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

This post is Section II, so if you have not still, browse Part I initial! There I go over oil mediums, solvents, and the mediums that I Will not use or advise.

Solid, Particle-Based “Mediums”

Technically these are additives, not mediums, but discovering their attributes leads me to the medium I currently use and propose, so it is beneficial to describe them below:

Fumed Silica (warmth-processed sand)
Fumed silica is an ethereal, feathery, powder dust designed from granite sand. The particles have a big floor area and low mass, so when it really is combined with paint or oil it takes on “thixotropic” qualities. This indicates when you combine it or utilize stress it behaves like a smooth flowing liquid, but when you don’t contact it, it retains its shape like a gel. I’ve employed it by mixing it specifically into my oil paint with a palette knife appropriate on the easel, and together with a minor oil, it truly is a fantastic way to extend the paint when retaining it transparent to make glassy glazes. The suitable way to blend it is with a muller, but I’ve appreciated the paste I can get just with the knife. On the other hand, there is an easier way to use it which I am going to cover below.

To try to remember its qualities, keep in head: Silica is clear! It really is sand, and that is what glass is made of, so use fumed silica for clear glazes.

Watch my online video demo for how I include fumed silica to my oil paint here

Chalk (floor calcium)
Chalk dust is the very same stuff youngsters for generations have clapped out of blackboard erasers, and it’s just as messy! I’ve utilised it by mixing it right into my paint, and it will make the paint “chunky”, dry, and effortless to pile up into craggy impastos. I feel specified it can be possible the main ingredient in any true “solution medium of the Previous Masters”. Like fumed silica, you can also combine it extra properly and totally with a muller.

To try to remember its homes, keep in intellect: Chalk is OPAQUE. That’s why we use it to produce on chalkboards! So use chalk in your whites and light-weight-paint mixtures, to establish up chunky impastos, push 3D styles ahead into the light, and practically capture the mild with bright peaks of texture.

View my video demo for how I add chalk dust medium to my oil paint listed here

My Preferred Mediums
And now is where we get to the superior component: The mediums I most hugely advise! It is really essentially very very simple: They are just the dry solids I stated above, but conveniently mulled and tubed with linseed oil. All-natural Pigments will make these mediums. They are really uncomplicated and affordable, and you could also make them quickly at dwelling, but Normal Pigments has accomplished the perform for me, and I desire to just open the tubes and get started portray.

Tubed FUMED SILICA Medium for Glazes:
Oleogel medium by Organic 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 operating area of my portray with a makeup wedge (remaining impression). For the reason that it has good particles combined into the linseed oil, it really is substantially far more stable than working with linseed oil by itself, and it tends to make a truly gorgeous transparent glaze. Out of the tube it appears like a obvious gel, you can see it in the center of my palette in the center graphic. (All-natural pigments also would make rapidly-drying edition called OleoRESgel, which I believe has alkyd extra, so that may possibly be a a wonderful alternative for Liquin or Galkyd. And All-natural Pigments lists all their components on their labels and truth sheets.)

Tubed CHALK Mediums for Impastos:

Impasto putty medium by All-natural Pigments
Impasto medium by Natural Pigments
Velazquez medium by Pure Pigments

These are 3 distinct proportions of the same substances: Chalk dust combined with linseed oil. Impasto Putty has the most chalk, and it really is seriously thick, virtually like a dry peanut butter, and it sorts limited peaks when you “carry off” the palette knife.

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

Velazquez Medium is my most loved, it can be a little bit a lot less chalk and a lot more oil, and so you get extensive ropey peaks, and the consistency is additional like a stretchy sour product.

All of them allow you to pile up your paint into thick impastos that glance like previous-grasp paint consequences to me.

These chalk-based mediums also permit you to stretch out the paint extremely skinny, so I use it for my lead white underneath portray layer as very well, where by I am utilizing the opacity and transparency of guide white paint to generate a variety of values above the brown raw umber underpainting….

Observe my video clip demo for mixing Oleogel and Impasto Putty into my paint in this article

Check out my movie demo for how I use Oleogel and Impasto Putty in my present-day portray

I am going to be sharing extra about building a guide white less than painting when I release my new portray video training course later on this yr: Glazing and Scumbling a Continue to Life with ROSES. My on the internet movie class Glazing and Scumbling is a good introduction to the approaches I am going to be sharing in the additional sophisticated Roses course.

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I educate Alla Prima, Immediate, and Oblique oil portray below online, presented as totally pre-recorded online video programs you can observe any time, including my Intro to Oil Portray which is perfect for newcomers. I also provide mentorship programs if you want assist and assistance although working as a result of the classes.

Your Issues about Mediums Answered:
These are much more thoughts folks asked me about mediums on social media that I could not healthy gracefully into the publish:

Do you use various mediums for plein air vs studio work?
Functioning en plein air or even alla prima in the studio, I discover I’m racing from time so I use just a person medium, a basic mixture of 50/50 linseed and odorless mineral spirits.

Do you use unique mediums for various grounds or supports, like chalk primed panel, or oil primed linen?
No, but I use various grounds for unique kinds of paintings: I use a chalk gesso floor on a sleek tricky panel for Oblique painting, and I love RayMar’s oil primed linen panels for my direct and alla prima paintings. You can see my resources lists with back links to my suggested items.

Why do some mediums make the paint remain tacky, and must you paint on a tacky layer?
If the earlier paint layer is tacky you are most likely working with far too a great deal oil – or perhaps other ingredients that are not drying fast ample. A fantastic way to gauge if your former paint layer is dry ample to paint above is the “thumbnail check” – If you can make an indentation in your paint film with a business press of your thumbnail, you should really wait for it to dry extra prior to painting on it.

Can you blend unique mediums alongside one another?
As lengthy as they are very simple mediums, in all probability indeed, but you really should be familiar with every component in your paint. I like to retain transparent mediums and impasto mediums independent, since I use them for distinctive purposes in various areas of the portray.

Are some mediums a lot more hazardous than other people?
Solvents (paint thinner or mineral spirits or turpentine) are significantly even worse for your well being than any other component used for painting, so do everything you can to limit your exposure to fumes.

Is Galkyd fats or lean?
Speedy-drying or sluggish-drying is considerably additional vital theory than extra fat or lean. Alkyd mediums are rapidly-drying, so use it only in the lowest levels of a painting, or for damp-in-soaked strategies, as in alla prima or plein air portray.

How do you keep away from sinking in?
I really don’t, I just reside with it! The dark spots of a portray surface lighter-benefit and “matte” as an alternative of glossy and darkish for the reason that the oil is sucked into earlier paint layers. The additional layers there are, the worse the sinking-in results in being. I do “oil out” the space I prepare to paint into that day, but I go away the relaxation matte. When the painting is finished and dry, I do oil out the whole surface once to take a fantastic image of the portray, but later on I wipe that oil off with odorless mineral spirits and a makeup sponge.
When the painting has experienced numerous weeks or months to dry, I varnish it, and then all the loaded shiny dim colours return.