8 Challenges For Intermediate Oil Painters

Every challenge will push your limits a further and help you grow as an artist. You will not only get better at the technical aspect and develop your manual skill but also on the artistic and observational aspect of painting.

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Challenge #1: One Brush Only Fan brushes, filbert brushes, liner brushes or background blender brushes – they all serve a purpose and let you create different effects.

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The Challenge

Paint a picture using only a single type of brush – everything from background to details. No knife allowed.

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What You Will Learn

With this challenge you will really get to know your brushes. You’ll learn how they behave when you load them differently with paint and what effects they are especially good for.

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Challenge #2: Knife Only

This time we are leaving all of our brushes out of the game. Knowing how to handle your painting knife is an invaluable skill every painter should master.

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The Challenge

Paint a picture using only your painting knife. Using a brush for the sky and/or water is allowed. Hard Mode: No brush allowed at all

What You Will Learn

Painting with only a knife will also challenge how you think about details and shapes: How do you paint a round bush with a square knife? This one is for you to find out.

Challenge #3: Paint In Black And White

This one takes us back to the Fifties, back before color TV was invented and everyone could only see (and paint) in black and white.

The Challenge

Paint a picture using only different black, white and grey. Hard mode: No different types of grey (like warm grey or cold grey) allowed.

What You Will Learn

Eliminating all colors from your palette forces you to focus on the value of the objects you paint.

Challenge #4: One Color Only

Let’s take the palette from Challenge #3 and add a single color of your choice to it. Painting in black and white is one thing, but how about a painting using only different types of green, blue or yellow?

The Challenge

Paint a picture using only black, white and a third color of your choice.

What You Will Learn

Just like with Challenge #3 this tasks puts a special emphasis on value.

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8 Challenges For Intermediate Oil Painters

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