Tips on Oil Painting – Why Paint With Oils?
December 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Visual Art
Remi Engels, Ph.D. asked:
Because oil paints have been used for many centuries, their properties are very well known.
Oil is, even today, still one of the easiest and most forgiving mediums you can work in. Creating an oil painting is in fact relatively easy compared to other mediums such as watercolor or even pastels.
The advantages of oil are many and various. Here are some of the most important ones:
* Oil paints are easily put onto a canvas or panel. You just put some paint on your brush and rub it on the canvas or panel. The paint will generally not run or move.
* Creating a painting becomes a matter of putting the right color paint in the right place. Of course, some artists are better at this than others.
* One great property of oil paints is that they do not change color when they dry as opposed, for example, to acrylics. Oils pretty much stay the same for a long period of time.
* It is very easy to correct a mistake when you paint with oils. Just scrape the paint off with a paint knife and repaint whatever it was you scraped off.
* Oil paint dries very slowly because they consist of small pigment particles suspended in oil.
In fact, each color has its own drying time. But all paints dry slow enough so that you can remove them days and even weeks after they were applied. This is also the reason why it is so easy to correct mistakes.
Of course, the disadvantage is that they dry … slowly. That means they stay wet longer although there exist mediums that, when mixed in with the paint, can significantly speed up the drying process if that is what you want.
* It is easy to mix tube colors on a palette and is usually done with a brush of paint knife. There are mediums to thicken the paint into a pasta-like consistency and mediums to thin the paint into a water-like consistency.
* Once a color mixture formula is memorized it is easy to consistently reproduce the mixture. This is less the case with most other mediums.
* The fact that oil paint dries so slowly also gives you more time to work and rework a painting. You have enough time to sleep on certain decisions you need to make. Acrylics, for example, dry much faster and give you less time to ponder your masterpiece before action is required.
* Oil paints are also easily blended. So, it becomes relatively easy to render smooth transitional areas between different colors or values.
* Oils are also amenable to a whole series of techniques each of which yields a different look and feel. One example of such a technique is glazing. In de glazing technique several thin layers of transparent paint are put on top of each other. Each layer must be thoroughly dry before the next one is applied. Once done light is reflected off each layer resulting into an unusual luminosity and brightness.
* Oil can be used on any number of grounds: canvas, panel canvas, glass, wood, paper, etc. each, when done correctly, with excellent and durable results.
These are some of the more important and interesting properties of oil paints that have given this medium the enduring popularity that it has.
Because oil paints have been used for many centuries, their properties are very well known.
Oil is, even today, still one of the easiest and most forgiving mediums you can work in. Creating an oil painting is in fact relatively easy compared to other mediums such as watercolor or even pastels.
The advantages of oil are many and various. Here are some of the most important ones:
* Oil paints are easily put onto a canvas or panel. You just put some paint on your brush and rub it on the canvas or panel. The paint will generally not run or move.
* Creating a painting becomes a matter of putting the right color paint in the right place. Of course, some artists are better at this than others.
* One great property of oil paints is that they do not change color when they dry as opposed, for example, to acrylics. Oils pretty much stay the same for a long period of time.
* It is very easy to correct a mistake when you paint with oils. Just scrape the paint off with a paint knife and repaint whatever it was you scraped off.
* Oil paint dries very slowly because they consist of small pigment particles suspended in oil.
In fact, each color has its own drying time. But all paints dry slow enough so that you can remove them days and even weeks after they were applied. This is also the reason why it is so easy to correct mistakes.
Of course, the disadvantage is that they dry … slowly. That means they stay wet longer although there exist mediums that, when mixed in with the paint, can significantly speed up the drying process if that is what you want.
* It is easy to mix tube colors on a palette and is usually done with a brush of paint knife. There are mediums to thicken the paint into a pasta-like consistency and mediums to thin the paint into a water-like consistency.
* Once a color mixture formula is memorized it is easy to consistently reproduce the mixture. This is less the case with most other mediums.
* The fact that oil paint dries so slowly also gives you more time to work and rework a painting. You have enough time to sleep on certain decisions you need to make. Acrylics, for example, dry much faster and give you less time to ponder your masterpiece before action is required.
* Oil paints are also easily blended. So, it becomes relatively easy to render smooth transitional areas between different colors or values.
* Oils are also amenable to a whole series of techniques each of which yields a different look and feel. One example of such a technique is glazing. In de glazing technique several thin layers of transparent paint are put on top of each other. Each layer must be thoroughly dry before the next one is applied. Once done light is reflected off each layer resulting into an unusual luminosity and brightness.
* Oil can be used on any number of grounds: canvas, panel canvas, glass, wood, paper, etc. each, when done correctly, with excellent and durable results.
These are some of the more important and interesting properties of oil paints that have given this medium the enduring popularity that it has.
Oil Paints – Make a Masterpiece of Your Home
August 19, 2009 by admin
Filed under Home Improvement
Benjamin Van De Weyer asked:
When most people think about oil paints, the first thing that comes to mind are canvas paintings, for example the famous Mona Lisa. With the advent of cheap, modern, chemical paints, oil paints have somewhat been left by the wayside for almost any applications apart from art, but what most people aren’t aware of is oil paints supremacy in many ways an applications as an exterior surface paint. Although cheap, quick drying and easy to apply, most chemical paints don’t have anywhere near the longevity, flexibility or come close to the environmental friendliness of most oil paints.
