CONCERNING OIL PAINTING
If you want to have a washy fast drying underpainting, do it in acrylics.
to figure out what colors to get and how to lay them out watch the video on color space by Gamblincolors.com. Decide for yourself. Warm colors advance and cool colors recede.
Stay away from Zinc oxide white (PW 4) oil paint-even in small amounts!.
It will cause your paint to flake off. Make sure your oil paint does NOT contain zinc oxide !! https://justpaint.org/update-on-zinc/.
If using oil primed linen, make sure that it does not contain zinc!!
current colors on my palette:
Ivory Black, Transparent oxide red
cobalt violet (Gamblin 1980), Cobalt Blue, Viridian (Gamblin 1980), Emerald Green (Gamblin),
Pyrrole Red PR-254 (Winsor & Newton "Bright Red"), Cad Orange, Yellow Ochre, Cad Yellow Lt
WHITE (Gamblin fast dry)
Williamsburg transparent medium, galkyd gel, cobalt drier system by Rublev, Gamsol, Paper Towels
About Pyrrole Red
Originally developed for the automotive industry to make Ferrari Red. Meant to be used thinly with an airbrush. Has a very slow drying time. I recommend getting it from a larger paint company that uses driers. Try Winsor and Newton's "bright red" or perhaps Chroma's archival oils pyrrole red that has alkyd in it. Small paint companies such as Vasari and RGH make small batches and don't use driers. It will take over a month to dry on its own from these companies!!
I USE PAINT WITH LINSEED OIL AS ITS BINDER/VEHICLE
Pigment bound in linseed oil dries the fastest and forms the strongest paint layer. Walnut oil has been shown to yellow just as much as linseed oil, is a slower dryer and forms a weaker bond. Some paint makers are using safflower oil in their paints because it yellows less than linseed oil, however, it has been shown to be unstable as it is only a semi drying oil . Semi-drying oils do not polymerize completely, resulting in “weeping” paint. (read this)
Many brands use linseed oil as the binder, I recommend: Rublev, Michael Harding, Williamsburg, Rembrandt, some Winsor and Newton (check on their website), Gamblin, some Utrecht (Utrecht oil colors that are safflower oil free) and Winton. The most accurate way to find out what is in the paint is on the paint manufacture website, not DickBlick.
Understand your pigments
Get to know the tinting strength of all of your colors by mixing equal parts with your white. While you're at it get to know their drying times too.
Supports
The absolute best support for an oil painting is a rigid substrate on a material that does not respond to relative humidity. (Artefex)
If you want to paint on canvas, I recommend polyester canvas. Fredrix Red Lion 520.When I stretch my canvas I go corner to corner - not middle to middle.
Rules about oil painting if you're painting in layers:
Become conscious of drying rates. Forget the fat over lean rule. Instead, think about faster drying under slower drying. The major factor that influences drying rate is the pigment. If you're using alkyds or driers, that will hasten drying as well. Alkyds are faster drying and should not be considered a "fat" but rather a faster dryer and should be under the slower dryers. Some pigments are fast dryers and some are slow. Test out your paints to find out. I can tell you that the cadmiums are very slow dryers, titanium white on its own is very slow drying. The natural and synthetic earths are fast.
Be conscious of particle concentration. When linseed oil cures, unless applied very thinly, it needs particles in-between it. The paint from the tube is at the cPVC. If you want a transparent layer with body, then you need to use transparent particles. You could use a mixture of Williamsburg extender medium and oleogel, Galkyd gel, or liquin impasto.
A NOTE REGARDING WAX
Cold wax medium does create transparency with body, however, you will be able to scratch into it. Very, very small amounts are ok. If you use it the way it's trending now, in large amounts, you will not be able to varnish your painting if you use it. Varnish is meant to be removed eventually and then reapplied. It protects your painting from dirt. B/c cold wax is dissolved with gamsol, the same thing used to remove varnish, it can never be varnished.
Helpful websites for oil painting:
http://www.artiscreation.com , https://paintingbestpractices.com (check out their files), https://www.facebook.com/groups/paintingbestpractices, www.facebook.com/NaturalPigmentsllc. (check out their videos on YouTube), JustPaint.org
brush wash: linseed oil
Soap
If you forget about a brush soak it in Turpenoid natural, then wash it out. I also use Dr. Bronner's soap to wash my brushes.
