Is it absolutely necessary to use a medium?
 

Are there any problems associated with using the paint straight out of the tube? I like the texture of thick paint but am concerned about cracking in the future. What are your thoughts on this?

I also appreciate the look of thinly glazed paintings, but thick paint in swirls and gobs is kinda like sitting down and crunching a handful of nuts. Sometimes you just gotta do it!

Jean

Jean,

From what I learned about cracking, the best way is to have leaner paints (less oil or medium or no medium at all) on the first stages/ layers of the painting. The later layers or glazes I use more medium.

What happens is that the more fatty paint will sink in into the leaner layers underneath and making a more solid binding.

Hi Jean,

No, it's not necessary to always use a medium. Or ever.

I am just now experimenting with a medium, and I don't like it particularly, although I plan to do many paintings first, as it's just a new learning curve. To date, I have only used paint from the tube, with the underlayers thinned a little with mineral spirits (or in the past, Turpenoid).

I think your use of medium should be based on that you like, what you want your work to look like, and what your painting temperament is like.

I second what Chris has said. You use a medium to alter the paint to a consistency and workability that works for you. For some, that means they use medium all the time. For others, none at all. It all depends on if you can get the paint to do what you want it to do without it, or with it.

Now, there are certain times that you want other characteristics to paint other than brushability - like you want it to dry overnight, or you want to glaze with it, or you want more of a jewel-like quality to the paint, or you have a painting that has been sitting in a corner for 3 years and you pick it up again. Mediums often contain driers which can allow you to paint again the next day, or resins which can help with adhesion in works with underlayers that are dry and shiny.

Certainly the fat over lean guidelines apply if you are using paint with no driers added.

Thats all true
 

Thick QUALITY pigment from the tube is very reliable. Alla Prima -like you are suggesting is the safest and strongest bet of all.

Medium
 

My thanks to all who have responded. I'll glop without guilt.

Jean

While adding medium or anything to thin the paint is not necessary, it's also somewhat risky to "glop" the paint on too thickly. Many thin layers will hold up over time much better than one thick layer, especially when using certain pigments.

Hi Michelle
 

In the painting I'm working on now, "New Haircut" I've painted his face and body using a small amount of medium. The background is applied with no medium, as I wanted to have a contrast and texture. The sky swirls and foliage in heavy brushstrokes. Even at the thickest points its only an eighth of an inch thick at the most. I did start out fairly thin, then started having fun with it and applied with wild abandon, then thought I better ask about the medium thing. Which pigments need to be applied with a medium in thin layers?

Jean

Jean, you might want to get Ralph Mayer's book, an old standby that is probably on the bookshelf of most of the artists here:The Artist's Handbook

In it he talks about which pigments dry fastest and which contain more oil. He also emphasizes the importance of thin layers of paint and talks about paintings over the past hundred years (when using thick paint first became popular) not holding up as well as paintings which had thin layers.

An eighth of an inch seems like a very thick layer of paint to me.

Thanks, Michelle
 

I've found this book locally and have added it to my list of "must haves". In discovering the work of Bouguereau, I've decided to put a lid on my enthusiatic glopping and start learning to refine my painting technique. I'm actually using a mat knife to remove the lumps in my latest painting, so I can try scraping with a palette knife to scumble layers of paint on. (Next painting will have no lumps!) Too much to learn, too little time.

Jean

Jean-

Paints are formulated for the best "average" handling, that is, for the way most people paint. Like Michael says, the additional media are to customize it to handle the way you want. If paint had to be heavily altered by everyone with a medium to make it handle a certain way, the manufacturers would just make it that way, generally.

Again, fatter (oilier) paint over leaner layers is a pretty safe bet.

The good news is that oil painting is a pretty athletic, elastic and forgiving medium, that tolerates a lot of abuse and experimentation before it implodes entirely. You can get away with a lot.

The discussion about various oils and recipes gets arcane fast -- everyone has their favorites. Old Holland used to publish terrific technical "teaching" letters that taught me loads about sounder technique, written by a Prof. de Beer. I don't know if they're still around or not (someone sent them to me). Might be worth a web search, when we can get to it.

