Hello, this is my third post on steemit :D sorry this post doesn't contain any art or yaoi post, just normal tutorial. I have been looking to make a post about this too for a long time, since there is so little source I can get about this anywhere. Any feedback and critics will help this post to be more informative to whoever reading :) feel free to comment :)

This post will be bilingual : English and Indonesia. Indonesian/Bahasa language post will be up after English post.

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Step 1

To prepare your paper for oil painting, you need to first prepare a few things :D

1. clipping board
2. paper, not less than 200gsm. More than 200gsm is better. Watercolor paper is good but not necessary.
   I have tried paper less than 150gsm, after gesso applied it still work great but it also will be extremely wavy.
3. paper tapes.
4. gesso, pictured in big bottle, white colored.
5. brush and cutter
6. Oil paint
7. oil medium. I'm using linseed oil.

Step 2

You need to glue your paper to clipping boar using paper tapes. Since some paper tapes have strong adhesive, it might pull your paper and ended up torn it or scratches it. So you need to reduce the adhesive by gluing it to any fabric and then releasing it before you're using it to glue the paper.

the result will look like this

Step 3

Apply gesso evenly on paper. Make sure no spot is uncovered by gesso. Wait for 10 minutes to dry.

Step 4

After gesso dried we can prepare to apply a thin oil paint on the surface.

Just mixed medium with oil paint and spread it evenly to tone the paper. Why toned base is needed for painting? It is because the base will be used as a measure to make the painting have correct value. If we do painting on white paper,usually there will be places that are not covered by paint because that place is the highlights. It may made the painting break sometimes later. It also provides base value to work on. Some painting that are not based will either looked too white or too dark. Some artist also "carve" their painting from the base and start building up the value step by step. Some artist also heavily toned their paper into dark grey or burnt umber,or skin color depending on their needs.

I'm applying it lightly because I'm just stingy ahaha, as long as the paper is toned I'm good.

Step 5

Wait around 1 day to dry before using it :D

Here is example of difference when gesso was not applied versus gesso applied on paper before you started painting.

On first drawing the color looks okay and the linseed oil medium clearly seeping through the back side of the painting. On second painting the medium only a little seeping through.back sides of the paper looks okay if you want to draw on it to save resources :D If you're feeling extra, you can also apply gesso on the backsides too before started painting on the paper. It will strengthen the paper.

I hope this tutorial is helpful. Feel free to comment and upvote if you like this post. Make sure to check out my friends blog,also contain gorgeous watercolor art, @bill047, see you later in next post! :D