes) and optionally a drying medium (to speed up oil paint's notoriously slow drying time). Everything else — copal, Damar varnish, stand oil, poppy oil — is advanced territory you don't need to visit in your first year. Gamsol for the solvent. Liquin if you want faster layers. That's it.

Best starter
Gamblin

Gamblin Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits, 32 oz

$$

Gamsol is the safest, most widely recommended solvent for oil painting. Nearly odorless, low toxicity compared to traditional turpentine, and effective at both thinning paint and cleaning brushes. Gamblin specifically formulated it with painters' health in mind. This is the one — don't substitute cheap odorless turp or hardware-store mineral spirits, which are less refined and more fume-heavy.

Watch out for: Even Gamsol needs ventilation. An open window is enough for most home studios. Don't use it in an enclosed space.

See on Amazon →
Specialty pick
Winsor & Newton

Winsor & Newton Liquin Original Medium, 250ml

$$

Oil paint dries slowly — surface-dry in days, fully cured in weeks or months. Liquin Original is an alkyd medium that cuts that time dramatically: surface-dry in 12-24 hours, which lets you paint in layers without a multi-day wait. Once you're working in glazes or building textured passages, this becomes indispensable. For your first month, it's optional. After that, it's hard to paint without.

Watch out for: Liquin changes the paint's handling slightly — it makes paint somewhat more transparent and fluid. Don't add so much that your color becomes see-through.

See on Amazon →
Budget pick
Winsor & Newton

Winsor & Newton Cold-Pressed Linseed Oil, 75ml

$

Linseed oil is the original medium — the 'fat' in fat-over-lean. Adding a small amount to later paint layers increases flexibility, transparency, and sheen. It slows drying (the opposite of Liquin), so use it in final glazing layers, not underpaintings. A small bottle lasts a long time. Cold-pressed is paler and more stable than regular linseed oil.

Watch out for: More linseed oil = slower drying and more yellowing over decades. Use sparingly in earlier layers.

See on Amazon →
five assorted paintings on easels

Photo by Raychan on Unsplash

Easel

You don't strictly need an easel to start — canvas boards can lean against a wall or sit on a table tilted toward you. But the right easel posture (surface vertical, painting at eye level) genuinely improves how you work: you stop hunching, you step back to check your painting more naturally, and you can see the full canvas without moving. A tabletop easel is the starter move. A floor easel is the long-term piece.

Best starter
MEEDEN

MEEDEN Table Top Easel, H-Frame

$$

A solid beechwood H-frame tabletop easel that holds canvas up to 21 inches — plenty for beginner work. Adjustable height, sturdy enough not to wobble while you're painting, and compact enough to stow in a closet. The right first easel for anyone who doesn't have a dedicated studio space.

See on Amazon →
Upgrade pick
U.S. Art Supply

U.S. Art Supply Nantucket H-Frame Studio Easel

$$$

A proper standing floor easel changes how you paint — you step back, you paint with your whole arm, and your posture improves. The Nantucket adjusts to hold canvases up to 43 inches high and includes a storage drawer and shelf for supplies. The natural step up once you're painting regularly and want to work larger.

Watch out for: Floor easels take up real space. Measure your studio before you order.

See on Amazon →
Going deeper

Your first month of oil painting

Oil painting looks slow and intimidating from the outside. It isn't — but you do need to understand the material before it stops fighting you. Here's what your first four weeks actually look like, without the mythology.

Read the guide →
Save your money

What you don't need yet

Beginners get pressured to buy a lot of stuff that doesn't help them play better. Here's what we'd skip on day one.

  • Artist-grade paint from day one — You genuinely cannot tell the difference yet. Student grade is the right call for your first year. Spend the money on more canvas instead.
  • Expensive traditional solvents (turpentine, hardware-store mineral spirits) — Fumes are real and unnecessary. Gamblin Gamsol costs a few dollars more and you won't get a headache. There's no upside to cheap solvent.
  • Oil cups / dippers — The metal cups that clip to your palette for solvent and medium look professional. You don't need them. Small glass jars work fine and won't tip over.
  • A French easel — Beautiful, expensive, and heavy. Buy one when you're painting en plein air regularly. Not before.
  • Varnish — Oil paintings should cure for 6-12 months before varnishing. You won't need this for a long time.
  • Specialty mediums (copal, stand oil, Damar resin) — These are for specific advanced techniques. Ignore them entirely until you have a year of painting behind you and a reason to need them.
First week

Your first seven days

A short, real plan to get from gear-on-doorstep to actually playing.

