Oil paints are the most challenging medium for beginners, but they can be used to create beautifully blended and luminous works of art.
It’s worth developing your painting skills using a more beginner-friendly medium such as acrylic paint before taking your first steps into the world of oil painting.
How to choose the best oil paints
When you start using oil paints, you’ll need to learn some basic principles before you begin – but don't worry, you can always take a look at our guide to oil painting for beginners.
For example, your base layers of paint should always be thinner than the layers that you apply on the top. This is sometimes called ‘thick over thin’ or ‘fat over lean’. This prevents your painting from cracking over time.
You’ll also need to familiarise yourself with oil painting mediums, such as linseed oil, which are used to thin the paints before applying them to the canvas.
Look out for lightfastness in the product description when choosing your paints. Paints with a high lightfastness rating won’t fade, so your paintings will stand the test of time.
If all of that sounds daunting, we’ve got some good news for you! In recent years, water mixable oil paints have been developed. These are much more accessible for beginners to use and don’t require thinners or other solvents to blend the paints – just water. They dry much more quickly than traditional oils and the finished results look very similar.
In this guide, we’ll cover some recommended water soluble oil paint sets, alongside some excellent value oil paint sets for beginners.
Mix things up!
Not sure if you've got the shades you need? Don't worry, just check out our complete guide to colour mixing!
10 best oil paints for beginners 2024
1. Daler Rowney Georgian water mixable oil paints
Best for complete beginners
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This water mixable oil paint set from Daler Rowney is a great way to get into oil painting. The paints come in a variety of rich shades from Lemon Yellow to French Ultramarine.
This set is solvent-free, so the paints don’t have an overpowering smell. They’re lightfast, so the colours will stay bright over time.
These water mixable oils can be used straight from the tube with no need for thinners or solvents. If you want to create washes of colour, simply blend the paints with a little water before sweeping them onto your canvas.
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2. Winsor & Newton water mixable oil paints
Best for brand quality
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Winsor & Newton’s water mixable oil paints are a brilliant starter set for beginners. It comes with a good selection of colours including Cadmium Yellow, Burnt Umber and Cerulean Blue. They’re lightfast too, so your colours won’t fade much over time.
Like the Daler Rowney set, these paints don’t require solvents for mixing or blending and can be cleaned up using water.
These paints have a beautiful smooth consistency and work just like traditional oils – you’ll find it hard to tell the difference.
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3. Mont Marte H20 water mixable oil paints
Best for range of colours
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If you’re getting into oil painting and you want a wider range of colours to play with, this Mont Marte H20 oil paint set is ideal.
It comes with 36 different colours, which are high quality and solvent-free. They’re richly pigmented, so you’re guaranteed to be satisfied with your finished paintings.
The only real downside is that the tubes are quite small – just 18ml. You might find that you get through certain colours quickly, such as white and black. If that happens, you’ll need to top up your set with tubes of paint bought separately.
Overall, this set is good value and the paints have a lovely buttery consistency.
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4. Winsor & Newton oil paints
Best for learning traditional oils
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In addition to their water mixable oil paints, Winsor & Newton also produce an excellent range of traditional oils, including this introductory set for beginners.
The paint quality is exceptional and you’ll be able to get a feel for working with oils. This set of ten 12ml tubes gives you a uniform consistency and a slightly stiffer paint than their Artisan oil colours, making them great for bold brush strokes and palette knife work.
These paints include a high pigment load, meaning that you’ll get richer colours than many other brands of artist’s oil paint. They’re lightfast, as you’d expect from a brand of this quality, and the colours are all permanent.
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5. Royal & Langnickel Essentials oil paints
Best budget oil paints
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Looking for a set of oil paints that won’t break the bank? When it comes to a budget oil paint set that’s perfect for beginners, this one from Royal & Langnickel is a great place to start.
The set comes with an assortment of vibrant colours, so you won’t feel limited by the shades on offer.
While this set isn’t top of the range, it’s a good option if you’d like to try out oil paints without spending too much money. If you like them, you can always upgrade your paints at a later date.
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Brush up your skills
Getting the right paint is half the battle, make sure you're using the right tools with our guide to the best paint brushes.
6. Pebeo XL Studio oil paints
Best for effects
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Calling all colour fans! This Pebeo oil paint set has 30 shades for you to enjoy, ranging from Iridescent Red Blue to Ivory Black.
You get excellent value with this set and the paints have a soft buttery consistency.
These oil paints are relatively fast-drying and you can paint over them after just three days. However, it’s still recommended to wait six to nine months before varnishing your painting.
The paints vary in opacity, so check the key on the packaging to identify which paints are more translucent. The colours with lower opacity are great for the glazing painting technique.
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7. Daler Rowney Simply oil paints
Best for students
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Daler Rowney’s Simply range is well-suited to beginners or art students looking for affordable materials.
Simply oil paint sets come in a few different sizes ranging from 12 to 24 tubes, so it’s easy to choose the right set for your budget.
The colours are bold with a good level of lightfastness for the price, so they should last well.
The tubes are on the small side (only 12ml), so you’re likely to run out quickly if you want to paint on large canvases.
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8. Cass Art Artist’s oil colour set
Best for value
Available exclusively from Cass Art (£29.95)
When you’re choosing supplies, it’s a good idea to look at own-brand materials sold by art stores. The quality is often comparable with professional makes without the hefty price tag.
These oil paints from Cass Art are professional grade paints, but the price is similar to many of the beginner sets that we’ve included in this round-up.
The paints are made to the highest standards of lightfastness and permanence. There’s a good choice of colours and they come in 37ml tubes.
This set is highly recommended for both beginners and more experienced artists.
- Buy Cass Art Artist’s oil colour set in the UK from Cass Art
9. ZenArt Portrait Oil Paint Set
Best for portraits
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If you're all about painting portraits, then this set of oil paints might just be perfect for you!
The set includes eight 50ml tubes in an array of colours that are designed to blend beautifully and allow you to effortlessly create perfect skin tones.
As well as being lightfast and odourless, these paints are ready-to-paint (Alla-Prima) – highly loaded with the finest non-toxic pigments and linseed oil, meaning you can paint right out of the tube with no extra mediums required.
There's also three more paint pallettes available in the collection – impressionist, essentials and box of whites.
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10. Van Gogh oil paint set
Best combi set
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This fabulous Van Gogh oil painting set contains a selection of beautiful paints, which have a wonderful creamy texture. The colours are lightfast with a slight sheen when they dry.
They’re bursting with pigment, which makes them very satisfying to work with. These sets are artist quality on a student budget, so they’re highly recommended.
The set comes with ten 20ml tubes, a 75ml bottle of painting medium, two Van Gogh brushes and a double palette cup.
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Perfect palette
Once you've got your paints sorted, don't forget about your palette too! Discover why you need one and find your favourite in our guide to paint palettes.
Expand your artistic range with the best oil paints for beginners
If you’ve mastered painting with acrylic paint, oils are the natural next step. This medium is more challenging, but the finished artwork makes it worth the effort.
There are lots of great, affordable oil paints for beginners on the market. For those nervous about using more traditional oil paints, water soluble oil paints are a brilliant alternative.
Water soluble oil paints are easy for novice painters to use and don’t require any additional thinners, so you can get painting straight away! They also dry much faster than traditional oils, which is a bonus.
Oil paints vs acrylics
Oil paints and acrylics each have their own advantages and disadvantages, depending on your painting style.
Weigh up the pros and cons with Gathered’s acrylic vs oil paint guide.
