Winsor & Newton Artists' Oil Color is one of the most widely available brands and its oil paints, like its other paints, strikes a good balance between price (not quite faint-on-the-spot range) and quality. If you're on a tight budget, save money by selecting select your colors from the series 1 pigments in the range, otherwise pick 'n mix from the wide range of pigments including lead white for traditionalists (labeled Cremnitz White). (Note: W&N's student oil paint is branded Winton

Williamsburg Handmade Oil Colors offers one of the most extensive and unique lines of handmade oil paints in the world, including our famous Italian Earth Colors , Cadmiums and Cobalt colors .

Old Holland Classic Colours has more than three centuries of traditional experience in the manufacture of artists' paint, and during that period it has proved that nothing beats the quality of traditional recipes.The history of Old Holland Classic Colours goes back to the seventeenth century. The golden age of the Dutch masters. In this era, the training of painters was organised under the guild system. The painters' guilds were called Saint Lucas Guilds, after their patron saint Lucas. Traditional knowledge and skills in the area of the manufacture of paint were passed on from generation to generation in these guilds. In the guild, the master taught the mate and the apprentice. The apprentice learned to rub the pigments with the binders, the mate learned to mix the colours and make underpaintings. Once the mate was deemed to be skilled enough, he in turn became a master, started his own studio and gained standing. Around 1664, a Saint Lucas guild in The Hague started the preparations for the establishment of 'Pictura Brotherhood of Painters and its Academy for the Visual Arts of The Hague' (1682-1882). An association of master painters which organised art reviews and where artists drew from dressed models: the first academy. The correct manufacture of paints formed an important part of the education. The Pictura Brotherhood of Painters remained in existence until the nineteenth century.

Rembrandt Artists Oil Color is the choice of professionals because it is a name that stands for premium quality and reliable oil paint This is because only the finest raw materials and the most advanced production methods are used for each and every line of Rembrandt art supplies. The Rembrandt Oil color range includes 120 paint colors with an even balance across the color spectrum and a good assortment of opaque and transparent colors throughout the line. Rembrandt Oil paints. also includes a large number of specialty items that are not available with other artist oil paint lines such as: pearl white, real cadmium and cobalt colors, ultramarine green and extremely lightfast permanent yellows and reds. Artists also choose Rembrandt because of its exclusive combination of features like the unmatched brilliance, maximum color durability and the highest degree of Lightfastness.

In the 16th century, oil painting began to rise in prominence in Venice, one of the centers of the Renaissance. The oil paint proved to be essential for painters who wanted a water-durable medium. Arguably the greatest oil painting was born in Renaissance Italy--Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Traditional oil painting techniques often begin with the artist sketching the subject onto the canvas with charcoal or thinned paint. Oil paint is usually mixed with linseed oil, artist grade mineral spirits or other solvents to create a thinner, faster or slower drying paint. A basic rule of oil paint application is 'fat over lean.' This means that each additional layer of paint should contain more oil than the layer below to allow proper drying. If each additional layer contains less oil, the final painting will crack and peel. There are many other media that can be used in oil painting, including cold wax, resins, and varnishes. These additional media can aid the painter in adjusting the translucency of the paint, the sheen of the paint, the density or 'body' of the paint, and the ability of the paint to hold or conceal the brushstroke. These variables are closely related to the expressive capacity of oil paint.

Traditionally, paint was transferred to the painting surface using paint brushes, but there are other methods, including using palette knives and rags. Oil paint remains wet longer than many other types of artists' materials, enabling the artist to change the color, texture or form of the figure. At times, the painter might even remove an entire layer of paint and begin anew. This can be done with a rag and some turpentine for a certain time while the paint is wet, but after a while, the hardened layer must be scraped. Oil paint dries by oxidation, not evaporation, and is usually dry to the touch within a span of two weeks. It is generally dry enough to be varnished in six months to a year. Art conservators do not consider an oil painting completely dry until it is 60 to 80 years old.