  1. Order Gamsol — you can't safely start without it. · Buy
  2. Order a starter paint set and a 12-pack of canvas boards. · Buy
  3. Learn the fat-over-lean rule before your first session. It's a five-minute read that prevents your paintings from cracking. · Learn
  4. Do a monochromatic study first. Pick one color plus white and black, and paint a simple object entirely in that single hue. It teaches value (light vs. dark) without the confusion of color mixing. · Action
  5. Set up ventilation before you open the Gamsol. An open window is enough for most spaces. Take it seriously. · Action
  6. Make your first full painting in week one — a piece of fruit, a coffee mug, anything with simple shapes. It doesn't need to be good. It needs to be finished. · Action
FAQ

Common questions

How long does oil paint take to dry?

Surface-dry: 1-3 days for thin layers, up to a week for thick ones. Fully cured: weeks to months. Adding Liquin medium cuts surface dry time to 12-24 hours. Oils' slow drying is both the main frustration and main advantage — you can blend and rework for hours after putting down a stroke.

Do I need special ventilation for oil painting?

Yes, but not dramatically so. An open window is sufficient for most home studios when using Gamsol. Traditional turpentine requires much stronger ventilation — one reason we strongly recommend Gamsol instead. Never paint in a fully enclosed space with any solvent.

Can I use water to thin oil paint, like acrylics?

No. Oil paint and water do not mix — literally. You thin oil paint with solvents (Gamsol) or with oil mediums (linseed oil, Liquin). Adding water destabilizes the paint film. Water-mixable oil paints exist as a special product, but standard oil paint requires solvents.

What is fat over lean, and why does it matter?

Fat (oil-rich) paint dries more slowly and flexibly than lean (solvent-thinned) paint. If you put lean paint on top of fat, the bottom layer stays flexible while the top dries rigid — eventually the top cracks. Painting fat over lean means your earliest layers are lean (thinned with just solvent) and later layers contain progressively more oil. Simple rule: thin first, richer later.

Should I start with oils or acrylics?

Start with acrylics if you want faster feedback (they dry in minutes), easier cleanup (water), and lower startup cost. Start with oils if you want longer working time for blending, a more traditional painting experience, or you already know you're committed. Oils are not harder — just different. Many painters start with acrylics and move to oils.

Do I need to prime my canvas?

Most commercially prepared canvases and canvas boards come primed with gesso — ready to paint on. You only need to add your own gesso if you're painting on raw canvas or an unconventional surface. Don't add extra coats of gesso before your first painting unless you want a very smooth surface.

Going further

Where to next

Related hobbies

Browse by category

Authoritative sources

  • Will Kemp Art School — The clearest free resource for beginner oil painters on the internet. Start with his 'how to paint still life' series. Detailed, opinionated, and actually useful.
  • Evolve Artist Method (YouTube) — Mark Carder's structured approach to oil painting. Heavy on fundamentals — color mixing, value, form. Best for painters who like a methodical curriculum over free exploration.
  • Proko (YouTube) — Primarily a drawing channel, but drawing fundamentals directly improve oil painting. Proko's figure drawing and form lessons are some of the best free art education available.
  • Gamblin Artist Colors — Gamblin's website has some of the most practical technical information about oil painting materials available anywhere — fat over lean, solvents, mediums. Bookmark their 'Making Paintings' section.
  • r/learnart — Active community for beginner visual artists across all media. Good for feedback on early work and answers to 'is this normal?' questions. Search before asking — common questions are well-answered in the wiki.
  • The Artist's Handbook — Ralph Mayer — The definitive technical reference for painters. Dense and comprehensive — not a beginner read, but the book to have on the shelf when you hit a technical question none of the YouTube channels answer.
a woman is painting a picture on a canvas

Photo by Mieke Campbell on Unsplash

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