In this guide, find eleven easy oil painting ideas, with step-by-step tutorials on how to try them for yourself.

Lemons in blue, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 x 5/8 in. I’ve been reading “Oil Painting Essentials” by Gregg Kreutz, and one mantra from this book has lodged in my brain: “Make light the main event.” To me, this is a huge point. When I first started painting, I thought that paintings were like photos. In photos we usually focus on a subject, and we don’t necessarily think much about light and shadow (check out how many still life photos on Pixabay have no shadows!). My paintings were all about the…