Page 6 - Paints
Painting is the application of colorants to a surface that creates an image, design, or decoration. In art, painting describes both the act and the result. Most painting is created with pigment in liquid form applied with a brush. In this section, get answers on how to make artists paint, select surfaces, and apply paint. We discuss different types of paint binders, such as oil, acrylic, encaustic, cold wax, watercolors, and tempera. You'll also find detailed discussions about pigments and additives used in artists's paint and how to choose them for your art.
Over time, the appearance of paintings change not only because of accumulated dirt but also because aging itself alters the materials that make up the painting. Besides the build-up of dust, dirt, and grime (i.e., soot, nicotine, etc.), the gradual yellowing and cracking of the varnish layer alters the image. This article gives artists practical and safer methods to clean their own paintings than what is currently taught or practiced by artists. The cleaning methods demonstrated in this article apply specifically to oil paintings, but the techniques and materials can also be used with additional precautions on gouache and tempera paintings...
The second step in cleaning paintings is the removal of more tenacious dust and dirt by dry cleaning with dry sponges or tacky materials. Further cleaning may require the use of aqueous cleaning methods...
The first step in cleaning a painting is the removal of loose dust and dirt. This can be accomplished with brushing, dusting, or vacuuming. Further cleaning may require the use of dry cleaning materials and aqueous cleaning methods...
The final step in cleaning a painting is by methods using water. Water is more invasive than dusting and dry cleaning, but is effective in removing contaminants that adhere to the painting’s surface...
Rublev Colours lead whites are made with basic lead carbonate (made according to modern processes) ground in oil without additives (such as stearates, a common pigment stabilizer found in all other commercial brands) to alter the characteristics of the pigment. As a result, you get a higher pigment volume concentration (PVC) than other brands of lead white (flake white). This means most brands of flake white in oversized tubes do not weigh nearly as much as Rublev Colours lead white in our standard 50-milliliter tube. Yet, Rublev Colours Lead White is not overly stiff and mixes well with all other oil colors...
This is a tutorial on preparing the grinding tools and dispersing pigments into the water to make your water-based paint. This technique can be used to prepare dispersions of pigment in water to be mixed with gum arabic solution for watercolors, egg yolk for egg tempera, casein solution for casein paint, animal glue for distemper, and use in fresco painting. The same technique can be used to disperse pigments in preparation for making pastels and pigment sticks...
In his book, Les Elémens de Peinture pratique, Roger de Piles describes a typical flesh tone palette of the 17th century. On this palette is a dark yellow color, stil de grain, a lake pigment made with unripe buckthorn berries...
A paper by scientists at the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute exposes long-term problems with zinc white in oil paint. The report “The Chemical and Mechanical Effects of Pigments on Drying Oils” describes the highlights of a 28-year study on the stability and strength of oil paint films. The results reveal important implications for artwork made with artists’ oil paints containing zinc white...
How Fred Wessel uses Rublev Colours, Aqueous Pigment Dispersions made by Natural Pigments, and dry pigment powders in his tempera paintings. The dispersions eliminate the step of dispersing pigments in water, allowing him to spend more time at the easel and less with the muller and grinding surface...
Asphaltum and bitumen are broad terms for many substances based on high-molecular hydrocarbons. From the viewpoint of current art historical research, bitumen represents a large group of organic substances, which consist of an indefinable mixture of high-molecular hydrocarbons. Bitumen either occurs naturally or is obtained from the synthetic distillation of petroleum. Depending upon its place of origin or technique of manufacturing, bitumen possesses a composition of different characteristics...
In the 17th century, Roger de Piles described in precise detail the flesh tone palette used by nearly every artist of that time in his seminal treatise, Les Élémens de Peinture Pratique. This painting manual influenced artists for several hundred years and established the current practice of setting a limited palette and a rational approach to painting portraits among the greatest artists of that period. In this article, we translate chapter four from the original 1684 French manual and explain how contemporary artists can set the limited 17th-century palette for flesh tones using Rublev Colours® Artists’ Oils...
It’s not often that a brand-new fine art medium comes along. Ceracolors is a new artist-grade paint made from quality pigments in a water-soluble wax binder. Although made from wax, Ceracolors are not encaustic paints because they do not require heat, solvents, or mediums...