Usually made from linseed oil, oil paints as surface protection on interior and exterior surfaces are most effective on wood. Being long lasting, waterproof, durable, increasing the longevity of wood (as opposed to encouraging rot like many chemical based paints), oil paints are often 100% natural (pigments/oxides included). Having been used in Scandinavia as a structure and surface paint since the 18th century, oil paints as a long-lasting and solvent free Linseed based product penetrate and protect wood extremely well, often better than many highly engineered modern chemical paints. Oil paints developed for exterior surfaces also often lead the eco friendly paint industry. Made with no un-natural or chemical ingredients or processes the pigments in oil paints are generally sourced from natural and mineral sources and can be applied to more than just wood, suitable for metals and concrete too.
Oil paint is slow-drying and consists of small pigment particles suspended in oil that dries over time. In regard to its use on canvas, oil painting allows an artist to use layers to create a depth within the painting whilst its slow drying time allows the artists to mix on an easel giving birth to impressionist work and enabling the artist to leave the studio and run out into the wilderness.
Oil paint is also extremely long lasting and during both application and drying has a smell most find both pleasant and natural, as opposed to the noxious and irritating chemical smells most are familiar with from modern chemical paints, often rendering rooms or entire houses inhabitable during the process. Surfaces painted with oil paints are also able to breathe freely preventing wood from decay and rot underneath. This results in a far simpler maintenance schedule requiring a simple application of a new coat after a light clean, as opposed to a difficult and time consuming removal of all previous coats down to the original surface. Drying to a somewhat rubbery surface means that oil paint stays flexible and allows it to move with the surface it’s applied to. This results in no cracking and peeling commonly caused by movement or temperature change (expansion contraction), in chemical paints.
The quality and makeup of oil paints can vary substantially from manufacturer to manufacturer as with many products. Being comprised of pigments suspended in a binder (generally linseed oil but sometimes other natural oils), stabilizers, dryers and other ingredients are often added to manipulate the viscosity and/or drying time of the product in order to customise the product more to a specific application, or make it more versatile. If you’re searching for a completely environmentally friendly or natural product be aware that these additives can be natural or chemical, so be sure to read the label or query the supplier on the ingredients beforehand.
When most people think about oil paints, the first thing that comes to mind are canvas paintings, for example the famous Mona Lisa. With the advent of cheap, modern, chemical paints, oil paints have somewhat been left by the wayside for almost any applications apart from art, but what most people aren’t aware of is oil paints supremacy in many ways an applications as an exterior surface paint. Although cheap, quick drying and easy to apply, most chemical paints don’t have anywhere near the longevity, flexibility or come close to the environmental friendliness of most oil paints.
Usually made from linseed oil, oil paints as surface protection on interior and exterior surfaces are most effective on wood. Being long lasting, waterproof, durable, increasing the longevity of wood (as opposed to encouraging rot like many chemical based paints), oil paints are often 100% natural (pigments/oxides included). Having been used in Scandinavia as a structure and surface paint since the 18th century, oil paints as a long-lasting and solvent free Linseed based product penetrate and protect wood extremely well, often better than many highly engineered modern chemical paints. Oil paints developed for exterior surfaces also often lead the eco friendly paint industry. Made with no un-natural or chemical ingredients or processes the pigments in oil paints are generally sourced from natural and mineral sources and can be applied to more than just wood, suitable for metals and concrete too.
Oil paint is slow-drying and consists of small pigment particles suspended in oil that dries over time. In regard to its use on canvas, oil painting allows an artist to use layers to create a depth within the painting whilst its slow drying time allows the artists to mix on an easel giving birth to impressionist work and enabling the artist to leave the studio and run out into the wilderness.
Oil paint is also extremely long lasting and during both application and drying has a smell most find both pleasant and natural, as opposed to the noxious and irritating chemical smells most are familiar with from modern chemical paints, often rendering rooms or entire houses inhabitable during the process. Surfaces painted with oil paints are also able to breathe freely preventing wood from decay and rot underneath. This results in a far simpler maintenance schedule requiring a simple application of a new coat after a light clean, as opposed to a difficult and time consuming removal of all previous coats down to the original surface. Drying to a somewhat rubbery surface means that oil paint stays flexible and allows it to move with the surface it’s applied to. This results in no cracking and peeling commonly caused by movement or temperature change (expansion contraction), in chemical paints.
The quality and makeup of oil paints can vary substantially from manufacturer to manufacturer as with many products. Being comprised of pigments suspended in a binder (generally linseed oil but sometimes other natural oils), stabilizers, dryers and other ingredients are often added to manipulate the viscosity and/or drying time of the product in order to customise the product more to a specific application, or make it more versatile. If you’re searching for a completely environmentally friendly or natural product be aware that these additives can be natural or chemical, so be sure to read the label or query the supplier on the ingredients beforehand.
