Is Titanium White acceptable to use as an underpainting white?

[Jennifer Bogartz]

Thanks, Richard! Do you mean that the underpainted layers should be "tacky" to the touch before being overpainted? Should earth colors be avoided in the top layers? Is there a brand of turpentine that you would recommend? I appreciate your feedback.

[Richard Bingham]

Underlayers can certainly be touch-dry, but it's best to move right along with a painting, and not let building layers dry thoroughly . . . that shouldn't be a problem, since most applications would take up to six months or more to be thoroughly dry under normal conditions.

There is no need to make "The Priniciple" a complicated regimen. The painting won't explode if you use a color with a high oil content in underlayers. It's just better to begin working a layered technique by avoiding a lot of "fat" colors in the initial layers.

Working according to "fat over lean" is actually logical and intuitive . . . the concept is simple enough, i.e., initial layers should be thin and lean, and subsequent layers may contain increasingly more oil and/or resins (i.e., "fat") as the painting progresses.

As for using lean colors, this indicates progressing from a grisaille, adding more color, texture, effects and impasto as the picture nears completion . . . the "old masters" method, and it pretty much just happens this way as you develop your finished painting.

You really have to work at "screwing up" to violate "The Principle" if you have good technique and understand the concept. A good basis is having painted almost anything with a utility coating by following correct procedures - such as the fence, a barn, a car, etc. First comes surface preparation, then primer coatings, finish coats, and final detailing. Same routine applies at the easel!

Turps? I hesitate to name brands, because what I found to be good not so long ago may have "gone south" meantime. If you find reasonably priced turps by the quart (in metal cans) in an art supply store, open the container and smell it. If it smells sweet, and "piney", it will be OK (the last I found this way was "Best" brand, but that's been a couple of years ago).

If it smells pungent, sour, or reeks of creosote, avoid it. I don't know if label info is any use anymore. The distinction used to be "pure gum spirits of turpentine" (good stuff) as opposed to "steam distilled" (junk containing free water).

Lately, I've been buying Winsor & Newton's triple distilled turpentine, which comes by the litre in a glass bottle ($$ higher than a cat's back $$, but worth it for the quality). If you find good turps in a can, put it in a glass bottle and store it away from sunlight.