Home Forums Explore Media Oil Painting The Technical Forum Panic! Dead spots in oil painting

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  • #483075
    aliciapaints
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        Hi all! I’m new to WetCanvas and I’m in a panic situation and hope someone can lend some advice. I have an oil painting that had sunken in “dead spots” that I tried to help with oiling out. The medium that I used during my painting was linseed but for the first time I tried a mix of Galkyd/ Gamsol to oil out. I may have been impatient but that did not help with the dead spots so I then did a coat of very light linseed oil overtop, which seemed to make matters worse. Fast forward to me panicking further when that didn’t work and trying to redo the background altogether and repaint it (omg just seeing this all in writing is embarrassing). Anyway, the painting is due for drop off tomorrow for an exhibit and it’s understandibly a mess. Do I have any chance of salvaging it or should I just surrender? It’s not dry to touch obviously and likely won’t be by morning, so need solution that is ok with wet-ish paint. Is it too risky to apply a retouch varnish if it’s not completely dry? Please help! Thank you!

        #936882
        Don Ketchek
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            Well, sunken in matte areas are pretty common in oil paintings – and you seemingly have done all the recommended procedures (oiling out, repainting) – and since that didn’t help, I would just accept things as they are at this point. If oiling out didn’t help, then it’s likely that retouch varnish won’t either.

            So the best advice I can give is just leave it alone and realize that most people looking at the painting won’t notice and/or won’t care.

            Don

            #936893
            aliciapaints
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                Thanks, Don. Do you think in the morning if it is mostly dry to touch that I can add another galkyd/gamsol layer, or is that too risky and may make matters worse?

                #936889
                contumacious
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                    Was the painting fully dry before you did the oiling out processes?

                    Are the oiled out layers still wet or are they tacking up?

                    #936890
                    contumacious
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                        If the painting was fully dry before you applied the stuff to it and it isn’t drying in time to deliver it and you don’t want to deliver it wet, you may want to try removing all of it with some Gamsol. Test in a small, unimportant area and watch for lifting of color. Small amounts of color lifting are usually not a problem but if the painting starts to look different, then don’t do it. If it has tacked up, you may not be able to remove it.

                        Adding more Galkyd on top of not dried stuff will only extend the drying time, so probably not a good idea.

                        #936883
                        Anonymous

                            Fast forward to me panicking further when that didn’t work and trying to redo the background altogether and repaint it (omg just seeing this all in writing is embarrassing). Anyway, the painting is due for drop off tomorrow for an exhibit and it’s understandibly a mess. Do I have any chance of salvaging it or should I just surrender? It’s not dry to touch obviously and likely won’t be by morning, so need solution that is ok with wet-ish paint. Is it too risky to apply a retouch varnish if it’s not completely dry? Please help! Thank you!

                            sorry for your distress, everyone makes mistakes and that is what I think you should tell the people doing the exhibit, that this one is just not suitable at this time.
                            Retouch varnish is the best thing to use for such a short time frame, but it is too late for that, the painting should be dry.
                            All you can do is to place it in a very warm, not hot, environment, and or spray it with some of this stuff called Krylon Fast Dry, which I have never used and can’t really vouch for, but they claim that it does accelerate the curing/drying process.

                            #936887
                            JCannon
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                                Gamvar. The only varnish that can be applied before the painting has cured. It’ll probably do a very nice job of evening things out. Seems to me that only a final varnish can solve your problem at this stage.

                                But even Gamvar should not be applied until the painting has been dry to the touch for two or three weeks.

                                My favorite final varnish is copal (REAL copal), but you must wait five or six months before applying it. Copal yellows over time, and it’s very hard, which makes it difficult or impossible to remove (especially in contrast to Gavar, which comes off rather easily). But it sure looks nice.

                                #936891
                                Richard P
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                                    Oil paints oxidise with heat, light and oxygen.

                                    Got a greenhouse? Or a car you can leave the painting inside in the sunlight and get it really warm with the heaters?

