Whites

One of my students called me over today to ask why her mixtures containing white weren't covering up her "mistakes" (her word). I looked at the tube and found she was using zinc white.Now, zinc white is transparent and then I thought a few more beginners here may be having a similar problem so I thought I would put something on here about white oil paint. If you look on the side of the tube it will tell you that some colours are transparent and some are opaque. (Some are also semitransparent) Anyway if you want a white with good covering power titanium is the best all round opaque white, while zinc is best left for glazes. Flake white is also transparent or semi opaque but it is unlikely that the beginner will encounter that, as it is only sold in tins now due to its high toxiticy,unless you have an old tube passed on to you by someone else. Generally white shoud not be used in the early stages of a painting as it is slow drying and if you cover it with a fast drying pigment it will result in cracking. The exception is underpainting white, which has drying accelerators added and is intended for this purpose. (They are not kidding either, I used some underpainting white and it was getting tacky after about 2 hours!)Underpainting white is also useful as a general white if you want your pics to dry quicker, say on holiday and you want to bring them back home safely. There we are all you need to know about white.