A primed white canvas or board is ideal to begin. A precise image should be laid out on the canvas, either with a pencil or transposed with charcoal from tracing paper.
Once the drawing is in place, ink, watercolor or thin paint is used to trace the lines with a soft brush.
Create an imprimatura, or under painting, using a value scale of one color from white to black. Gray scale and raw sienna are two popular colors to use for showing mid-tones, shadows and highlights. This is equivalent to a map of where the colors will go. It helps to unify and harmonize the tones of the painting and is painted in transparent oils.
Soft-haired round brushes with points and soft flat brushes are best to use for accuracy. Hog hair brushes are good for scrubbing into the paint creating thin layers.
Oil paint is thinned to a watery consistency, using either linseed oil or walnut oil, or a combination of both.
Shadows are laid in with transparent paint first, followed by mid-tone colors that are either opaque or transparent. The mid-tone colors are feathered at the edges, meeting and blending into the shadows. Finally, highlights in opaque paint are added. Several layers of paint may be used to achieve the correct effect, allowing each layer to dry completely before moving to the next.