Also called "Oil" or "Oils," is a painting process in which pigments are suspended in and dried with linseed oil. Light passes through the rich tone-enhancing glazes of an oil painting to the canvas and is refracted back to the viewer's eye, creating luminous artworks.
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Oil Paints |
Tubes of oil paint consist of linseed oil mixed with pigment particles. Linseed oil may be used as a medium to apply oil paint. Pigment particles, whether derived from natural minerals or developed materials, have unique properties that make them ideal for reflecting or transmitting light (due to wavelength absorption).
Oil paint, once exposed to air or oxygen, forms a new molecule as the linseed dries. This process, known as oxidation or polymerization, takes time to dry depending on the pigments used. It may take a few weeks for the paint to dry to the touch. Some oil paintings may take many years to dry completely enough for the final translucency of the color to be observed.
Overview
Includes the following.
Oil paint sold in tubes consists of pigment particles mixed with oil. Pigments are created from chosen or developed materials that change the color of reflected or transmitted light due to wavelength absorption. Unlike chalk (a natural resource derived from porous sedimentary rock), the materials used to make pigments often have unique properties that make them ideal for coloring.
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| Oil Paints |
Pigments consist of molecules that are cross-linked into crystals; they always require a vehicle or binder to fix them to a substrate. Only about 10% of molecules absorb light and exhibit a broad absorption band. Pigments that disperse light are opaque. /p>
Pigment and paint-grinding equipment are believed to be between 350,000 and 400,000 years old. Naturally occurring pigments such as ochres and iron oxides have been used as colorants since prehistoric times; however, before the Industrial Revolution, the range of color was technically limited, and during the Middle Ages, mineral pigments were traded over long distances. After the Industrial Revolution, synthetic pigments became available.
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| Raw Pigments |
The practice of oil painting was first pioneered by the Buddhists in India, China, and western Afghanistan. These early paintings date from the fifth to the ninth centuries A.D.
The practice was then used in Europe as early as the 12th century and may have migrated westward during the Middle Ages. However, it gained popularity in Western culture during the Renaissance in the 15th century.
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| Jan Van Eyck. The Arnolfini Marriage. 1434. |
The Flemish painter Jan van Eyck is usually credited with inventing oil painting in Western culture. Even though it is not a proven fact, he was able to master the medium and therefore influenced more artists to switch to oil. As its advantages became widely known, oil paint eventually replaced egg tempura, became popular during the Byzantine Empire, and became the principal medium for creating artwork in Europe.
This set the stage for the Renaissance titans such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and Leonardo da Vinci, who would all make the oil medium famous for their talent!
Oil paintings are varnished to protect them from dirt, dust, grease, pollution, and other harmful environmental factors. Varnish is also used to achieve a consistent sheen or gloss across the final appearance of the painting, making it all appear either glossy or matte.
Varnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or film primarily used in wood finishing or furniture, but it is also used as a final protective layer on original oil paintings. Varnish does not contain any pigment, so it is transparent and is traditionally made from a combination of a drying oil, resin, and a thinner or solvent.
Varnish can be purchased in a spray can or a bottle, then applied with a brush. It may only be applied over a painting after it completely dried, which usually takes three to six months. If the varnish coat has become discolored or dirty, it may be removed with a solvent, and a fresh coat reapplied to protect the piece. Please contact the artist if you need help applying varnish to a painting.
Terminology
Click the text to learn about the following.
Viscosity
What is Viscosity?
It refers to the state of paint being thick, sticky, semi-fluid, or fluid. For example, honey has a higher viscosity than water.
How to work with Viscosity?
Viscosity affects the value or tone of paint. The more the paint is thinned down with water or mineral spirits, the less viscous it will be, i.e., if working on a toned paper or canvas, the more the paper or canvas will show through.
Opacity or Semi-Opaque
What is it?
Opacity in painting is the property of a pigment or paint that prevents light from passing through. Opacity describes how much the paint hides, or whether it covers what it has been painted over.
When light waves strike a surface coated with paint, they affect the pigment's degree of opacity or transparency. Each pigment has specific properties that determine how it interacts with light. A pigment's degree of opacity directly correlates to its particle's ability to scatter light waves.
Note that watercolor does not use additives (such as chalk or white) and always allows previous layers of paint to show through.
What is Semi-Opaque?
Paints that are not fully clear or transparent
How to Work with Opacity or Semi-opacity?
Use a black magic marker to find out the opacity of your paint in any medium. Draw a line on the paper or canvas with a black Sharpie, then paint over it; you can tell the paint's opacity. You can check the tube to see if it is opaque; however, different manufacturers may vary, even when using the same pigment.
Transparent or Semi-transparent
What is it?
It refers to transparent paints that allow light to pass through, so the objects underneath can be distinctly seen.
What is Semi-transparent?
