The original recipe you mention is a very standard recipe for a medium. It is solid, except I would standard linseed and not stand oil. You don’t need to buy from W&N, you just need to get some decent quality materials and since the three ingredients are quite common I am sure you’ll be able to get them without much problem.

On the other hand, your suggestion for a medium is bound to fail. Reason is that dammar only dissolves properly in turpentine. In general, odourless mineral spirits are rather “weak” solvents and won’t dissolve any resin. For artificial resins (I am thinking of alkyds, like Liquin) some version of white spirit should be used at least. There are a few alkyd resins which don’t require solvent. I’ll get back to them later. Natural resins like dammar or copal are harder and demand turpentine. In the case of amber it is even worse, as not even room temperature turpentine will dissolve it. Also take into account that stand oil is thicker than “standard” linseed oil.

Anyway. Why not trying a premixed medium first? Getting a well balanced medium for your needs is a bit of an art. I find myself using a lot of premixed medium despite knowing how to make it myself. It is cheap, convenient, and when properly balanced it is very easy to use (just add a little linseed oil for each glazing layer). There are several recipes around this forum which you can/should try but I believe that a standard commercial medium is a good start point to get you used to mediums after which you can go and choose your own according to what you have found.

Suggestions? Well, here are the mediums I use

– The very medium you were suggested of linseed/dammar/turps. I just buy it premade, it is quite cheap here, around 4 dollars for 240 ml: https://www.zonadelarte.com.mx/BARNICETA-TIPO-ALEMANA-PINTO-240-ML-,592_1468038630

– If in a rush I use Liquin, especially for glazing.

– When weather is cold and I can’t open windows and use an exhaust fan (I HATE the fumes from solvents) I use Gamblin’s solvent free. It comes in a consistence similar to that of oil paint (it is pretty much just oleogel plus resin) and also in a fluid version which is slightly runnier than linseed oil. Both use safflower oil, so yellowing should be minimal. You can dilute it with solvent for some uses but, of course, it denies the advantages of a solvent free medium.

– If I am doing what I call large area/thin layer painting like a background or a monochromatic layer in a single sitting and I don’t want to use any solvent I use Schmincke Medium W. It allows me to use my oil paints with water as solvent. It also dries fast but it is quite glossy (which is a moot point if Liquin is going to be used later).

Anyway. Go for it. Either home made or store bought, the standard dammar/turps/linseed is a solid medium if the smell is ok for you. Don’t attempt your “mod medium”, tho. It won’t yield good results.

“Stand oil takes long to dry, dries to an excellent strong glossy paint film. Problem is when you want to paint over it the paint beads right off of it like water on a freshly waxed car. SO, you have to either A. put something else in your medium to make it stick to the dried stand oil, or B. make the dried surface more receptive to the new paint by dabbing or rubbing some solvent on it – which will most likely take up some of the dried paint.”

Of late I’ve been using stand oil based putty with marble dust and this doesn’t dry gloss for me. A little talc makes it even more matte in the early layers.

50% Linseed oil + 40% White Spirit +10% MSA (mineral spirit acrylic varnish)
my go to medium. I use alkyd, but add it directly into poor/slowly drying paint piles.

Ditch the stand oil, damar, all that stuff and try a simple medium of 1/2 odorless mineral spirits and 1/2 good linseed oil. I’ve used everything you’ve mentioned in your ingredient list and have very good reasons to -not- use them anymore.

Stand oil takes long to dry, dries to an excellent strong glossy paint film. Problem is when you want to paint over it the paint beads right off of it like water on a freshly waxed car. SO, you have to either A. put something else in your medium to make it stick to the dried stand oil, or B. make the dried surface more receptive to the new paint by dabbing or rubbing some solvent on it – which will most likely take up some of the dried paint.

Damar sucks. Period. Dries super glossy like stand oil, makes the paint take longer to dry, will get sticky during a painting session (oh how fun blending is when you have 2 hour old damar in your medium, like painting with maple syrup) and WILL COLLECT DUST LIKE CRAZY. A totally unnecessary addition to a medium.

Also, you mix up the medium I’ve suggested and you can use the same one in every layer of your painting – no different jars with different ratios. Nothing really wrong with that, but unnecessary busywork.

Conservators – and many modern painters – would totally agree with the above. Various ingredients in mediums should only be used if you personally have a specific reason to use that ingredient. Damar is definitely in that category – unless you have a specific reason to use it, you can easily avoid it. More negative attributes than positive, and you would need turps, which should be avoided due to its toxicity.

Don

I say avoid damar. I believe that it darkens with age a lot worse than oil and is mostly responsible for why old oil paintings in museums look so dark and dim. And I also suspect that it leads to cracking more than just using oil.

I would just use a low viscosity oil like safflower or walnut if the paint out of the tube are too thick. It works fine.

But if you intend to paint thick impasto, then use an alkyd medium specifically advertised as an impasto medium.

Here is a very close resemblance to the medium Richard Schmid uses who seems to be hugely popular in this forum. Its ‘Dammar Glaze Medium’ manufactured by Michael Harding. And boy what a wonderful container!No safety lid here.

http://www.michaelharding.co.uk/product/dammar-glaze-medium/