This put up is Component II, so if you have not still, browse Aspect I first! There I talk about oil mediums, solvents, and the mediums that I Don’t use or advocate.
Reliable, Particle-Centered “Mediums”
Technically these are additives, not mediums, but discovering their homes potential customers me to the medium I presently use and advocate, so it can be practical to explain them right here:
Fumed Silica (heat-processed sand)
Fumed silica is an airy, feathery, powder dust designed from granite sand. The particles have a big surface spot and lower mass, so when it truly is blended with paint or oil it can take on “thixotropic” attributes. This usually means when you blend it or implement strain it behaves like a tender flowing liquid, but when you don’t touch it, it holds its shape like a gel. I have employed it by mixing it directly into my oil paint with a palette knife suitable on the easel, and along with a tiny oil, it can be a fantastic way to increase the paint whilst holding it transparent to make glassy glazes. The right way to blend it is with a muller, but I have enjoyed the paste I can get just with the knife. Even so, there is an less difficult way to use it which I am going to cover down below.
To bear in mind its attributes, maintain in thoughts: Silica is transparent! It is really sand, and that is what glass is built of, so use fumed silica for clear glazes.
Observe my video demo for how I insert fumed silica to my oil paint listed here
Chalk (ground calcium)
Chalk dust is the very same stuff small children for generations have clapped out of blackboard erasers, and it can be just as messy! I have employed it by mixing it straight into my paint, and it tends to make the paint “chunky”, dry, and easy to pile up into craggy impastos. I really feel specific it can be probably the primary component in any genuine “solution medium of the Aged Masters”. Like fumed silica, you can also combine it a lot more properly and totally with a muller.
To keep in mind its qualities, hold in mind: Chalk is OPAQUE. That is why we use it to create on chalkboards! So use chalk in your whites and light-paint mixtures, to create up chunky impastos, drive 3D styles ahead into the mild, and actually catch the light-weight with shiny peaks of texture.
Enjoy my online video demo for how I add chalk dust medium to my oil paint right here
My Preferred Mediums
And now is exactly where we get to the excellent aspect: The mediums I most extremely advise! It’s truly very very simple: They are just the dry solids I outlined higher than, but conveniently mulled and tubed with linseed oil. Natural Pigments can make these mediums. They are extremely basic and low-priced, and you could also make them effortlessly at house, but All-natural Pigments has accomplished the operate for me, and I want to just open up the tubes and begin painting.
Tubed FUMED SILICA Medium for Glazes:
Oleogel medium by All-natural Pigments
I use Oleogel by mixing it into my paint right on the palette with my palette knife, and I also use it to oil out my functioning spot of my painting with a makeup wedge (remaining image). Due to the fact it has stable particles mixed into the linseed oil, it is really considerably far more secure than using linseed oil on your own, and it tends to make a really beautiful transparent glaze. Out of the tube it appears to be like like a obvious gel, you can see it in the middle of my palette in the center impression. (Purely natural pigments also makes rapidly-drying edition named OleoRESgel, which I imagine has alkyd added, so that could possibly be a a wonderful substitution for Liquin or Galkyd. And Natural Pigments lists all their ingredients on their labels and fact sheets.)
Tubed CHALK Mediums for Impastos:
Impasto putty medium by Natural Pigments
Impasto medium by Normal Pigments
Velazquez medium by Purely natural Pigments
These are 3 distinct proportions of the same substances: Chalk dust blended with linseed oil. Impasto Putty has the most chalk, and it is really seriously thick, virtually like a dry peanut butter, and it varieties shorter peaks when you “raise 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 beloved, it truly is a little bit fewer chalk and extra oil, and so you get extended ropey peaks, and the consistency is much more like a stretchy bitter cream.
All of them allow for you to pile up your paint into thick impastos that seem like outdated-grasp paint effects to me.
These chalk-based mostly mediums also allow you to stretch out the paint incredibly slender, so I use it for my guide white below painting layer as properly, exactly where I am applying the opacity and transparency of lead white paint to build a variety of values over the brown raw umber underpainting….
Observe my video demo for mixing Oleogel and Impasto Putty into my paint here
Watch my video clip demo for how I use Oleogel and Impasto Putty in my existing painting
I am going to be sharing additional about producing a guide white less than portray when I launch my new portray online video program afterwards this yr: Glazing and Scumbling a Even now Everyday living with ROSES. My on the internet movie class Glazing and Scumbling is a excellent introduction to the methods I will be sharing in the much more sophisticated Roses course.
Indicator up for my mailing record to be notified as before long as the new on the net online video training course is introduced!
I train Alla Prima, Immediate, and Oblique oil painting listed here on line, supplied as completely pre-recorded video clip courses you can check out any time, which include my Intro to Oil Portray which is excellent for newbies. I also offer you mentorship plans if you want support and support when doing the job through the programs.
Your Issues about Mediums Answered:
These are much more thoughts men and women questioned me about mediums on social media that I couldn’t fit gracefully into the write-up:
Do you use different mediums for plein air vs studio perform?
Doing the job en plein air or even alla prima in the studio, I come across I am racing versus time so I use just a single medium, a straightforward combination of 50/50 linseed and odorless mineral spirits.
Do you use unique mediums for different grounds or supports, like chalk primed panel, or oil primed linen?
No, but I use various grounds for distinct sorts of paintings: I use a chalk gesso ground on a clean difficult panel for Oblique painting, and I like RayMar’s oil primed linen panels for my immediate and alla prima paintings. You can see my products lists with backlinks to my encouraged goods.
Why do some mediums make the paint continue to be tacky, and really should you paint on a tacky layer?
If the past paint layer is tacky you are probably employing too a lot oil – or possibly other elements that are not drying rapid adequate. A superior way to gauge if your previous paint layer is dry plenty of to paint around is the “thumbnail examination” – If you can make an indentation in your paint film with a company push of your thumbnail, you need to wait around for it to dry additional prior to painting on it.
Can you combine different mediums together?
As long as they are very simple mediums, almost certainly certainly, but you ought to be acquainted with each ingredient in your paint. I like to preserve transparent mediums and impasto mediums individual, given that I use them for unique reasons in different pieces of the portray.
Are some mediums far more dangerous than some others?
Solvents (paint thinner or mineral spirits or turpentine) are significantly worse for your well being than any other ingredient employed for painting, so do all the things you can to restrict your publicity to fumes.
Is Galkyd fat or lean?
Quick-drying or gradual-drying is considerably much more essential basic principle than excess fat or lean. Alkyd mediums are rapid-drying, so use it only in the lowest levels of a painting, or for wet-in-moist solutions, as in alla prima or plein air painting.
How do you stay away from sinking in?
I really don’t, I just reside with it! The dim parts of a portray look lighter-value and “matte” in its place of shiny and dim simply because the oil is sucked into former paint layers. The much more levels there are, the worse the sinking-in gets to be. I do “oil out” the area I program to paint into that day, but I leave the relaxation matte. When the portray is completed and dry, I do oil out the whole floor when to take a good photograph of the portray, but later on I wipe that oil off with odorless mineral spirits and a make-up sponge.
When the portray has had quite a few months or months to dry, I varnish it, and then all the prosperous shiny dark hues return.