Happy painting!

I use thick paint, straight from the tube for my first layer in an underpainting. I use raw unber + white for this. I really glob it on in order to cover the canvas. Because I do not add medium to this, it is "lean."

If my paint gets "lumpy" at this stage, I toss the tube out and open a new one. Lumps and bumps are a definite "no-no."

I don't use any medium until the upper layers. Medium-heavy glazes (fat) are only supposed to be in the very top layers anyway.

Thanks all
 

Tom, thank you for taking the time to reply. I'll start a search on those lectures as soon as I can. I'll be picking up Ralph Meyer's book on the second, then I can learn all! I've already discovered that everyone seems to have their favorites (mediums). So far I'm using Liquin, but also have linseed oil to try next. Toxicity could be a problem for me, so I'll look at others also. Searching here has been very informative so far.

Karin, the lumps I'm referring to are all my own creation. Its how I apply it, not the paint itself. I've read literally all of your posts on your application of paint and use of medium and have learned much. Now I need to continue to apply my knowledge to many, many canvas's to see where I am in this great mix of talent. In the meantime I'm still scrapeing my self-imposed lumps off. ;)

Jean

While we're on the subject of unintentional lumps...they happen. Drat. In my case the darn things pop up in the worst places (like in an eye). I use very fine sandpaper to smooth the surface (when my paint is absolutely dry) so that I can work over it.

Lumps
 

Mine are fairly large so mat knife first, then sandpaper. Poor little Josh had a bad case of acne before I delumped him!

Jean

Just FYI, many artists have reminded me that Ralph Mayer was wrong about some things in his book. I wish someone would tell me which things, but apparently we can't take absolutely everything in that book as gospel.

As for de-lumping, I use a fan brush to go over a layer once I've painted it and it seems to de-lump pretty well. I don't put the paint on very thickly to begin with and I don't use much pressure on the fan brush so it doesn't blur what I've just painted.

A word of caution on Liquin: I know many artists love it but I had two paintings suffer some very severe de-laminating. Thankfully they were not commissions but they do look pretty bad, just one year after I painted them. I won't use that stuff again!

Chaos theory and technique
 

Hi Michelle, happy new year!

I normally take information as a guide only. Learned long ago that there are no absolutes in anything. If I start accepting black and white rules I miss all the greys and colors of the rainbow in between. But those guidelines are necessary evils to a solid foundation to experimentation.

By delaminating do you mean that the layers of paint separated? Did they begin to flake off? If so I'll watch for it in the future. My Liquin is almost gone anyway and the next victum of my experimentation is linseed oil. I'll watch for these problems in the future.

Jean

Yes, in certain color areas, the top layer of paint has separated from the layer underneath it. It is still attached to the canvas, but I don't know for how much longer!

Gamblin's Neo Megilp
 

I used Liquin for a while and have recently noticed a painting only a year old starting to yellow. I tried Neo Megilp after some friends recommended it--I love it! It doesn't thin the paint too much and if you like a buttery feel, try the Neo Megilp. Now I have a brand new unopened bottle of Liquin. ;C

Everyone has their favorites and I think each person has to use what works the best for him or her.

Renee Price

Neo Meglip
 

Hi Renee,

Neo Meglip is on my list also. Marvin, you use this don't you? No need to answer, I'll look it up. I remember some long threads on this issue. According to what I've read about Bougeureau, he used the technique of applying paint then scraping it off with a palette knife in multiple layers to achieve the very soft depth and texture in his paintings. I want to try this on my next painting. The resulting very thin layers should work well with very little medium.

Does anyone here paint using this technique? Maybe Chris Saper, Chris are you out there?

Jean

Chris doesn't use layers of glazes but rather an alla prima technique. You might want to see what Karin Wells has posted. Her technique seems closer to what you might want to try.

Thanks. Michele.

Jean I don't use a medium at this point, but as I say, plan to learn how in the Whitaker workshop. After, that I will decide whether it's something I will continue or not.

