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Watching paint dry
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Posted
I came across a video a while ago of likeable artist Charlie Hunter painting with water mixables. He uses a load of water with his paint. It's an advert for a longer video but it's plenty to get the gist of what he does. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki4Tk9WrMI4 the demo starts at 26.03 if you want to skip the intro. I found it different and interesting.
Posted
Just finished watching it, though I did skip most of the introduction; interesting talk at the end, with Hunter and another painter whose name I didn't catch. They referred to the recently deceased Richard Schmid (ded in 2021); a very different painter from Hunter.
To paint as Hunter does, you would HAVE to use either water-miscible oils, or conventional oils with a lot of Turps. He's basically monochromatic, and uses the canvas to give his whites; there's another US painter, whose name I've forgotten for the moment, who does much the same, but with Turps - both use a range of devices (squeegee, kitchen towels) to remove paint in order to show the lights. It can be a very effective technique, and I see he achieves a lot of variety in his work.
Interesting that he says you can't get Viridian in Cobra w/m paints: Viridian isn't compatible with acrylic, either, for similar reasons I imagine - i.e. it won't disperse properly with water.
Given his palette consists of Van Dyke brown (a colour that varies enormously between makers), Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre, and an Olive Green, and not much else - no cadmiums, none of the brighter colours - it's not a great test of water-miscible oils for the rest of us: but for him, they do the job admirably; I'd be more than happy to use them this way ... I think the only w/m colours I have right now are olive green, and cadmium orange (excuse: I was broke; had no cad orange and couldn't afford the real thing so bought the w/m substitute and used it with my regular oils: it was an interesting choice, coming out as a pink.... ).
I have to advise anyone against using the Cobra medium in safflower oil - I know he's not bothered by the verdict of centuries hence, but safflower oil can cause problems (like re-liquefying) long before a century has passed; but if you do want to use that medium, another manufacturer (he mentions it in the video) uses Linseed Oil.
Thanks for the link, it was certainly interesting and, as you (Collette) said, Hunter is very likeable; and there's a lot of good advice in his practical demo section.
Posted
I bought some very cheap canvas panels from The Range just before Christmas; turns out the oil paint just won’t dry on them! After two months, the paint still felt sticky to the touch and flakes came off when I tried to add layers. I won’t use them again - consider my lesson learned - but wondered what the issue might have been? I’ve looked online but can’t see any reference to the painting surface causing this problem. I wasn’t doing or using anything else differently. Have now reverted to W&N panels and drying time has returned to normal.
Posted
I tend to use water mixable oils when doing demos in class but the college is pretty good with oils and odorless thinners. The water mixable is a different beast though. As Norrette said, if too much water is used it becomes a problem that I don't encounter when thinning 'real' oils. I remember learning about the 30% rule with acrylics many years ago - not to add more water than 30% or the pigment separates from the carrier and brushes off like dust. I think I've used more water than 30% without any problem but it's a decent rule of thumb - at least it's worth being aware there might be a problem. Robert would probably be better informed on this rule than I.
Posted
Don't know about better informed, but - I do think that rule doesn't make a lot of sense when using acrylics today: it might have done once. and might still do in relation to some brands. Always worth being cautious though, and while I don't use mediums with acrylic as much as I really ought to, and probably do overdo the water, there is one brand at least of which it's claimed it can take a great deal of dilution, to the extent it resembles ink or watercolour - that brand being Chromacolour. I use it - I like it - the only snag is that they won't tell you what's IN it, even down to elementary information like pigment numbers. This betrays its origins - it was used in the US film cartoon industry, for painting the cellulose (? I've forgotten!)* cells. It claims to be lightfast, and all my usage of it confirms that it is, and that it adheres well to paper; it has also behaved well on canvas/canvas board, except in one case - I think the problem there was the quality of the board (an import from India); but I'm more cautious now about using just water with it on anything other than watercolour paper.
*acetate; not sure if that's the same thing!
Posted
Hi folks, thanks for your comments. The Harding paint was a large tube of terra verte! Thanks for the link Collette I'll look at that later. Progress on my experiment hasn't advanced much. The tonking helped a little, but still touch wet. ( However, is my idea of touch wet, incorrect? ie if the edge of my hand picks up some paint, is that touch wet?) My surface is the Daley Rowney oil board at the moment, A4, without gesso, I have some Jacksons boards which I'll graduate to.
I'm wondering if the wet weather has any impact, they are water mixable after all. The real oil paint ground was dry a couple of days ago, but I've been busy this week.