Basic oil paints - why oil?
OK, so now what do we do with our mixture? If we
had two lumps of ‘mixture’ (paint) say a red and a
yellow and made them very oily and put them side by
side on a flat surface they would gradually spread out
and merge and take ages to get dry.
So more oil will help paint to blend and merge as oil
is also the lubricant for the pigment and helps it
slide around on the canvas.How can we reverse this and stiffen up the paint?
We could add more pigment or filler, or we could get rid of some of that excess oil.
How do we remove the oil? By putting the mixture on blotting or absorbent paper and waiting. The paper will
absorb the oil and a little of the pigment. Obviously to make it more runny we could add more oil and to dry
faster and spread thinner we could add turpentine, thinners or petrol.
Get the general idea!One more thing - we can also add other things that are
mixable with oil like certain resins and varnishes
which will make the mixture sticky and shine and
maybe dry in a layer like a clear plastic sheet. This
might allow what is underneath to shine through. And
when we add a little strong pigment to this sheet we can
maybe make what is called a ‘glaze’. Then again we
could add some egg yolk for a 'matt' type finish.What now?
Like a potter you have now made you clay, only in your case it is called paint. Instead of water you have added
oil and some pigment and, instead of a wheel, you will be putting your mixture on a flat vertical surface,
although you will mix it on a bench or pallet. There is no rush with your paint though - it is oil based and will
mostly take a long time to dry and this you know you can control adding oil or white spirits.
One main point before you apply your paint; if you first apply a thick layer of paint to your canvas it will take
ages to dry because the oil will have to dry out. If you have ever watched oil dry out you could probably also
hear you own hair growing. When thick paint dries it shrinks and sometimes cracks. So if your first layer of
paint is very thick and you add a thin layers on top of it before it is totally dry it will crack all the layers applied
thereafter - and as it continues to dry the cracks will get bigger - especially if the color on top is darker.
Painters prevent this by painting the thick slow drying layers last and usually begin with thin fast drying paint -
as their background.
'Thick over thin and light over dark' is an old painters saying.
If we don’t want to wait we can paint what is called 'wet in wet'. That means putting wet layers of paint on
other wet layers all in the one session (or over the total time it takes the paint to dry). There can still be hours -
or days until a ‘skin’ forms.
This is an important point as many painters would like to finish their painting quickly and are thereby forced to
paint 'wet in wet'.STUDENT ACTIVITY: See next lesson. Using someof the pigments, and oils I have mentioned make up a
pallet of colors and paint a small picture. Allow 40min.http://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/lessons/how_to_paint_in_oils.htm (2 of 3)1/13/2004 3:52:17 AM