This concise introduction to oil painting contains everything a beginner needs to know. After a brief look at the history of the medium, it explains how to select, use, and care for oil painting materials and tools. Many useful tips are included about composition, colour theory, and the fundamentals of drawing and painting. Painting exercises begin with painting a sphere and a cube in one colour plus white. Readers later mix warm, cool and neutral ranges of colours from three colours plus white, and they finally paint a still life using all colours.