                                    #936885
                                    Gigalot
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                                        Before making oiling out you need to well cure your painting. Or non-cured underlayer will completely absorb new oil and the painting still became sunk-in.

                                        #936894
                                        aliciapaints
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                                            Thank you everyone! The opening isn’t until next Friday and they are allowing me the week to resolve the issue. I’m hoping that it dries by Wed and I can maybe do another oiling out if there are still dead spots. I’m hesitant to varnish with gamvar or retouch Varnish because of the finality and lack of ability to rework if it doesn’t help. Here is a pic of the painting. Any other tips would be appreciated. So happy to be part of this resourceful community!

                                            Alicia

                                            #936881
                                            WFMartin
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                                                aliciapaints,

                                                I gotta’ admit, I cringed when you mentioned that you had “oiled out” with Galkyd, primarily because the only painting I had that seemed to have dried thoroughly, and then, months afterward (after having been framed), suddenly became sticky, and tacky again I had used Galkyd as my medium. I’ve never used it again.

                                                The oiling out process performs best when a light coat of Linseed Oil is applied with a soft rag, and then wiped off with a dry rag about 2 minutes after having been applied. Of course it will appear as though it has “dead spots” after oiling out, if you don’t wipe the excess off.

                                                However, even though the oiling-out process does seem to have left dead spots, the effect of the oiling out process has, in fact, filled in the porous areas that are causing the dead appearance, thereby allowing the subsequent varnish to do its job of evening out the finish, totally.

                                                ‘Tis the VARNISH that provides the final, even, sheen to a finished oil painting, and not the oiling-out. The oiling-out process merely “sizes” the dull areas, allowing the varnish to do its job, and to create an nice, even sheen across the entire painting.

                                                Your best approach is to allow all the drying time you can for the painting, hoping that Galkyd has not caused the surface to remain, or become “sticky”, or “tacky”, for a very long time. Once it has dried, then apply GamVar Varnish, as someone has already suggested. It can be applied over a recently dried surface without any nasty repercussions.

                                                wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
                                                https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

                                                #936888
                                                JCannon
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                                                    Now that I’ve seen the actual painting — which is quite lovely — I have to agree with Bill Martin. Gamvar really is the solution here. You don’t have to worry about “finality” because Gamvar is removable with OMS.

                                                    Will the painting be sufficiently dry within a week? Dunno.

                                                    I definitely would have recommended against Galkyd or any other alkyd for “oiling out” purposes. Alkyds can make paint dry faster, but sometimes a clear alkyd layer will stay tacky for weeks.

                                                    Last ditch solution: Just before exhibition, you can “oil out” with OMS. Just OMS, not anything else. I’ve found that it restores a certain luster, although the effect is temporary.

                                                    #936886
                                                    Gigalot
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                                                        I can still recommend to do oiling out after about a month of drying time because final varnish used on sunk-in surface looks uneven. One layer of Gamvar can’t help to prevent absorbency, while two layers will be uneven because fresh Gamvar will dissolve dried Gamvar undelayer and make it chaotically uneven. Final varnish must be applied thinly and never thickly on top of EVEN painting surface.

                                                        #936884
                                                        Anonymous

                                                            I tried a mix of Galkyd/ Gamsol to oil out. I may have been impatient but that did not help with the dead spots so I then did a coat of very light linseed oil overtop….It’s not dry to touch obviously and likely won’t be by morning,

                                                            Alkyd haters must have not understood the poster at all.
                                                            The not dry yet problem is entirely due to linseed oil only.
                                                            The issue is not that Galkyd did not dry, as others are suggesting, which does dry much faster than any regular binding oil, bar none.
                                                            The issue is that linseed was applied, so the dire warnings need to be directed solely at linseed oil.
                                                            And still the dead spots are there, and using linseed oil only for the medium!

                                                            The medium that I used during my painting was linseed

                                                            no alkyd was used in the painting itself.
                                                            Linseed oil must be evil, not alkyd :lol:

                                                            #936892
                                                            Ed Hopper
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                                                                Lots of different opinions here. Take yer pick which one sounds the best. Nice pics btw.

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