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

This publish is Portion II, so if you have not yet, read through Part I first! There I examine oil mediums, solvents, and the mediums that I You should not use or endorse.

Sound, Particle-Primarily based “Mediums”

Technically these are additives, not mediums, but exploring their homes potential customers me to the medium I at the moment use and advocate, so it is beneficial to explain them here:

Fumed Silica (warmth-processed sand)
Fumed silica is an ethereal, feathery, powder dust produced from granite sand. The particles have a big surface region and minimal mass, so when it is mixed with paint or oil it requires on “thixotropic” qualities. This usually means when you blend it or implement tension it behaves like a soft flowing liquid, but when you don’t touch it, it retains its condition like a gel. I have employed it by mixing it directly into my oil paint with a palette knife proper on the easel, and together with a minimal oil, it truly is a wonderful way to increase the paint when keeping it clear to make glassy glazes. The good way to blend it is with a muller, but I’ve savored the paste I can get just with the knife. However, there is an easier way to use it which I will protect down below.

To bear in mind its qualities, hold in mind: Silica is transparent! It really is sand, and which is what glass is built of, so use fumed silica for clear glazes.

Watch my video clip demo for how I incorporate fumed silica to my oil paint here

Chalk (floor calcium)
Chalk dust is the exact stuff kids for generations have clapped out of blackboard erasers, and it truly is just as messy! I have applied it by mixing it immediately into my paint, and it can make the paint “chunky”, dry, and quick to pile up into craggy impastos. I feel particular it’s likely the major ingredient in any genuine “mystery medium of the Aged Masters”. Like fumed silica, you can also blend it more effectively and comprehensively with a muller.

To try to remember its qualities, preserve in intellect: Chalk is OPAQUE. That’s why we use it to compose on chalkboards! So use chalk in your whites and gentle-paint mixtures, to construct up chunky impastos, press 3D shapes ahead into the mild, and virtually capture the gentle with bright peaks of texture.

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

My Most well-liked Mediums
And now is where by we get to the fantastic portion: The mediums I most really propose! It is really essentially incredibly easy: They are just the dry solids I stated above, but conveniently mulled and tubed with linseed oil. Pure Pigments makes these mediums. They are really straightforward and low-priced, and you could also make them conveniently at dwelling, but Pure Pigments has finished the perform for me, and I prefer to just open up the tubes and start out painting.

Tubed FUMED SILICA Medium for Glazes:
Oleogel medium by Normal 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 doing work area of my painting with a make-up wedge (still left graphic). For the reason that it has strong particles blended into the linseed oil, it truly is substantially more secure than making use of linseed oil alone, and it will make a actually stunning clear glaze. Out of the tube it seems like a crystal clear gel, you can see it in the middle of my palette in the middle image. (Pure pigments also makes speedy-drying edition termed OleoRESgel, which I believe has alkyd added, so that may possibly be a a good substitution for Liquin or Galkyd. And Organic Pigments lists all their ingredients on their labels and fact sheets.)

Tubed CHALK Mediums for Impastos:

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

These are 3 distinct proportions of the similar ingredients: Chalk dust mixed with linseed oil. Impasto Putty has the most chalk, and it truly is seriously thick, practically like a dry peanut butter, and it forms limited peaks when you “carry off” the palette knife.

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

Velazquez Medium is my most loved, it’s a bit less chalk and much more oil, and so you get long ropey peaks, and the regularity is far more like a stretchy bitter product.

All of them allow for you to pile up your paint into thick impastos that look like outdated-master paint results to me.

These chalk-based mostly mediums also permit you to stretch out the paint really slender, so I use it for my lead white below portray layer as nicely, in which I am utilizing the opacity and transparency of guide white paint to make a array of values more than the brown uncooked umber underpainting….

Observe my video clip demo for mixing Oleogel and Impasto Putty into my paint listed here

Look at my movie demo for how I use Oleogel and Impasto Putty in my present painting

I am going to be sharing a lot more about making a lead white less than portray when I release my new portray movie program later on this year: Glazing and Scumbling a Even now Lifetime with ROSES. My on-line online video study course Glazing and Scumbling is a good introduction to the procedures I’ll be sharing in the additional sophisticated Roses training course.

Sign up for my mailing checklist to be notified as soon as the new on the net movie study course is released!

I educate Alla Prima, Immediate, and Oblique oil portray in this article on-line, presented as entirely pre-recorded movie courses you can enjoy any time, which includes my Intro to Oil Portray which is excellent for newbies. I also provide mentorship plans if you want help and support even though performing through the courses.

Your Questions about Mediums Answered:
These are extra questions folks requested me about mediums on social media that I couldn’t fit gracefully into the put up:

Do you use various mediums for plein air vs studio function?
Doing work en plein air or even alla prima in the studio, I come across I’m racing versus time so I use just just one medium, a easy mixture of 50/50 linseed and odorless mineral spirits.

Do you use different mediums for various grounds or supports, like chalk primed panel, or oil primed linen?
No, but I use distinctive grounds for unique kinds of paintings: I use a chalk gesso floor on a sleek challenging panel for Oblique painting, and I really like RayMar’s oil primed linen panels for my direct and alla prima paintings. You can see my materials lists with inbound links to my recommended products and solutions.

Why do some mediums make the paint continue being tacky, and should you paint on a tacky layer?
If the earlier paint layer is tacky you are in all probability working with too significantly oil – or perhaps other elements that are not drying rapidly plenty of. A superior way to gauge if your former paint layer is dry adequate to paint above is the “thumbnail check” – If you can make an indentation in your paint movie with a organization push of your thumbnail, you should really hold out for it to dry additional ahead of painting on it.

Can you combine various mediums alongside one another?
As extended as they are very simple mediums, most likely certainly, but you ought to be common with just about every ingredient in your paint. I like to maintain clear mediums and impasto mediums individual, because I use them for unique purposes in different sections of the portray.

Are some mediums a lot more hazardous than other individuals?
Solvents (paint thinner or mineral spirits or turpentine) are far worse for your overall health than any other ingredient used for painting, so do every thing you can to restrict your exposure to fumes.

Is Galkyd extra fat or lean?
Rapid-drying or sluggish-drying is far far more important principle than body fat or lean. Alkyd mediums are rapidly-drying, so use it only in the cheapest layers of a portray, or for soaked-in-damp solutions, as in alla prima or plein air painting.

How do you keep away from sinking in?
I really don’t, I just are living with it! The dim spots of a portray appear lighter-value and “matte” instead of shiny and dim mainly because the oil is sucked into earlier paint levels. The far more layers there are, the even worse the sinking-in will become. I do “oil out” the spot I strategy to paint into that day, but I depart the rest matte. When the portray is accomplished and dry, I do oil out the whole area the moment to get a excellent image of the portray, but later on I wipe that oil off with odorless mineral spirits and a makeup sponge.
When the portray has experienced quite a few weeks or months to dry, I varnish it, and then all the rich glossy darkish hues return.