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Mediums - what do YOU use?
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Posted
I've become intrigued by what people are using most commonly (if there is a common denominator) as the medium for use with their paint, and also what they use to clean up the palette afterwards - assuming they DO clean it.
On the medium - recently, trawling through Facebook and various forums - I've encountered: plain old Linseed oil; Walnut oil; Safflower oil; W & N oil painting medium; Daler-Rowney and several other brands ditto; Liquin; stand oil/sun thickened Linseed/'bodied' oil; Zest-It; no medium, or next to none, at all; oleogel, from the US; Maroger medium; Megilp/Neo-megilp; and various other gels and oils - many of which would be sound enough, some of which are of very dubious quality. And of course we have Ross/Wm Alexander products, like 'liquid or magic clear', 'liquid/magic white'.
There also seem to be a variety of solvents in use - Turpentine; Turpenoid; Artists' White Spirit; Sansodor; Low Odour Thinners; Zest-it, again; and a thinner I discovered the other day called Safer Solvent - claimed to be a White Spirit substitute, water-based, odour-free and less environmentally hazardous. But no good for mixing with paint for actual painting, just for removing it from the palette.
And that leads to the palette - do you clean yours, religiously? Do you build up little minarets of colour round the edge, leaving the centre clear for mixing? Do you just let the paint sit where it lies and squeeze out more when you need it but don't scrub off the old stuff? If you do clear and clean your palette, do you use White Spirit or similar; Zest-it; or even Johnson's Baby Oil, which I saw recommended the other day as a palette and brush cleaner (tried it - not impressed)?
I've used a lot of these things myself in the past; and have come to the view that the best way to clean your palette is to employ a studio assistant, and let them do it for you..... Except I can't afford to, sadly.
I should be very interested to hear of your practices in these things - given I'm planning a revised edition of my e-book Oil Paint Basics at some point, and best practice is of interest to me and would be in any case, of course. Share your tried and trusted methods!
Posted
I don't generally paint in oils but I do use oil bars. To clean up afterwards I use a bottle of white spirit. I keep it topped up from a large container of it which I keep in the workshop along with all my decorating paraphernalia. So much cheaper than all the purpose made solutions and always at hand. Okay a bit of smell but no worse than the smell of the paint itself.
Posted
I'm the opposite to Michael in that I almost exclusively paint in oils these days.
I like to keep things very simple, generally using W & N Distilled English Turpentine to use as a thinning agent and will perhaps add a touch of Liquin during the final process. I also buy the 2.5 ltr bottles of white spirit to clean off my palette, that's after scraping what dried stuff has been left on there with a palette knife. Quite often these days I also have a piece of hardboard or an offcut of MDF when working in the studio, these make adequate mixing palettes if you aren't going to hold it, them: after two of three uses, when the paint has built up too much simply throw it in the bin.
Posted
I've used various mediums and combinations for oil paint but am currently using Michael Harding Refined Linseed Stand Oil mixed with W&N Artists White Spirit 33:67 (or thereabouts). The mix (but not necessarily the makers) was suggested by H-J Summers and seems to work OK. I have used mixes of Gamsol and Galkyd 50:50 which worked but got very sticky and thick if kept for any time, which the current concoction seems to avoid. I have had decent results with Liquin Original and as there's a practically unused bottle of it in my studio it will very likely get used in the future. My main dislikes are straight linseed oil which if I am not careful makes the paint too 'slippy' and undiluted turps which I find thins the paint too quickly.
For cleaning my palettes, which are all 6mm mdf painted with mid-grey undercoat and finished with clear varnish, I use turps substitute from the local hardware store after scraping any hard residues with a palette knife.
I stick to the same materials whether in the studio or outdoors in the interest of consistency.
Posted
I am perfectly happy to use the traditional cleaning fluids and diluents for oils, but having been nagged by the other half to consider reducing the odour, I got him to fork out for a large bottle of Zest-It. I was, however, raised in evening classes on turps. I tend to use oil paint straight from the tube without much thinner of any sort, since the artist-quality paint tends to be nice and soft; but I dip the brush in zest-it first. I have a small bottle of W&N painting medium which I use occasionally. Since I usually paint fairly small work, I tend to finish them in a few hours, rather than building paint up over several weeks. Cleaning up, I scrape the remaining paint that has been mixed in the middle of the palette and sometimes dump it on the edge (with a view to using it thinned as a white-panel "killer" for a future work); other paint that has been squeezed out around the edge in colour-circle order tends to be left there. It forms a skin but I can puncture it later and retrieve the paint. I clean the middle of the palette with a paper towel and a small puddle of zest-it (or turps sub if I can find it in the shed).
