This put up is Part II, so if you have not yet, read Part I initial! There I focus on oil mediums, solvents, and the mediums that I Really don’t use or advocate.
Solid, Particle-Based mostly “Mediums”
Technically these are additives, not mediums, but exploring their qualities sales opportunities me to the medium I at the moment use and suggest, so it really is handy to explain them below:
Fumed Silica (warmth-processed sand)
Fumed silica is an ethereal, feathery, powder dust built from granite sand. The particles have a large floor location and reduced mass, so when it is really combined with paint or oil it usually takes on “thixotropic” attributes. This signifies when you combine it or utilize tension it behaves like a gentle flowing liquid, but when you don’t touch it, it holds its shape like a gel. I have used it by mixing it immediately into my oil paint with a palette knife ideal on the easel, and together with a small oil, it can be a wonderful way to prolong the paint while preserving it transparent to make glassy glazes. The proper way to combine it is with a muller, but I have loved the paste I can get just with the knife. Nonetheless, there is an less difficult way to use it which I will protect below.
To remember its qualities, keep in intellect: Silica is clear! It truly is sand, and that’s what glass is created of, so use fumed silica for clear glazes.
Check out my video demo for how I add fumed silica to my oil paint right here
Chalk (ground calcium)
Chalk dust is the exact same things small children for generations have clapped out of blackboard erasers, and it truly is just as messy! I have used it by mixing it directly into my paint, and it tends to make the paint “chunky”, dry, and uncomplicated to pile up into craggy impastos. I really feel specified it is most likely the key ingredient in any genuine “mystery medium of the Old Masters”. Like fumed silica, you can also combine it much more effectively and totally with a muller.
To recall its properties, maintain in brain: Chalk is OPAQUE. That’s why we use it to write on chalkboards! So use chalk in your whites and gentle-paint mixtures, to construct up chunky impastos, press 3D styles ahead into the light-weight, and virtually capture the gentle with vibrant peaks of texture.
Observe my video clip demo for how I add chalk dust medium to my oil paint listed here
My Chosen Mediums
And now is the place we get to the fantastic portion: The mediums I most hugely propose! It really is really quite simple: They are just the dry solids I detailed higher than, but conveniently mulled and tubed with linseed oil. Natural Pigments will make these mediums. They are pretty easy and low cost, and you could also make them simply at dwelling, but Purely natural Pigments has completed the do the job for me, and I like to just open the tubes and start off painting.
Tubed FUMED SILICA Medium for Glazes:
Oleogel medium by All-natural Pigments
I use Oleogel by mixing it into my paint suitable on the palette with my palette knife, and I also use it to oil out my doing the job area of my painting with a makeup wedge (remaining graphic). Due to the fact it has reliable particles blended into the linseed oil, it really is significantly more secure than applying linseed oil by yourself, and it can make a genuinely attractive transparent glaze. Out of the tube it appears like a apparent gel, you can see it in the middle of my palette in the middle impression. (Normal pigments also helps make quick-drying variation known as OleoRESgel, which I think has alkyd included, so that could be a a fantastic alternative for Liquin or Galkyd. And Pure Pigments lists all their substances on their labels and point sheets.)
Tubed CHALK Mediums for Impastos:
Impasto putty medium by Natural Pigments
Impasto medium by Normal Pigments
Velazquez medium by Pure Pigments
These are 3 various proportions of the same components: Chalk dust blended with linseed oil. Impasto Putty has the most chalk, and it can be actually thick, virtually like a dry peanut butter, and it varieties small peaks when you “elevate off” the palette knife.
Impasto Medium is in the center, the consistency is extra like room-temperature butter, with medium peaks.
Velazquez Medium is my favourite, it really is a little bit much less chalk and more oil, and so you get extensive ropey peaks, and the consistency is additional like a stretchy bitter product.
All of them permit you to pile up your paint into thick impastos that appear like outdated-grasp paint effects to me.
These chalk-primarily based mediums also allow you to extend out the paint incredibly slender, so I use it for my lead white below portray layer as well, in which I am employing the opacity and transparency of direct white paint to generate a selection of values about the brown raw umber underpainting….
Observe my video demo for mixing Oleogel and Impasto Putty into my paint in this article
Enjoy my movie demo for how I use Oleogel and Impasto Putty in my present painting
I’ll be sharing additional about making a guide white underneath portray when I release my new painting online video system afterwards this year: Glazing and Scumbling a However Lifetime with ROSES. My on the internet video clip course Glazing and Scumbling is a good introduction to the approaches I will be sharing in the a lot more state-of-the-art Roses system.
Signal up for my mailing record to be notified as before long as the new on the web video clip training course is launched!
I instruct Alla Prima, Immediate, and Oblique oil painting below on the web, made available as completely pre-recorded online video classes you can look at any time, which includes my Intro to Oil Painting which is great for beginners. I also present mentorship systems if you want assist and aid though functioning via the courses.
Your Questions about Mediums Answered:
These are much more concerns folks asked me about mediums on social media that I couldn’t in good shape gracefully into the put up:
Do you use unique mediums for plein air vs studio get the job done?
Operating en plein air or even alla prima in the studio, I locate I am racing from time so I use just a single medium, a straightforward combination of 50/50 linseed and odorless mineral spirits.
Do you use diverse mediums for distinctive grounds or supports, like chalk primed panel, or oil primed linen?
No, but I use distinctive grounds for diverse kinds of paintings: I use a chalk gesso ground on a clean challenging panel for Oblique portray, and I like RayMar’s oil primed linen panels for my direct and alla prima paintings. You can see my resources lists with links to my suggested products.
Why do some mediums make the paint keep on being tacky, and really should you paint on a tacky layer?
If the previous paint layer is tacky you are most likely making use of much too substantially oil – or maybe other elements that are not drying quickly plenty of. A good way to gauge if your earlier paint layer is dry adequate to paint around is the “thumbnail test” – If you can make an indentation in your paint movie with a agency push of your thumbnail, you ought to hold out for it to dry much more ahead of portray on it.
Can you blend various mediums together?
As very long as they are straightforward mediums, in all probability certainly, but you ought to be familiar with each individual ingredient in your paint. I like to hold transparent mediums and impasto mediums different, due to the fact I use them for distinctive reasons in different parts of the portray.
Are some mediums much more dangerous than some others?
Solvents (paint thinner or mineral spirits or turpentine) are considerably worse for your overall health than any other ingredient utilized for portray, so do every thing you can to limit your exposure to fumes.
Is Galkyd fat or lean?
Fast-drying or slow-drying is much far more essential theory than body fat or lean. Alkyd mediums are rapidly-drying, so use it only in the least expensive levels of a painting, or for wet-in-wet methods, as in alla prima or plein air portray.
How do you steer clear of sinking in?
I will not, I just reside with it! The darkish spots of a portray show up lighter-worth and “matte” rather of glossy and dark simply because the oil is sucked into previous paint levels. The far more layers there are, the even worse the sinking-in gets. I do “oil out” the space I system to paint into that day, but I leave the rest matte. When the painting is completed and dry, I do oil out the complete floor after to consider a superior image of the painting, but later on I wipe that oil off with odorless mineral spirits and a make-up sponge.
When the painting has had numerous months or months to dry, I varnish it, and then all the loaded glossy dim colours return.
