Oil Painting - Subject

Before we start any painting, before even we start to pick up the canvas and the colors, before even we think of sketching something, we need to think of a subject to paint about.

The subject heavily depends on the style in which we wish to draw and also the medium we choose.

Oil medium allows us several different themes with in which we can choose a subject to paint.

• Still life
• Abstract
• Landscape/Seascape
• Portraits
• Settings/Scenes - Historical/Modern/Biblical/Mythological/Fantasy

Still Life

Still life theme is a very common subject chosen by artists. It is chosen by not just the amateurs but also professionals. It allows one to work on their skills with the tools, experiment with the colors, study composition and the play of light and shadows. Common subjects include fruits, flowers, fruit baskets, and other common house-hold objects.

Abstract

This is with in the scope of the ‘Modern Art‘. Intangible ideas and concepts like ’sadness’, ‘happiness’, ‘anger’, ‘repulsion’, ‘passion’, and/or the combination of these or many such ideas form the subject of the painting. Choice of colors and the presentation of different textures can be put on display in such paintings other than the subjects themselves.

Landscape/Seascape

These are the choices that are usually used to display the beauty of nature. Mountains, jungle, desert, rivers, waterfalls, sea, and similar phenomena of nature are chosen as subjects. Sometimes, the subject is show in different light or perspective by choice of colors - it all depends on what the artist wants to express. Sometimes, even imaginary landscapes or seascapes may be chosen as subjects.

Portraits

Portraits can be of anyone - humans or animals. As much as effort is made towards getting a realastic imagery of the actual subject, effort is also made by the artist to get the feel and personality of the subject caputred in the canvas. In some cases, realism is thrown out the window, like in the cases of caricatures. But it is rare to have caricatures drawn in oil medium.

Settings/Scenes

Settings or scenes of a particular even is taken as a subject. Even if there are any central subject or protagonist in the finalized painting, the other subjects and the backgroundd is fleshed out. The scenes chosen may be a historical event, a modern day event, a biblical or mythological scene, or even fantasy oriented scene.

The above choices are just loose categories, and as they say, the painting is only limited by the artists imagination, and skill. And more over, these categories do not have sharp boundaries; they are not set in stone. And an artist may choose to have a cross of the different themes to choose a subject.

Have I missed any other major theme?