If you want to have a washy fast drying underpainting, do it in acrylics.
to figure out what colors to get and how to lay them out watch the video on color space by Gamblincolors.com. Decide for yourself. Warm colors advance and cool colors recede.
Stay away from Zinc oxide white (PW 4) oil paint-even in small amounts!.
It will cause your paint to flake off. Make sure your oil paint does NOT contain zinc oxide !! https://justpaint.org/update-on-zinc/.
If using oil primed linen, make sure that it does not contain zinc!!
current colors on my palette:
Ivory Black, Transparent oxide red
cobalt violet (Gamblin 1980), Cobalt Blue, Viridian (Gamblin 1980), Emerald Green (Gamblin),
Pyrrole Red PR-254 (Winsor & Newton "Bright Red"), Cad Orange, Yellow Ochre, Cad Yellow Lt
WHITE (Gamblin fast dry)
Williamsburg transparent medium, galkyd gel, cobalt drier system by Rublev, Gamsol, Paper Towels
About Pyrrole Red
Originally developed for the automotive industry to make Ferrari Red. Meant to be used thinly with an airbrush. Has a very slow drying time. I recommend getting it from a larger paint company that uses driers. Try Winsor and Newton's "bright red" or perhaps Chroma's archival oils pyrrole red that has alkyd in it. Small paint companies such as Vasari and RGH make small batches and don't use driers. It will take over a month to dry on its own from these companies!!
I USE PAINT WITH LINSEED OIL AS ITS BINDER/VEHICLE
Pigment bound in linseed oil dries the fastest and forms the strongest paint layer. Walnut oil has been shown to yellow just as much as linseed oil, is a slower dryer and forms a weaker bond. Some paint makers are using safflower oil in their paints because it yellows less than linseed oil, however, it has been shown to be unstable as it is only a semi drying oil . Semi-drying oils do not polymerize completely, resulting in “weeping” paint. (read this)
Many brands use linseed oil as the binder, I recommend: Rublev, Michael Harding, Williamsburg, Rembrandt, some Winsor and Newton (check on their website), Gamblin, some Utrecht (Utrecht oil colors that are safflower oil free) and Winton. The most accurate way to find out what is in the paint is on the paint manufacture website, not DickBlick.
Understand your pigments
Get to know the tinting strength of all of your colors by mixing equal parts with your white. While you're at it get to know their drying times too.
Supports
The absolute best support for an oil painting is a rigid substrate on a material that does not respond to relative humidity. (Artefex)
If you want to paint on canvas, I recommend polyester canvas. Fredrix Red Lion 520.When I stretch my canvas I go corner to corner - not middle to middle.
Rules about oil painting if you're painting in layers:
Become conscious of drying rates. Forget the fat over lean rule. Instead, think about faster drying under slower drying. The major factor that influences drying rate is the pigment. If you're using alkyds or driers, that will hasten drying as well. Alkyds are faster drying and should not be considered a "fat" but rather a faster dryer and should be under the slower dryers. Some pigments are fast dryers and some are slow. Test out your paints to find out. I can tell you that the cadmiums are very slow dryers, titanium white on its own is very slow drying. The natural and synthetic earths are fast.
Be conscious of particle concentration. When linseed oil cures, unless applied very thinly, it needs particles in-between it. The paint from the tube is at the cPVC. If you want a transparent layer with body, then you need to use transparent particles. You could use a mixture of Williamsburg extender medium and oleogel, Galkyd gel, or liquin impasto.
A NOTE REGARDING WAX
Cold wax medium does create transparency with body, however, you will be able to scratch into it. Very, very small amounts are ok. If you use it the way it's trending now, in large amounts, you will not be able to varnish your painting if you use it. Varnish is meant to be removed eventually and then reapplied. It protects your painting from dirt. B/c cold wax is dissolved with gamsol, the same thing used to remove varnish, it can never be varnished.
Helpful websites for oil painting:
http://www.artiscreation.com , https://paintingbestpractices.com (check out their files), https://www.facebook.com/groups/paintingbestpractices, www.facebook.com/NaturalPigmentsllc. (check out their videos on YouTube), JustPaint.org
brush wash: linseed oil
Soap
If you forget about a brush soak it in Turpenoid natural, then wash it out. I also use Dr. Bronner's soap to wash my brushes.