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