Linseed oil vs Stand oil

Thanks for this week's complete swine of a question, TB ...... I can't attempt a complete answer in a short space but will do my best to give a practical reply rather than a theoretical one - my own approach is to use turps/mineral spirits for the first blocking in, and preferably no medium at all for the subsequent layer: if you're using Titanium White, or Zinc White in later layers, there's enough oil in both to render additional medium unnecessary. If the paint is stiff, then I don't think a half and half mix of turps and linseed oil can readily be bettered (certainly don't mix varnish of any description with it). This way, you will retain the brush strokes you want to form part of your painting - one of the attractions of oil paint. The point is - keep the medium to a minimum. When you reach the final layers, you'll encounter two issues (I know you know this, but in explaining things I need to start from basics): one, it's hard to achieve flowing strokes - as you might wish to do for fine details, tree branches, twigs, grasses - just by using paint alone; two, there may be areas you wish to modify with transparent or semi-transparent glazes of colour: and without a bit of medium to help you, this can be hard work or impossible. The mediums I would use to thin the paint to make it more workable are the linseed/turps mix; or a ready-made painting medium; or Liquin. Of these, I prefer the medium mix I've got already, because it saves mucking about; you might want to add a little more linseed oil to it, or just mix Titanium white with it, which usually has enough oil to float a battleship. Stand oil is useful for the glazing - just mix a small quantity with your colour until it begins to look like coloured honey, and apply with a soft brush. It won't show brush marks, but should reflect any thick brush-marked paint beneath it. Stand oil is not good for helping with flowing strokes - because it doesn't flow if it's been properly made. But it can be used with opaque paint to make those sticky, thick highlights - say, on tree trunks of the edges of stones - which can bring a painting to life. You can also use Liquin for glazing - it comes in various forms: but if I have stand oil, I prefer to use it for that purpose as it has more viscosity and richness. I would not use stand oil in initial layers, ever, under any circumstances at all - almost anything else would be preferable - Liquin, painting medium, turps and linseed. There is no point in the suggestion you found on Wet Canvas to use stand oil and turps - the whole point about stand oil is that it's thick, gloopy, rich: what would be the point of thinning it? Not only that, but it will reliably crack any paint you lay over it. Neither stand oil nor sun-thickened linseed oil should be used in the early layers of a painting - best is to use no medium at all, until the moment you have to, and then use it sparingly. I hope you'll find some answer in there, but bear in mind I've been involved in the election campaign, managed just about no sleep for 36 hours and am only now fitfully catching up, and such is the state of my mind (especially given the result, over which we shall lightly pass) that it's quite possible my name is Susan and I'm typing this in a dream.....

Incidentally, you might find this link interesting - it has little directly to do with mediums, but I believe that, like me, you sometimes use stretched canvas, with which it deals. https://dub131.mail.live.com/?tid=cmygXaNfr05BGW-wAjfeSmzA2&fid=flinbox

No, the link just takes me (I don't know where it took you, if anywhere) to my Outlook Inbox, in which is concealed the incoming email which dealt with the canvas question. Try going to www.naturalpigments.com, and see if you can find the article on their site. It doesn't bear on mediums anyway, so it was a bit of a distraction.... I may do a blog piece on the subject, more out of curiosity about what others think than anything else. But not today. Drinkipoo with dinner..... Glad to see Syd agrees on the keep-it-simple-with-mediums approach; there are so many things you can use, but I think caution is generally the better way - on the grounds that the more you mix with paint, the less stable it tends to be. Even the experts (like Ralph Mayer) got it wrong in the past - I doubt that anyone would counsel mixing varnish with medium these days, as he did, for instance. I've got quite a nice dollop of stand oil, as it happens - nursed along by my own fair hand - but it's kept for special occasions: not something for which I'd reach as a matter of routine. Water solubles - I'll give 'em a proper try one day, but think I need to buy a set; and as I have so much conventional oil paint left, this may take me a while.

Agreed, it is. And I will. The article which I felt was of some interest wasn't specifically about mediums, though, but about supports - it suggested canvas was not an ideal support: well, I think we probably know that, the snag is what modern support is going to be that much better. I'll get down to this, anyway - so many things I'm supposed to be doing, and I don't want just to rush through a post which may be worse than useless....

http://www.painters-online.co.uk/art-community/blogview,issues-from-the-forum_13362.htm Here we go; hope this long post will be of some use. I agree entirely with you about both boards and canvas by the way - I've put a paragraph about that in there too.