Oil Paint Mediums - Recipes

[phobia]

Originally Posted by WFMartin

That seems to be "it" in a nutshell.

Fatness or leanness has to do with the oil to solvent ratio--more oil than solvent is a "fat" medium. More solvent than oil is a "lean" medium.

It has very little to do with viscosity (thick or thin). For example, I could use Stand Oil which is very "thick" (viscous), and dilute it with 5 parts of Turpentine, which would make it about the consistency of straight, Linseed Oil, but it would be an extraordinarily lean medium. So, while this diluted Stand Oil Medium may be the same consistency (viscosity) as the straight, Linseed Oil, it is much, much more lean than pure, Linseed Oil.

This concept actually is very handy, when you wish to work with lean and fat mediums, but want to maintain the same, approximate viscosity throughout.

Fat mediums (high oil to solvent ratio) tend to cause the painted film to flex as it dries slowly, so it is not appropriate to apply a lean medium (high solvent to oil ratio) over such a slow-drying, flexing layer of paint, because doing so can lead to the cracking of the upper, more brittle, faster-drying, lean layer.

Also, consider the idea that this very appropriate concept of painting fat over lean is not violated by painting fat over fat, or lean over lean. At no time are you placing a more brittle layer over a more flexible layer.

I always create my mediums by mixing some oil and some solvent together. Using a drying oil, alone (the "fattest" of all mediums), can cause very slow drying of the paint, and using a solvent, alone (the "leanest" of all mediums), can cause the paint to become underbound, a condition in which the oil binder of the paint is literally "washed off" the particles of pigment, leaving it to chalk off when touched, even after it has dried.

I enjoy these questions, and I hope that I have offered some bit of sound advice to you regarding this concept.

Thank you! This is all very helpful information. I have learned a lot from all of you
Cathy

[Tonalist]

Has anyone ever used muliple mediums in a work of art for the effect?

All I've ever used is linseed oil and turps or Liquin.. but I've been playing with the Idea of painting a landscape using a type of wax medium for the distant objects for it's dull apperence and maybe a copal type of medium for the foreground objects, thinking that maybe the contrast in dull/shine would visually help improve the arial perspective of the landscape.. any thoughts on this?

[Anwar]

Here's a simple easy one for you.

Linseed oil
to this mix in just enough manganeze violet (oil paint or pigment powder) to counteract the natural yellow color of the oil and then a bit more so that it is a barely discernable clear violet color. It dries faster and is a more a neutral color. I like it with walnut oil too. No need to cook the oil! nontoxic!
Glossy finish.
Using this medium in a 2 or 3 layer painting lends a semigloss finish.

[forsooth]

Thanks for the suggestion, Anwar, and for resurrecting this thread. I didn't know it was there.

I have a question about WFMartin's recipe. He uses, among other ingredients, 1 part linseed oil and 1 part walnut oil.

My question is, why the combination of oils? What is the contributing factors so that 2 oils (linseed and walnut) are more helpful than one?

[sidbledsoe]

Linseed is the most yellowing and fastest drying of common binding oils. Walnut is less yellowing and a bit slower drying. Walnut is also a little bit less viscous than linseed and feels more slippery. A mixture of any of the binding oils creates an in between type of oil mix, with the properties blended from each one. So a mix of these two would yeild an oil that is about midway in those properties, yellowing, drying rate, consistency or flow.
Safflower and poppy are more clear, less yellowing, dry slower still, etc.
So if you mix linseed and safflower together, as many paint makers do, you can get a resulting oil mix that is very similar in all ways to regular walnut oil.
Or you can mix those same two oils, in the right proportions, and wind up with a mix that would be virtually the same as the 50/50 linseed/walnut mix.
But the proportions may be different, for example a 50/50 linseed/walnut mix may be equal to something like a 70/30 linseed/safflower mix.
The binding oils and stand and sun thickened oils can all be mixed in any proportion desired.

[forsooth]

Sid, thanks for the clear explanation.

I've ordered the materials for WFMartin's recipe, but just wondered about the rationale behind the interesting linseed-walnut combination.

[refract]

the combination of the two oils would bring each of the oils quality to somewhere in the middle of the two oils by mixing them together i guess.. like the drying rate of linseed oil, the less yellowing longer open time of walnut oil

[Gigalot]

Originally Posted by refract

the combination of the two oils would bring each of the oils quality to somewhere in the middle of the two oils by mixing them together i guess.. like the drying rate of linseed oil, the less yellowing longer open time of walnut oil

Not always good idea. You can loose quality of both oil. Your mixture became yellowish as linseed and non-drying as safflower oil! As a hybrid of a hippopotamus with a swan
Swanoppotamus

[sidbledsoe]

there is an eagle in me that wants to soar, but there is also a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.

what about a hippopotamus?
why I'd thrash him from top to bottomus!

[forsooth]

Hippo + swan = human.

[Gigalot]

Originally Posted by forsooth

Hippo + swan = human.

Human + Eagle = Artist

[wetbob]

interesting topic!

[Anwar]

He he...
Hippo + Human = Hawaiian
Human + Eagle = Angel
Dog + Rabbit = Dagnabbit

[Gigalot]

Too many Recipes means no one is good enough . And to help to create more confusion Liquin was invented

[dafy]

Liquin gets a lot more respect than I would have ever thought amongst traditionalists. Not surprising I guess, been using it myself lately, because I can't afford anything else for a couple of months.

Having said that, I've had it in my head to try the following:

Let some liquin reduce for a few months in an oxygen environment, or however long it takes to thicken/reduce the solvents, then combine it as 1 part liquin, 1 part Canada balsam, 2 parts walnut oil, and whatever amount of oil of spike to make it workable.

Thoughts? Waste of money?