painting figures with oils question...

You'll probably want to basecoat in acrylics if you're going to shade with oils - it provides a smoother, flatter surface and doesn't run the chance of melting when you shade like it would if you used enamels.

Your starter colors should be white, black, raw sienna, burnt umber, raw umber, naples yellow and yellow ochre for faces and plain red, yellow and blue for maixing uniform shading colors.

I'd recommend Winsor-Newton oils, they are the best you can get. The artist oil colors are best, but they run about $15 to $30 a tube, so if you're not a millionaire, their lower-priced Winton Oil Color will do fine.

Thanks for the information. Is there a compatability problem between oils and enamels?

Only that they're both thinnable with spirit-based solvents, and sometimes you will damage your enamel basecoat when you do your oil shading.

When I was using oils, I used burnt sienna and titanium white mixtures for all my flesh tones. A two color mix makes for very easy touch ups. I have to disagree with Hermes. Buy top end oils. They have much finer pigments. In our aplications, you want as fine a pigment as possible. They are an investment, but a tube will last ages, especially if you're fastidious about closing them carefully.

You can mix enamels and oils for custom colors. You can use the same hardware store thinner to thin the paint and to clean your brushes for both.

I'm curious, what brand acrylics have you been using?

I have used Gunze, Tamiya, Vallejo, Polly Scale, and Model Master in Acrylics. I actually prefer enamels such as Humbrol and Model Master for most of my work. I have a 1 gallon can of standard paint thinner to tend to my needs there for the next few years or so.

So basic absolute minimum for flesh tones are the two colors you named? 

I always highlight and shade in oils over an acrylic basecoat, and I use Burnt Sienna and Lamp Black mixes for the shades, and Cadmium Dark red and Yellow Naples Hue mixes for the highlights, these colours always give me a natural lookin' finish. These colours I usually apply over Vallejo 876 Brown Sand, I might add.

stikpusher wrote:

...I am gonna have a go at using oils...Any advice in this area would be much appreciated....

 There are several figure painting books on the market.  All of them list materials, tips, and techniques.  My advice would be to purchase a couple and read through them.