It refers to pigments that are partially or imperfectly transparent. These pigments allow light to pass through, so the objects underneath can be seen.
How to Work with Transparency or Semi-transparency?
Use a black magic marker to find out the transparency of your paint in any medium. Draw a line on the paper or canvas with a black Sharpie, paint over it, and then you can see the paint's transparency. You can check the tube to see the opacity; however, opacity varies among manufacturers.
Impasto
What is it?
It is the process or technique of applying paint thickly to physically stand out from the surface. 'Impasto' (n.) is Italian for 'dough' or 'mixture.' 'Impastare' (v.) means to 'to paste.'
How to Impasto?
Use a brush (with little to no medium) or a palette knife. Apply the paint thickly to the surface.
Scumble
What is it?
To modify (a painting or color) by applying a very thin coat of opaque paint over it to give it a softer or duller effect. This creates a 'veil' of color over the previous layer.
What is Staining?
When finely ground, pigments adhere to paper or canvas and cannot be removed with lifting or scrubbing. These are known as staining paints or pigments.
How to Scumble?
Use a DRY brush (without water or medium). Apply a small amount of paint to the brush, then use a paper towel to remove the excess. It's not good to have a large amount. Lightly "dust" the surface with the brush.
Glaze
What is it?
It is a layer of semi-transparent paint laid over another painted surface, so the original colors still show through.
How to Glaze?
Practice only when the paint is dry. Use a THIN wash with color and a soft brush. Drag the brush over another color once or twice, then let it dry.
Veiling
What is it?
Veiling involves building color with several thin layers of transparent paint. It is primarily used in watercolor and is also known as "Illuminism."
How to Veil?
A transparent watercolor wash or an extremely thin layer of paint is "veiled" or laid over another. Each paint layer must be completely dry before the next layer is applied. The layers of paint may be applied with or without using a pattern.
Washes
What is it?
A technique primarily used in watercolor, where pigment is applied with a lot of water. In oil painting, a wash refers to the initial toning of the canvas or diluting the paint with mineral spirits.
How to create a Wash?
The most basic watercolor technique is the flat wash. It is produced by wetting the paper covered by the wash, then quickly mixing sufficient pigment to fill the entire area. The pigment is applied to a sloping surface (i.e., the drips or water will run down the page) in slightly overlapping horizontal bands from the top down.
Edges
What is it?
In painting, it refers to a change in value from lighter to darker (or vice versa), i.e., a change in tint or shade. It may also refer to a change in color or hue (from one color to another) or a change in temperature from warm to cool, or vice versa.
Four Types of Edges
- Sharp, crisp, or hard edges create strong contrast and demand attention. Sharp edges separate one tone from another. It's usually what's in focus when we look at something. Regarding soft edges, hard edges create the illusion of depth. Tones with sharp edges appear to come forward, whereas tones with soft edges appear to recede in space.
- Firm edges grab less attention than sharp edges. It is where two contrasting values have a slight or some transition from one to the other. For example, in a dramatic lighting situation, cast shadows are dark next to light areas on the same plane. However, they have softer edges as the shadow recedes into space.
- Soft - Edges may appear fuzzy or out of focus. These are the types of edges that we see in our peripheral vision. They do not draw the viewer's attention and may fade or blur one tone into another.
- Lost - Lost edges are where two tones or colors create a gradual or smooth gradation and transition from one tone into another tone.
Gradation
What is it?
It refers to a change in value from lighter to darker (or vice versa), i.e., a change in tint or shade. It may also refer to a gradual change in color or hue (from one color to the next) or to a change in temperature from warm to cool, or vice versa. Space, distance, atmosphere, volume, and curved or rounded forms are visual effects created using a gradation.
How to create a Gradation?
Gradation is the technique of gradually transitioning from one hue, shade, or texture to another. Create a wash in watercolor. Add in other colors while it is still wet from left to right or vice versa. In oil painting, leave openings to see through to different colors, especially in the beginning stages of the painting.
Fat Over Lean Rule
What is it?
It is a painting approach that builds layers of paint that remain flexible after drying. The painting will then have fewer cracks in the paint over time.
What's the Rule?
The "fat over lean" rule states that the bottom layers of paint are thinner, or "leaner," than the top layers.
Tonking
What is it?
It's an oil painting technique that lifts excess paint or pigment to produce a workable surface.
How to Perform Tonking
If too much paint has been applied in a thick layer, lay absorbent paper over the area while it is wet. Smooth it down with the palm of your hand and then gently peel it away. This will lift the excess pigment and produce a workable surface. You can then repaint the area using the "ghosted" image remaining on the canvas as a guideline.
Color
What is it?
'Color' is all around us. It adds excitement and emotion to our lives. Everything revolves around color, the clothes we wear, the pictures we paint, and our environment. Without color, the world would be a much less attractive place.
