The Oil Paint Website

Basic Oil Paint Colours

The basic oil paint colours are the most useful oil paint colours. Professional oil paint artists usually only use the basic oil paint colours which they mix together to create more innovative sets of oil paint colours. Mixing basic oil paint colours to create totally new shades is an art that is mastered by experienced oil paint artists. Sure, anyone can mix basic oil paint colours to create other oil paint colours but to create the right shades of oil paint colours from basic oil paint colours requires skills.

Few basic oil paint colours are needed

Some oil paint artists only use five basic oil paint colours to do the whole oil painting. Some masters of oil painting use only three basic oil paint colours. The basic oil paint colours that are almost always present and used are white oil paint and black oil paint.

Some basic oil paint colours

The picture below shows some basic oil paint colors. Oil paint colors such as white and black are often added and mixed with the basic oil paint colors to create shades of them.

The basic oil paint colours here are: Lemon yellow, Cadmium yellow, Cadmium red, Alizarin crimson, Ultramarine, Cobalt blue, Viridian, Sap green, Yellow ocher, Burnt sienna, Raw umber, and Ivory black. These are just some basic oil paint colours. Artists often define their own basic oil paint colours.