I have a traditional wooden rectangle palette around 12x9 inches; and three other smaller ones made of what looks like formica....I inherited them from someone else. I also have a little pochade box 6x8 inches, which has a wooden palette....they all get cleaned the same way. When the paint has built up too much I scrape it all off with a wallpaper scraper (more like chiselling, really).
Posted
I like the soundness of your collective choices - (I laid a slight trap for you, wondering if any of you mix dammar varnish with your medium: clever people, you don't!). I'm interested to hear about the Gamsol experience - I've not yet used it; might not, now... But I think Peter (Stub) is talking about what happens to it when left for a bit - a perpetual problem with Liquin, too. Now, how do you find Zest-it, oily dust? I keep meaning to buy some, haven't - I'd like to hear how you feel about it.
In my last grande oeuvre - one hates to be pretentious - I've use Linseed oil and a tiny drop of Sansodor so far, but only in the later stages, because I agree that too much medium isn't necessary; indeed, I don't always use any at all. But I needed something to get the paint moving in places this time. I know what Stub means by slippery paint - you can so easily find yourself sliding through mud, but again the great thing is to keep all mediums to the base minimum, I think: 95% of the time, the paint itself will do all the work you need and to add medium as a matter of course, as some do, is asking for trouble. (I saw three double dippers on one well-known painter's video - turps, Liquin, stand oil, Linseed, Walnut .... at a guess. I couldn't be doing with all that.)
Thanks all for sharing your experience, it's been very useful and please, others - chip in. (There will be more little quizzes like this in due course.) In passing, I like W & N painting medium - I have a sliver left - must get some more. And Margaret - couldn't agree more; I love oil paint, but the cleaning up afterwards IS a pain in the neck and there's no getting round it. I know I'll clean my palette, much though I hate doing so, because I just hate a claggy palette, but Oily - yup: chiselling it describes it well. And I hate seeing expensive paint being wiped away - especially my Winsor & Newton Selected List Lemon Yellow, which I've eked out meanly over some 45 years.
Were I to offer a recommendation - I'd say Linseed and a little splash of Turps or a less toxic alternative; but Turps, being resinous, is quite good for oil paint. Just not so good for lungs.
Posted
Robert invited others to chip in, so I will. Read this when I got up first thing, and thought about it over breakfast (it's earlyish morning here). I've used just a little liquin to get paint moving. Recently I attended a workshop run by an excellent professional local artist, who works in oils. She makes up her own mix (afraid I can't tell you exactly what is in it), trusting to her expertise I bought a bottle and having been just touching the tip of my brush in it to move the paint around. It seems to work just fine, and is easier to get out of the bottle than liquin. When I first started using oils I thinned the underpainting with a product put out by Chroma (Aust company that produces the Atelier acrylic paints), called Archival Oils odourless solvent. However I now do the underpainting in acrylic. We're not allowed to use solvents where I go for my lessons as the room is not well ventilated enough. For cleaning brushes I sometimes use archival oil, or during a session baby oil (came across this in an article in either LP or The Artist), then at the end give brushes a good clean, ending with a Daler Rowney product called Water Washable Oil Brush Cleaner. Have used turps sometimes but always finish with the DR product as it seems to condition the brushes. Interested to know you can also use white spirits - doesn't harm the brushes? As for cleaning my palette I know you'll all throw up your hands in horror when I admit to being lazy and use the throw away sheets (started using them for acrylic which sets hard in no time and is a pain to remove). Have something like melamine I could use for oils, must look it out.
Posted
You certainly don't want to use too much solvent - hardly any is best. On the other hand you want the paint to move, and if linseed oil won't do that adequately, you'll need to cut it with something. On the whole, it SHOULD work, especially over half-dry/tacky paint. And if it doesn't , W & N painting medium will. Much can be achieved by letting the first coats dry out, though, and not rushing things - oil paint needs a while to settle and sink: once it's done that, you can add little touches on top, but don't overdo it. A little oil, even less low odour thinners; or even just oil, should do it.
Whatever else you do, please ignore Bob Ross's advice that 'thin paint will stick to thick paint': yes it will, it you're using Weber's thick oil paint, as he did, crammed with additives and extenders - but not if you're using good quality oil paint from major manufacturers.
Posted
Very easy to ignore BR's advice, seeing I have never seen any of his videos. In fact I'd never even heard of him until he was mentioned in the forum. The product I purchased from the local artist, used very sparingly, seems to move the paint, and I usually have more than one painting on the go, in order to let each layer dry before doing the next.