Oiling out

[Enzie Shahmiri]

I need to find out if it is ok to carefully oil out with a brush, rather than a rag?

I only want to do this in the grisaille underpainting stages, especially if the painting is almost dry to the touch for the exception of a few spots.


As always your comments would be appreciated.

[Linda Ciallelo]

Hi Enzie, I too am wondering about "oiling out". I have heard so often that one isn't supposed to oil out, but recently I tried it and it works really well. What negative result are we avoiding by following that advice? I know that Odd Nerdrum oils out with raw umber. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Linda

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Hi Linda,

I do not know of any negative aspects reagrding oiling out, except for inablility of paint to adhere if too much oil is used. The way I learned to do it is to drip a few drops all over the canvas, leaving roughly a fingers width between each drop. Then taking a soft rag you spread the oil all over the dry canvas making sure you covered all areas. Tilting the canvas helps to see missed spots.

Now this is the important part:

Making sure that your fingers are clean and oil free, you rub a finger tip gently on the canvas and look at it. If it looks like you just bathed in baby oil, then you have used too much oil and need to wipe it off with a dry/clean/unsaturated part of your cloth. The ideal is to have a very slight sheen on your finger. This way the the dark,sunken in areas come back to life and the new paint adheres just fine.

Hope that helps!

[Linda Ciallelo]

The way I have been doing it, is to just paint the oil onto a small area that you will be working in, and then wipe it off with a paper towel. I try to wipe it all off. Of course some will still be left on the painting. So I am not using my fingers at all. A soft cloth could be used to wipe the oil off, as well as a paper towel. It seems to help the painting have more depth and softer edges.

[Debra Norton]

Enzie, in school they taught us to oil out with a brush. The medium we used was one part stand oil, one part damar varnish and three parts English distilled turp. If we got to a point where this wasn't working well enough, we could go to a one/one/one ratio. There always seemed to be a little bit of controversy and/or confusion over whether oiling out or using retouch was best. I tend to use retouch first, and then if that doesn't work well enough I go to oiling out with the 1/1/3 ratio. I wait as long as possible before I add anything to the painting process, and if I can avoid it, I do. That's just my preference, easier to manage the fat over lean that way. I've never tried glazing.

Linda, I would be concerned about fibers from a paper towel sticking to my painting. The only time I use paper towels on a painting is for wiping out mistakes in the lay-in process.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

I have seen Alexei Antonov just pour oil on the dry canvas and use his hand. I would be too afraid to end up with way too much oil on the canvas. Great to hear the different techniques though!

[Mary Jane Ansell]

So I can finalise values as I'm finishing off a monochrome underpainting I'll oil out before a painting session (the painting is usually at least 4-6 days dry). I'll give it a very fine wipe of linseed oil (palm of the hand to spread it around works well then wiping thoroughly off with a low linting cloth like a fine jersey).

For more long term controlling of those pesky sinking in traits, of umbers in particular, I'll very lightly brush on a weak retouch... but beware - tempting as it is even a little too much stand oil/dammar/retouch in your underpainting makes for a very unworkable and unpleasant surface for glazing or whatever other technique you favour... I've made that mistake before and ended up having to sand the whole thing back to get rid of a too slick surface!

Cheers
MJ

[Linda Ciallelo]

After some experimenting here I am finding my oiling out needs to be very minimal. I just did the one little face once and it was sufficient to make it glow properly. I have tried the stand oil mixture and some other things on edges of the painting, but the cold pressed linseed oil with a touch of damar gave me the texture I was after and dried satiny. I am finding that the Michael Harding paint, by itself ,dries with a bit of a shine, which I like.

[Virgil Elliott]

Originally Posted by Enzie Shahmiri

I am using Marvin Mattelson's oiling out method, which requires that the painting is completely dry before continuing work. I need to find out if it is ok to carefully oil out with a brush, rather than a rag?

I only want to do this in the grisaille underpainting stages, especially if the painting is almost dry to the touch for the exception of a few spots.

The medium applied with a rag in between drying stages:
4 parts English Distilled Turp
1 part Stand Oil

As always your comments would be appreciated.

Enzie,

For the best results, wait until the paint is dry before you try to work over it. I oil out with plain old cold-pressed linseed oil, scrubbed on thinly with a hog-bristle brush over the area to be painted into, and then I blot or rub off as much as will come off with a soft rag or paper towel. Only the tiniest amount of oil is needed to serve the purpose. The solvent in your medium will act on the paint that's already there, and if you're wiping, some of it is liable to come off. Oil paints don't need to have solvents in them. Solvents weaken the adhesive strength of the binding oil in the paint.

Virgil Elliott

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Thanks Virgil! I do have another question for you. How bad is a drop of clove oil on a paint glob, to prevent drying out? I resorted to this because I just LOOVVVVEEE the smell of clove oil!

Well, actually I needed to stop the fast drying process during the heat wave here. But now in hindsight I am wondering how much that can affect the adherance effect of the paint.