Page 5 - Paints

During the first decade of the 20th century, a startling phenomenon was witnessed in exhibitions of oil paintings throughout France: “at retrospective exhibitions of art, many modern pictures which on their first appearance were greatly admired for their brilliance and freshness, seemed so darkened and tarnished as to be hardly recognizable.” The author links the reason for this phenomenon to the practice of oiling out and the application of retouch varnish. In the first part article of a series, James Robinson exposes this faulty practice and shows how it developed as a remediation of sinking in from the 18th century to the present...

Making stack process flake white (or lead white made according to the "old Dutch method") is time-consuming and prone to variations in the resulting pigment. These variations are not surprising and were well known from literature and historical documents of the process by manufacturers of lead white. It was a major issue of the process that manufacturers dealt with in various ways. This article describes the reasons for the variations and how these may be useful to artists...

Studies of the reaction of painting supports, oils, and pigments to changes in the environment during the past hundred years make it possible to understand the behavior of paintings. Modern commercial oil paints present new issues to conservators as they observe defects in paint films caused by new pigments and additives used in their formulations...

Lead sulfate (British spelling, sulphate) formed the basis of several white pigments that were made on a large scale in the 19th and 20th centuries and sold under a variety of names, such as "Patent White Lead," "Non-poisonous White Lead," "Sublimed White Lead," etc. Some of these pigments did not consist entirely of lead sulfate but contained other minerals, such as zinc oxide, barite (barium sulfate), magnesia (magnesium carbonate), etc., in varying quantities...

It’s not possible to physically blend egg tempera paint once it’s been applied because reworking fresh paint dissolves and lifts underlying layers. Thus whatever tool is used to apply egg tempera leaves behind its mark: A brushstroke stays visibly a brushstroke, sponged on paint, and carries the imprint of the sponge. This “mark making” tendency means egg tempera is ideal for rendering fine details, crisp textural effects, and other linear elements. The challenge in tempera is to create smooth, mark-free transitions...

Teresa Oaxaca has been using transparent pigments for about a year and a half now, and a blog post of this nature has been on her to-do list ever since. Seldom very popular (unless the paint tube is labeled the ever famous "transparent oxide yellow"), little known and less understood, most people question why someone would want to go to the trouble of producing, let alone painting with a weak pigment. In the age of cadmium and other bright hi-keyed pigments, earth colors have come into question. Why not mix it down? Why settle for a lower chroma...

It is an old saying that rules are meant to be broken. No one did this more successfully than Rembrandt. For instance, the rich red in the tablecloth in the Syndics is obtained by glazing a translucent red over brown instead of a brighter red. Rules are meant to be broken, but it is necessary to know them first. Read more about these painting rules...

This rule appears to confuse so many artists or is ignored completely by others. Perhaps a better way to express the rule "always paint fat on lean" is always paint a slower-drying paint film over a faster-drying film. Think about the last applied paint film being more flexible than the paint film underneath. Another way to clarify this rule is to add a little more oil in the last application of paint than was included in the paint layer just covered or not to dilute with solvent the last applied layer any more than the previous one was thinned...

A whitish surface appearance on oil paintings is a phenomenon of modern oil paintings. While such hazes have traditionally been described by painters as blooming or blanching, the nomenclature has not yet caught up with the different causes. Other terms currently used are efflorescence, exudation, fatty acid deposit or migration, saponification, crystallization, chalking, mold, and ghost images...

It is no coincidence that the palette in the self-portrait by Michael Sweerts is practically identical to the palette described in detail by Roger de Piles in his 1684 book Les Premiers Elémens de Peinture Pratique. Sweerts was a contemporary of de Piles, and it appears that his palette was laid out in the manner practiced throughout western Europe in the 17th century...

I have been working with Rublev Colours Artist Oils for several years. So much so that my palette is nearly entirely comprised of their colors, and for my students, you can buy the colors on the palette that I use in my workshops. This is for students who wish to use my full or limited palette. The list of materials is an integral part of my working palette, and it has been selected for fast drying time so that your progress in the workshop may run smoothly without the added difficulty of having to work over still-wet or tacky paint. You will notice many earth colors, umbers, and lead pigments. The oils that bind these pigments and that will be used as a medium also exemplify quick drying times...

If you’re interested in Rublev Colours Artist Oils or were thinking about buying my paint set, this video will acquaint you with how I prepare my palette. Many of the colors require some personalization before I use them. You'll see it in the video...