Why are you using oil paints? The church is going to smell for weeks. I'm going to recommend a switch to acrylic paint. But since you asked---
Oil paint is full of oil. That means Yes, you do need to prime your surface extremely well, if you don't want oil seeping into the sheetrock or staining things you don't want stained. Also I assume you want the paint to actually stick to the sheetrock for a long time. So you must prime. I'd use Gesso.
The medium for oil paint is more oil. Linseed oil, or a medium like Liquin. You can use turpentine or mineral spirits to clean your brushes.
You don't ever put fixative over oil paint (or acrylic or watercolor either, for that matter). Fixative is for drawings. Oil paintings should be varnished when they are finally thoroughly dry (six months to a year). Varnishes for oil are available in art supply stores, as are mediums, thinners, and Gesso.
You should probably go to the library and check out a book of oil painting techniques before you attempt this.
As for painting fire, it's hard to advise, since I can't see your plan for the space. All I know is that in realistic painting, the flames won't look real unless they're the lightest value in the picture. Everything else has to go darker. If you're going for more stylized flames, you might be able to find some to look at on Google Images.A few questions about oil painting..fire techniques? Mediums?
When I do murals I usually use acrylics, however if your painting fire I believe oils are your best bet as they blend a lot better. I did a painting of a forest fire a couple of years ago for a forest ranger. For reference I took some photos of a campfire and painted what I saw. It worked pretty well. If you use Liquin as a painting medium (not too much of it) oils will dry much, much faster. When painting with oils you want the paint to be the consistency of warm butter. A finish coat of damar varnish will protect it, even out the colors and make them look better. And.....if you decide to use acrylics, make sure you wash your brushes frequently. If acrylic dries in your brushes you may as well kiss them good-bye. Good luck and enjoy the experience.
ok first off, you defnitely need to buy a huge can of gesso and apply it to the sheet rock. second, fire is really done with varying degree's of yellows and oranges. um an oil painting cna not be varnished until it is 6-12 months dry. and its a huge painting, so it wont need to be varnished. damnar varnish is a very bad varnish because its extremely toxic and strong and can't be thinned or removed. it also smells horribly and it darkens with age. mediums only need to be used if u wish to modify the paint. you defnitely DO NOT use a fixative on oils or acrylics, but its used for water colors to prevent disturbing the other layer.
oh yea, and i got a question. if you have never used oils before, why are you painting a holy wall in a church????
i mean you should have tons of experience in oil painting before even attempting a mural. if you are more experienced in another media such as acrylic, just use that.
murals, especcially in oils, are stuck on the wall forever!!!!
I would suggest you switch to acrylics, Oil need to be applied to something that is NOT absorbent. So you need to prime the wall with acrylic paint or gesso and sand it and reapply the gesso and sand it, etc several times. Or you could hang a large piece of canvas stretched tight and primeit with gesso.
If you have never worked it oils, they can cause you to pull you hair out. You overmix and you will get mud. And they can take weeks to dry and are not considered dry for up to 1 year or more. When they have dried they need to be varnished with an artist quality varnish (but not before 3 months of drying)
The lovely part of acrylics, brushes and tools can be wash with water (not turpentine) and the painting dries in 20-30 minutes. Don't like it, wait a minute and paint over it. I would suggest that you do a small trial run in both mediums and develope some techniques before you jump into the 8 foot job.
And you might consider doing it in sections. I frequently do a large painting but it is actually 8 different deep canvases when hung together they make one large picture, but they are easier to move because they may actually be 24 x 48 inches.
I have to agree with Helene on the acrylic paint. Although you can achieve very different styles with oils and acrylic. Oils take a really long time to dry and if ur not used to using them it can get tricky when doing touch ups if the paint is still wet. U can buy some kind of compound to mix with it that makes it dry faster... im not sure what it is tho. if ur insistent on using oils id suggest u go to an art store and ask about something like that.
Different makes of oils also have different properties. Sometimes one make wont mix very well with another. And some come out more transparent than others. So it would be advisable to prime ur surface first. It will also give u an even base coat so if u do end up with more transparent paint atleast one general under coat is there. Oh and u dont need to go out and buy a special primer from an art store, rather just use a universal undercoat from a hardware store. works just as well. (=
enjoy ur painting
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