Your painting technique

[mtw]

I'd be interested in hearing your method of oil painting. I've noticed that my technical handling of the paint and brushes needs improving, so I'd be interested in knowing how others do it. I'm not really sure I even have a technique because I'm constantly trying something different when I wasn't happy with the previous method.

Should I cover a plane of an object with an average color first and then paint highlights and shadows over that, or is that not a good idea for wet on wet?

[Steph]

I paint with oils alot. Usualy oil paintings are thick and chunky and very textured, but i prefer to paint very smoothe.

I usualy use less pigment with alot of oil, thin it down till its very spreadable (if my english makes any sence!) and it becomes easy to blend in the colors very softly. So for shading or blending, i would paint a flat area of each color and go in with a clean dry brush to blend in between. i try to not overlap color (when its still wet) because it makes the new color on my brush dirty, well its all about experimenting i guess anything goes if it looks pretty!

Also is interesting to try different degrees of thickness for different textures, but in my experience i do best when its more liquid.

[Main Loop]

ive found that the lighter the touch, the more interesting variety of textures and edges you can make without much blending like how steph does it..