Is it absolutely necessary to use a medium?

[Tom Edgerton]

Jean-

Paints are formulated for the best "average" handling, that is, for the way most people paint. Like Michael says, the additional media are to customize it to handle the way you want. If paint had to be heavily altered by everyone with a medium to make it handle a certain way, the manufacturers would just make it that way, generally.

Again, fatter (oilier) paint over leaner layers is a pretty safe bet.

The good news is that oil painting is a pretty athletic, elastic and forgiving medium, that tolerates a lot of abuse and experimentation before it implodes entirely. You can get away with a lot.

The discussion about various oils and recipes gets arcane fast -- everyone has their favorites. Old Holland used to publish terrific technical "teaching" letters that taught me loads about sounder technique, written by a Prof. de Beer. I don't know if they're still around or not (someone sent them to me). Might be worth a web search, when we can get to it.

Happy painting!

[Karin Wells]

I use thick paint, straight from the tube for my first layer in an underpainting. I use raw unber + white for this. I really glob it on in order to cover the canvas. Because I do not add medium to this, it is "lean."

If my paint gets "lumpy" at this stage, I toss the tube out and open a new one. Lumps and bumps are a definite "no-no."

I don't use any medium until the upper layers. Medium-heavy glazes (fat) are only supposed to be in the very top layers anyway.

[Jean Kelly]

Tom, thank you for taking the time to reply. I'll start a search on those lectures as soon as I can. I'll be picking up Ralph Meyer's book on the second, then I can learn all! I've already discovered that everyone seems to have their favorites (mediums). So far I'm using Liquin, but also have linseed oil to try next. Toxicity could be a problem for me, so I'll look at others also. Searching here has been very informative so far.

Karin, the lumps I'm referring to are all my own creation. Its how I apply it, not the paint itself. I've read literally all of your posts on your application of paint and use of medium and have learned much. Now I need to continue to apply my knowledge to many, many canvas's to see where I am in this great mix of talent. In the meantime I'm still scrapeing my self-imposed lumps off.

Jean

[Karin Wells]

While we're on the subject of unintentional lumps...they happen. Drat. In my case the darn things pop up in the worst places (like in an eye). I use very fine sandpaper to smooth the surface (when my paint is absolutely dry) so that I can work over it.

[Jean Kelly]

Mine are fairly large so mat knife first, then sandpaper. Poor little Josh had a bad case of acne before I delumped him!

Jean

[Michele Rushworth]

Just FYI, many artists have reminded me that Ralph Mayer was wrong about some things in his book. I wish someone would tell me which things, but apparently we can't take absolutely everything in that book as gospel.

As for de-lumping, I use a fan brush to go over a layer once I've painted it and it seems to de-lump pretty well. I don't put the paint on very thickly to begin with and I don't use much pressure on the fan brush so it doesn't blur what I've just painted.

A word of caution on Liquin: I know many artists love it but I had two paintings suffer some very severe de-laminating. Thankfully they were not commissions but they do look pretty bad, just one year after I painted them. I won't use that stuff again!

[Jean Kelly]

Hi Michelle, happy new year!

I normally take information as a guide only. Learned long ago that there are no absolutes in anything. If I start accepting black and white rules I miss all the greys and colors of the rainbow in between. But those guidelines are necessary evils to a solid foundation to experimentation.

By delaminating do you mean that the layers of paint separated? Did they begin to flake off? If so I'll watch for it in the future. My Liquin is almost gone anyway and the next victum of my experimentation is linseed oil. I'll watch for these problems in the future.

Jean

[Michele Rushworth]

Yes, in certain color areas, the top layer of paint has separated from the layer underneath it. It is still attached to the canvas, but I don't know for how much longer!

[Renee Price]

I used Liquin for a while and have recently noticed a painting only a year old starting to yellow. I tried Neo Megilp after some friends recommended it--I love it! It doesn't thin the paint too much and if you like a buttery feel, try the Neo Megilp. Now I have a brand new unopened bottle of Liquin.

Everyone has their favorites and I think each person has to use what works the best for him or her.

Renee Price

[Jean Kelly]

Hi Renee,

Neo Meglip is on my list also. Marvin, you use this don't you? No need to answer, I'll look it up. I remember some long threads on this issue. According to what I've read about Bougeureau, he used the technique of applying paint then scraping it off with a palette knife in multiple layers to achieve the very soft depth and texture in his paintings. I want to try this on my next painting. The resulting very thin layers should work well with very little medium.

Does anyone here paint using this technique? Maybe Chris Saper, Chris are you out there?

Jean