How to Navigate Color Space?
There's a whole section on navigating color and color space. Click to learn more.
Materials or Supplies
Includes unique types or brands.
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| Oil Paints |
Oil paint develops a specific consistency depending on the medium used to apply it. It has a slow drying time unless a medium is used to speed it up. The Viscosity or consistency of the paint may be modified by adding a solvent such as turpentine or white spirits, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the dried oil paint film.
Preferred Brands
Water-miscible oil paint (also called water-soluble oil paint or water-mixable oil paint) is oil paint, either engineered or containing an emulsifier, that can be thinned and cleaned up with water. These paints allow you to avoid using volatile organic compounds such as turpentine, which can be harmful if inhaled.
Preferred Brands
- Holbein
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| Gamblin Oil Mediums |
Painters often use mediums for oil or different types in the same painting, depending on specific pigments and desired effects. Other oils used include poppy seed, walnut, and safflower. These oils confer the various properties of the oil paint and have unique qualities, such as less yellowing or different drying times. The types of oil create distinct differences in the painting's sheen as well.
Most oil paints contain driers in some colors to shorten drying times to a range of 2 to 10 days. This helps to prevent problems with slow-drying colors and is perfectly safe for the paint film when controlled by experienced chemists.
Fortunately, the drying rates of colors are rarely a problem because colors are almost always mixed on the palette, so drying times tend to equalize.
Liquin
All Liquin mediums will halve the drying time of oil colors, from 2-12 days to 1-6 days.
Gesso Primer
It may seem odd to start the oil painting mediums section with what is, in fact, an acrylic medium. However, it's widely used as a base coat for oil painting on art canvases. Comments for gesso regarding acrylic paint mediums apply equally to oil painting mediums.
Turpentine
The best-known thinner and cleaner for oil paints and brushes. Use the distilled artist's version rather than the household version for the best finishes on your painting. Traditionally mixed 50/50 with linseed oil for an excellent medium. However, its powerful odor is never welcome in the house and may irritate some artists.
Low Odor Thinners
An excellent substitute for turpentine in all the areas mentioned above - without the smell!
Linseed Oil
After turps, probably the best-known oil painting medium. On its own, it gives colors a high gloss. Added to colors, it produces a glaze effect. Used 50/50 with turpentine or low-odor thinners, it provides a suitable, general-purpose paint medium for oil painting. Slows down drying time. It can go a little more yellow over time than some oils.
White spirit
A cheaper version of low-odor thinners and turps. Ok, for thinning paints for under-painting, but not for quality work. Fine for cleaning brushes.
Prepared Oil Painting Mediums
Depending on the manufacturer, a combination of white spirit and other oils provides a ready-mixed, user-friendly paint diluent. A beginner could use this instead of mixing their own combination of oils and other additives.
Stand Oil
A faster-drying version of linseed oil. Reduces paint consistency and brush marks.
Poppy Oil
For adding lighter colors and white. It is less inclined to be yellow than linseed oil. However, it is a slower-drying medium.
Gold size
Although primarily intended for applying gold leaf, it provides a relatively fast-drying oil-based paint medium.
Alkyd Gel & Liquid Oil Painting Mediums
Alkyd oil paints are known for their faster drying time than traditional oil colors. Alkyd paint mediums can be added to conventional oil paints to reduce drying time by up to 50%. It can also be used as a glazing medium. Like acrylics, the glazing technique involves painting a translucent color over a dry color. The lower one glows through but is affected by the density of the top glaze. Creating misty or smoky backgrounds is an excellent example of a glaze.
White Alkyd Paint
Strictly speaking, this isn't a painting medium, but I use it a lot to speed the drying of conventional oils when I want a lighter tint or a highlight rather than a glaze. When mixed with other colors, the white alkyd paint behaves like the alkyd gel but maintains the color's opacity.
Gloss or Matt Picture Varnish
A spirit-based varnish, equally at home on acrylics as well as oils. Dries to a gloss finish and will not yellow or bloom. Gloss and matt varnishes can be mixed to give a satin finish. It can be removed with turpentine or white spirit.
Retouching Varnish
A thin varnish can be painted over a touch-dry painting to 'lift' areas where the oil has sunk into the canvas, leaving dull spots. It can also be used as a temporary varnish for exhibitions, where thicker paint on a recently completed painting may take many months to dry completely. It can be removed before or left underneath the final varnish coat.
Damar Varnish
Dries in a few hours with a satin-medium gloss. Removable.
Resources
Click on the tabs below.
Paints
Color Mixing
- Color Mixing Tips & Techniques - Blick Materials
- How to Match Any Color with Oil Paint - by Mark Carder
- How to Make Color Charts - by Pat Fiorello
How To
- Draw Mix Paint - by Mark Carder
- How to Load Your Brush with Paint - by Mark Carder
