Getting rid of brushstroke ridges

Michele Rushworth · 05-20-2003, 09:51 PM

I'm looking for some suggestions on how to get rid of those pesky ridges in my brush strokes without having to brush over them or sand/scrape them off later. I like the look of spontaneous brushwork and don't want to lose that quality.

I'd like to find a free flowing medium that is self-leveling, even with somewhat heavy paint application.

Marvin, I wondered how you liked the M. Graham Walnut/Alkyd medium, now that you've been using it for a while. Would that do what I'm looking for, do you think?

Marvin Mattelson · 05-20-2003, 11:49 PM

Michele, didn't you hear, I'm now using Maroger medium...NOT!

Seriously, I liked the Graham medium very much. It's the best alkyd based medium I tried, BUT, I don't like the alkyd mediums for two reasons, so I've rethought my approach in that regard. One, the nature of alkyd mediums means that they start to dry in the brush immediately and thus, they eat up brushes prematurely. Also one needs to clean out the brushes with thinner to try to break down the drying paint which further deteriorates the brush longevity. Secondly, there is controversy regarding whether the alkyd medium will darken over time since it is a resin and it makes me leery.

Lately, I've been using 2 pts Cold Pressed Linseed Oil with 2 pts thinner and 1 pt Stand Oil. Stand Oil has a leveling quality but is not very long (soft). The thinner and the linseed oil help in that regard. I don't really use a lot of medium with my paint anyway.

I hope this helps.

Personally I wouldn

Michele Rushworth · 05-21-2003, 12:15 PM

Thanks, Marvin. I use linseed and mineral spirits in a 50/50 mix for most layers, more linseed in later layers. I'll try adding stand oil, too.

Perhaps what I'm looking for isn't just a matter of which medium to use. Maybe I need to be using different brushes: more sable brushes in larger sizes, rather than always using the bristle brushes that leave those ridges.

What combination of bristles/sables do people use? Do other artists use sables only at the very end for detail work (as I do), or do you have some big half-inch ones? ($$$!)Maybe there is some type of bristle or hair (I use hogs bristle) that would be an in-between solution.

I was studying an original Sargent portrait and a Hals painting in the Seattle Art Museum not long ago and I loved the very smooth surfaces they had. There was no texture, with the exception of some impasto whites on the collars. Even where Hals' brushwork was very apparent, it was not raised off the surface. Any ideas how that was done? It looked like he painted with a mixture that was so loaded with oil I wondered how it survived this long.

Mari DeRuntz · 05-21-2003, 12:59 PM

Quote:

What combination of bristles/sables do people use? Do other artists use sables only at the very end for detail work (as I do), or do you have some big half-inch ones? ($$$!)

Michele, the prices for larger-sized Trekell sables are very inexpensive. I've got a size 12 in front of me, and it's easily 1/2-inch. I won't push them further here; I know there's a lot of existing information on their sables on the Forum. Bill was probably painting with them in the latter part of his workshop?

Richard Budig · 06-16-2003, 10:46 PM

Funny how different we are. I work hard to get a lot of texture into my work. I gesso everything I paint on - canvas or Masonite. I apply gesso thickly with a large knife, and then when it's about half set up, I brush into it with a whisk broom. I swish this way and that, and get some quite prominent surfaces. Once dry, I paint over it, letting the texture add to the lights and darks in my painting.

Something that turns out quite well in this method is to paint a rather small painting, say, 9" x 12", of your favorite flower, and then have a 30" x 40" giclee print made from your painting. It looks like you painted it with a wallpaper paste brush. Very different.

I realize this is the opposite of how to get rid of ridges, but sometimes, those ridges can make a difference in the appearance of your painting.

Juan Martinez · 06-18-2003, 10:42 PM

Michelle,

For a brush that is not quite as soft nor as expensive as most sables are, but still very good for "finishing" work, you might want to try Winsor & Newton's Monarch brushes. If you aren't familiar with them, they are meant to act somewhat as mongoose brushes, which I prefer above nearly all else (but they are increasingly hard to find and they are expensive). The Monarchs do, more or less, emulate many of the fine characteristics of mongoose: springiness; hold lots of paint; release their paint load readily, and; clean up very well. Their upside is that they are more perfectly formed than are mongooses, generally, and they are more widely available. However, their downside is they fall prey to the durability issues that Marvin brought up if you use mineral spirits to clean them. I try to avoid that whenever possible and find that the Monarchs hold up better than most soft-ish brushes.

The other thing to keep in mind is that most of the old masters mulled their own paint (or, more accurately, had minions do it for them) and it would thus have been "longer" than most of today's tube paint is. Properly mulled paint tends to be "long" and a good, long paint tends to be self-leveling. By Sargent's time most artists bought tubed paint just as we do, but I'd bet that it, too, was "longer" out of the tube than today's. My understanding of the "long" or "short" quality of a paint is that it isn't only a function of how much oil it's ground in although that is a factor. It has to do with the precise time and periodicity of mulling and grinding.

I realise that may not be a big help unless you're interested in hand-mulling (which I am not). But, it helps to know and it helps to look for the longer paints. Many of today's manufacturers seek the "short" paint quality but I think that is because the majority of buyers have a sort of post-Impressionist aesthetic and the short paint does help facilitate that "look". However, just adding a little bit more medium (just oil even) can make the paint a sight longer I find. Of course, the different pigments react differently to differing amounts and kinds of mediums. So, maybe forget everthing I said.

Marvin,

How do you mix your stand oil in to your medium? I've only just started trying it in a mixed medium. On the few occasions previously where I have used such a viscous medium, it has been straight and in minute quantities. I tried recently to mix up a medium using turps (OMS), walnut oil, and stand oil. Also, I've tried this with turps, dammar, stand oil, but no straight linseed. In both cases I got the nagging feeling that the stand oil was sitting on the bottom of my medium cup -- like honey or something -- and that it really wasn't mixing in at all (very anti-social, don't you think?). My "method" is just putting the mixture into a medium cup and stirring it around a lot. Any suggestions to ensure a good mix? Should I use real turpentine perhaps?

Thanks.

Juan

Michele Rushworth · 06-18-2003, 11:08 PM

Juan, thanks for your suggestions regarding brushes and paint. I do greatly prefer a very buttery, oil-rich paint and your explanation of why today's paint manufacturers make it much more stiff than hand ground paints of the past makes a lot of sense.

Marvin Mattelson · 06-19-2003, 08:40 AM

Juan,

I add the Stand Oil (20%) to Gamsol (40%) and Cold Pressed Linseed Oil (40%) and mix it up. I don't keep a lot of medium in my cup since it tends to runneth over (with love?) as I swing my palette around. I mix this medium fresh every time I add it to my cup.

Michelle,

Sargent used Stand Oil and Turps as his medium. Stand Oil is known for leveling off. I used to use this medium, but I found that it precluded the building up of layers because the canvas eventually became over saturated and the upper layers would start to bead up like rain on a freshly waxed car. Sargent used fewer layers, choosing the "scrape off and start over approach".

Michele Rushworth · 06-19-2003, 09:38 AM

Marvin, thanks for that recipe. I'll try it out.

Juan Martinez · 06-20-2003, 08:42 AM

Marvin, yes, thanks for your reply, in general and in particular, for your comment about beading-up of oil in a layered painting. As I'm not against working up a number of layers -- nor am I against wiping-off, either, come to think of it -- I do have to be on the lookout for over-saturation.

All the best.

Juan