Master Your Mediums: A Guide for Oil Painters: PART II of II

This put up is Element II, so if you have not still, browse Component I 1st! There I examine oil mediums, solvents, and the mediums that I Never use or suggest.

Solid, Particle-Primarily based “Mediums”

Technically these are additives, not mediums, but checking out their attributes sales opportunities me to the medium I at this time use and endorse, so it is really handy to describe them listed here:

Fumed Silica (warmth-processed sand)
Fumed silica is an ethereal, feathery, powder dust made from granite sand. The particles have a massive area place and minimal mass, so when it truly is combined with paint or oil it takes on “thixotropic” properties. This implies when you combine it or use force it behaves like a soft flowing liquid, but when you never touch it, it holds its shape like a gel. I’ve utilized it by mixing it right into my oil paint with a palette knife ideal on the easel, and along with a tiny oil, it really is a great way to lengthen the paint whilst retaining it clear to make glassy glazes. The appropriate way to mix it is with a muller, but I have enjoyed the paste I can get just with the knife. Nonetheless, there is an a lot easier way to use it which I will address down below.

To remember its properties, preserve in thoughts: Silica is transparent! It can be sand, and that’s what glass is designed of, so use fumed silica for transparent glazes.

Enjoy my online video demo for how I incorporate fumed silica to my oil paint in this article

Chalk (ground calcium)
Chalk dust is the same stuff small children for generations have clapped out of blackboard erasers, and it can be just as messy! I’ve made use of it by mixing it instantly into my paint, and it tends to make the paint “chunky”, dry, and effortless to pile up into craggy impastos. I truly feel certain it is really possible the primary component in any legitimate “solution medium of the Outdated Masters”. Like fumed silica, you can also blend it much more correctly and extensively with a muller.

To don’t forget its houses, keep in brain: Chalk is OPAQUE. Which is why we use it to create on chalkboards! So use chalk in your whites and mild-paint mixtures, to build up chunky impastos, force 3D designs forward into the mild, and practically catch the light with vivid peaks of texture.

Enjoy my online video demo for how I add chalk dust medium to my oil paint right here

My Most popular Mediums
And now is exactly where we get to the excellent aspect: The mediums I most remarkably advocate! It is really truly incredibly simple: They are just the dry solids I shown over, but conveniently mulled and tubed with linseed oil. Natural Pigments will make these mediums. They are really easy and low-priced, and you could also make them effortlessly at dwelling, but All-natural Pigments has completed the work for me, and I choose to just open the tubes and begin painting.

Tubed FUMED SILICA Medium for Glazes:
Oleogel medium by Pure Pigments
I use Oleogel by mixing it into my paint appropriate on the palette with my palette knife, and I also use it to oil out my doing the job place of my painting with a makeup wedge (left image). Since it has reliable particles blended into the linseed oil, it is really considerably a lot more secure than using linseed oil by yourself, and it will make a seriously lovely transparent glaze. Out of the tube it appears like a distinct gel, you can see it in the middle of my palette in the middle graphic. (Natural pigments also will make quickly-drying model called OleoRESgel, which I believe has alkyd extra, so that may be a a terrific alternative for Liquin or Galkyd. And Natural Pigments lists all their components on their labels and reality sheets.)

Tubed CHALK Mediums for Impastos:

Impasto putty medium by Organic Pigments
Impasto medium by Normal Pigments
Velazquez medium by Natural Pigments

These are 3 different proportions of the similar elements: Chalk dust combined with linseed oil. Impasto Putty has the most chalk, and it is genuinely thick, just about like a dry peanut butter, and it sorts limited peaks when you “elevate off” the palette knife.

Impasto Medium is in the center, the consistency is more like area-temperature butter, with medium peaks.

Velazquez Medium is my favored, it really is a bit less chalk and extra oil, and so you get long ropey peaks, and the regularity is far more like a stretchy bitter product.

All of them permit you to pile up your paint into thick impastos that appear like old-learn paint consequences to me.

These chalk-based mostly mediums also allow you to stretch out the paint pretty slender, so I use it for my direct white less than portray layer as properly, where I am applying the opacity and transparency of lead white paint to build a variety of values in excess of the brown uncooked umber underpainting….

Enjoy my online video demo for mixing Oleogel and Impasto Putty into my paint right here

Observe my video clip demo for how I use Oleogel and Impasto Putty in my recent portray

I am going to be sharing a lot more about making a guide white beneath portray when I launch my new painting online video course afterwards this year: Glazing and Scumbling a Even now Lifetime with ROSES. My on-line video class Glazing and Scumbling is a good introduction to the methods I will be sharing in the more sophisticated Roses system.

Indication up for my mailing list to be notified as shortly as the new on the net video clip class is launched!

I educate Alla Prima, Direct, and Oblique oil portray listed here on line, supplied as completely pre-recorded video clip programs you can observe any time, which include my Intro to Oil Painting which is perfect for novices. I also offer you mentorship applications if you want support and guidance while working via the classes.

Your Questions about Mediums Answered:
These are much more queries persons questioned me about mediums on social media that I could not healthy gracefully into the article:

Do you use unique mediums for plein air vs studio operate?
Functioning en plein air or even alla prima in the studio, I obtain I am racing against time so I use just one medium, a straightforward combination of 50/50 linseed and odorless mineral spirits.

Do you use various mediums for various grounds or supports, like chalk primed panel, or oil primed linen?
No, but I use different grounds for unique varieties of paintings: I use a chalk gesso ground on a clean hard panel for Oblique portray, and I appreciate RayMar’s oil primed linen panels for my immediate and alla prima paintings. You can see my components lists with backlinks to my proposed merchandise.

Why do some mediums make the paint remain tacky, and ought to you paint on a tacky layer?
If the prior paint layer is tacky you are most likely utilizing as well considerably oil – or probably other ingredients that are not drying quick ample. A superior way to gauge if your earlier paint layer is dry adequate to paint more than is the “thumbnail take a look at” – If you can make an indentation in your paint film with a firm push of your thumbnail, you must wait for it to dry additional in advance of portray on it.

Can you combine diverse mediums with each other?
As prolonged as they are easy mediums, possibly sure, but you should be familiar with every single ingredient in your paint. I like to keep clear mediums and impasto mediums different, because I use them for different uses in diverse components of the portray.

Are some mediums more hazardous than others?
Solvents (paint thinner or mineral spirits or turpentine) are much worse for your wellbeing than any other component employed for portray, so do all the things you can to limit your publicity to fumes.

Is Galkyd fats or lean?
Speedy-drying or slow-drying is significantly a lot more critical principle than unwanted fat or lean. Alkyd mediums are quick-drying, so use it only in the cheapest levels of a portray, or for soaked-in-wet methods, as in alla prima or plein air portray.

How do you stay away from sinking in?
I you should not, I just live with it! The dark spots of a portray appear lighter-benefit and “matte” as a substitute of glossy and dark since the oil is sucked into prior paint layers. The far more layers there are, the worse the sinking-in becomes. I do “oil out” the region I system to paint into that working day, but I leave the relaxation matte. When the painting is performed and dry, I do oil out the total area once to get a fantastic picture of the portray, but later on I wipe that oil off with odorless mineral spirits and a makeup sponge.
When the painting has had various weeks or months to dry, I varnish it, and then all the prosperous glossy dark colors return.