Soft white
 

Can anyone recommend a very soft buttery brand of white? I am looking for some flake white as well as some titanium white.

Also, I've been using and enjoying the softness of Permalba (which is a mixture of titanium and zinc white) but I don't know anything about its quality as a brand. Anyone have input on this?

Thanks!

I've been using Permalba's white for awhile, and I bought it because I seem to have read so many comments about its superiority to titanium and zinc used by themselves and its buttery texture, and because a lot of other artists appear to recommend it. My impression is that it's well thought of. Weber says this about its product:

"Artists have relied on Original Permalba

So I have precisely one thing in common with John Singer Sargent. It's a start...

After seeing that wonderful portrait of Jamie I wouldn't limit it to just one thing, Michele ;)

Michele,

I just purchased the stiff mixing(?) white from Daniel Smith. It was Tim's recommendation for the workshop.

It really was stiff - I was used to more buttery also. It was different. I like it's coverage, but I havent used it enough yet to decide if I like it better than others. It's good for texture where you let the paint build up a bit.

I used to use Permalba a lot, but though I liked the consistency, the white would disappear into pastel colors and not hold its character. So I started using a Grumbacher "soft formula" titanium, and it will flow in a relatively fluid manner but will retain its whiteness and body in mixtures on the canvas. In other words, it has more "guts" than the Permalba.

Best--TE

White options
 

I would be surprised if JSS used Permalba White as we know it. Here's detail of his work. Permalba slips off a painting's surface like motor oil.

This is the point I make to students; if you start with a lean, "thick" white you can add your trusty medium of choice and make any white oily.

If you start oily, you have to set it out overnight on cardboard or such surface to let that suck the oil from it.

Michele,

Try a tube of Gamblin's Flake White Replacement.

It's like frosting.

Flake white was the choice of the old masters.

I just read this interesting comment on Gamblin's website:

"Conservators have demonstrated that the fast dry time of Flake White contributes to the cracking of oil painting over time."

I think the key here is the word "contibutes." Obviously there are many contibuting factors. Also there are many conservators out there. Since there are many factors involved in the cracking of paint, I'm quite sure that any type of white would crack if unsound practices were followed.

Robert Gamblin is not an unbiased source of information. I think that he produces many fine products, in particular Gamsol and Gamvar. However, I feel that the use of Alkyd mediums which many manufacurers promote will prove far more disasterous to oil paintings in the long run than will flake white used intelligently.

Michele,

Try Vasari flake white and/or Ozog flake white.
http://www.studiomaterials.com/
http://www.shopvasaricolors.com/default.asp

Both are traditional flake whites.
Buttery and ropey.


Bill

Thanks, Bill, I'll check them out. So nice to see you on the forum again. I hope all is well with you and your painting projects.

As I look back on my work over this past year I see a definite turning point in the quality of what I've painted since about May. And, gee, wasn't there a workshop taught in Phoenix by a guy named Bill Whitaker who looks a lot like you that I attended around that time frame....? I tell people that I hear your wise voice in my ear every day, reminding me about something I should or shouldn't be doing on whatever painting I'm working on. Thanks again!

Have to confess that "ropey" is a new one, and I not only don't know what it could mean, but I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing. (It "sounds" bad but seems to have been posited as good.)

Enlightenment solicited.

Ropey
 

I suspect Bill means the paint will hold together when you pull it out. Some colors (and some brands) will break off quickly and some hold together and string out.

If you put out pure paint on your palette, then take the tip of your knife, dip it into the pile of paint and slowly pull to the side-you can see this effect. Paint behaves uniquely.