From Oils to Pixels: How Oil Painting Informs My Digital Illustration

Transitioning from traditional oil painting to creating digital art has been a brave, new world for me. As an artist trained in old masters grisaille, blending, and glazing techniques, I made the shift to using bright, flat colors in a digital space. Despite the change in medium, (maybe universe!) I’ve discovered that many aspects of my training in oil painting inform how I approach digital art. In a way, my “analog” art—using real materials—acts as a foundation for my digital process, helping me craft a distinct style that feels remarkably authentic.

The Palette: From Mixing to Finding

In oil painting, building a palette is the most impactful aspect to making a painting. I lay out my paints in a very particular grid. Then I take small amounts of one mixed color and carefully blend it into another to create subtle gradations. Oil allows for blending and glazing to build form gradually, achieving smooth transitions that feel natural and realistic. I’ll adjust by making a color lighter or darker, warmer or cooler, depending on the effect I want.

When working digitally, the color experience shifts from mixing to finding. Instead of physically blending paints, I select colors directly from a digital palette. At first, this felt like a loss—no longer working with those rich, tactile layers of paint. But I quickly realized my years of oil painting had attuned my eye to the subtle differences between hues, values, and temperatures. This sensitivity to color helped me choose effective combinations for my digital work. To create form, I choose colors right next to each other, but I don't blend them. The overall look gives it a relatively blended look at times but I purposely keep the transitions distinct. Even though I’m no longer mixing paints by hand, my understanding of how colors interact continues to guide me in creating form in pretty much the same way as with oils. The biggest difference is that I use color temperature shifts less in my digital work than in oils.

Creating Space: Oil vs. Digital

In oil painting, I often rely on muted tones, soft edges, and layering to create atmospheric perspective—pulling objects back in space to offer dimension. In my digital art, however, I use a completely different method to achieve a similar sense of depth. Instead of relying on blending, I use composition, size, and color to create depth. Forced perspective, where objects are deliberately distorted to enhance the illusion of depth, plays a more significant role in my digital work. Where my oil paintings use smooth transitions, layering and muted colors, my digital work employs defined shapes, scale and textural differences to establish spatial perspective.

The Fun of Texture

One of my favorite elements of working in both art forms is texture. I’ll use a variety of techniques from stippling to to adding thickness for a tactile quality that offers variations in textured surfaces.

In my digital work, which employs flat colors in shape-based imagery, I use additive and subtractive processes to create texture, similarly to woodcut techniques -- but easier on the hands!

Developing a Style

The development of my digital style was an organic process, rooted in the same love-of-process and trying-till-I-get-it-right that has always driven my work. Certain effects simmered to the surface through a lot of working over and over and experimenting until I had that "OMG! I LOVE this!" moment and they became part of my signature style. Once a set of elements kept showing up in my work repeatedly, I embraced them. These recurring elements became the toolkit for my signature illustration style.

Staying True to Nature

My digital palettes also draw directly from my oil painting process, though it may not be apparent on first glance. I was once called a "colorist" by a professor, and it resonated with me. Color has always been central to my work. In both mediums, I gravitate toward bright colors, but I avoid those that feel too acidic or over-saturated. Nature provides an endless source of awe-inspiring color palettes. Even in a digital medium, I want my art to reflect the harmony and variety that nature provides.

My journey from oil painting to digital art has been one of both intention and discovery. My training in traditional techniques continues to inform my work, even as my digital methods broaden. Whether experiencing the buttery feel of oils on canvas, or the glide of the Apple pencil on glass, my love for making art and my mission remains the same: creating work that feels authentic, vibrant, and emotive.

All artwork and photographs in this blog are by Robyn H. Stone© 2023.