My medium de Jure
 

Jean,

I have started using a medium comprised of walnut oil and alkyd resin manufactured by Graham. I may seem fickle, but I'm in love with this stuff. It allows the paint to stay open longer than the Neo Megilp yet it dries faster (usually overnight). It also seems to make the paint less transparent than N.M. Like the N.M. it dries to a gloss finish so the darks avoid that old sinking in feeling. My brushes seem to take less of a beating as well.

My sole criteria is if something works for me I am 100% behind it, since my allegiance is to my paintings alone. I have no loyalty to any brand, approach, concept or affiliation unless it works for me.

Seeking the perfect medium
 

Marvin, you're a hard one to keep up with!

Jean

Marvin,

The Graham walnut/alkyd medium sounds like exactly what I've been looking for.

My only reservation is that an Old Holland tech letter put walnut oil in the same category as poppyseed, in that it's a lighter oil - less subject to yellowing than linseed but more prone to cracking. Intuitively, though, I'd expect this to be offset by the added toughness of the alkyd.

Any problem so far with cracking?

Thanks for all of your generous posts!
Tom

Cracking
 

The only thing coming out of my studio that may be cracking up is me (wise cracking of course). Seriously, I have not been using this medium very long but I feel that the addition of alkyd resin will more than compensate for the inequities of almost any additional ingredient. I am using it with W&N colors, which use more conventional oils as their binder. M. Graham & Co. makes a line of paints using walnut oil and I haven't heard any negative info. Their site is http://www.mgraham.com/ You can contact them if you have any questions. They are very helpful.

Marvin,

Thanks a lot. I'll give it a try.

Tom

Close, but not a perfect medium.

The following link will take you to a demonstration of one of the great old mediums to improve portraits. The demo will show the wonders of this product but there are certain shortcomings, which you will recognize. I have used this product in moderation for many years. The improvements are incredible.


Click the link.....

http://home.attbi.com/~no-spam/Beer.swf

Ultimate medium
 

Jim,

Maybe we should serve some of your "medium" to our clients before we unveil our paintings to them.

Blockx
 

I am A Blockx fan. The paint is so buttery that it never needs a medium, unless you want to slow down the drying or speed it up. It also doesn't suede on skintones.

I am a fan of Galkyd, insread of Liquin for drying and glazing techniques. The Blockx also makes rich, glowing tranparencies.

A few years ago they discontinued their gorgeous Alizarin, probably because of questions of permanence. I could not see any problems with it as the pigment used was on Mayer's approved list, so I bought a box of ten. It is now no longer available.

Sincerely,

Anybody know what's in Gamblin's Neo-megilp? I love the gel quality of it but I'm not sure what it actually is. Is it an alkyd?

Yes
 

It's an alkyd based medium. Robert Gamblin won't reveal whats in it. Big secret.

I know many people take Gamblin products completely on trust but I wonder what they've done as far as accelerated aging tests with it. It's a fun medium to work with but I'm not excited about using something so new and unknown.

The magic medium
 

Recently I've been doing some reading about the 17th century old masters techniques. We now have very sophisticated measuring devices that can analyze the make-up of the paint layers during restoration. So far the overwhelming evidence points to walnut oil and linseed oil. No varnish in the paint layers. All those theorists such as Maroger were apparently writing fiction. Less is more.

Welcome to the Club. :thumbsup:

Re: Blockx
 

Sharon wrote: "A few years ago [Blockx] discontinued their gorgeous Alizarin, probably because of questions of permanence. I could not see any problems with it as the pigment used was on Mayer's approved list, so I bought a box of ten. It is now no longer available."


Sharon,

Alizarin Crimson has been discovered to be less lightfast than was believed in Ralph Mayer's time. Mayer's book was first published in 1940, and he died in 1979. There have been many discoveries made since then, so Mayer's book cannot be regarded as the last word.

My own lightfastness testing shows very convincingly that alizarin crimson (dihydroxyanthraquinone) loses its redness with time, and becomes a purplish brown. There are several alizarin substitutes on the market now that are much more reliable. Archival Oils' Permanent Alizarine, and Gamblin's Alizarin Permanent are the ones I use. Both are made with pigments of significantly better lightfastness than real alizarin crimson.

Virgil Elliott