Oil on Oil

Oil on Oil

Hi David,

I have a question about oil painting without the use of solvents. My main interest is portraiture and I paint in oils, adding oil almost exclusively as my medium. I started doing this because of health concerns and the necessity of working in places with inadequate ventilation and find I like the results. I can't stand the smell of turps, so I sometimes use a citrus-based solvent for the first priming or underpainting layers (or occasionally acrylics). I buy high quality oil paints and observe the ‘fat over lean’ principle as I build successive layers. I often use several layers of very thin glazes made exclusively by adding oil to the paint as I reach the end of the process. I do understand that oil will yellow over time. Apart from that, will this technique cause problems with my paintings down the road? I want my work to last and my clients to be happy. I'm using various types of linseed oil. Are there others that would be better? Or any recommendations for glazing mediums that are safe?

Thank you very much! Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,

Using linseed oil, or any kind of oil as a painting medium will cause yellowing.  Oil paints will yellow and become darker over time even without the added oil, adding more only compounds this result.  Also, extra oil will cause wrinkling as well as slow and erratic drying of the layers.

It would be best to paint without adding any extra oil at all. 

There are a couple of companies making excellent, solvent free painting mediums that you should consider.  Compared to using linseed oil, a superior painting medium will give your glazes luster and transparency.  The paint will be smooth and easier to brush and it will also help regulate the drying time of the various colours (pigments).  Your paintings will be more fun to execute, they will look better and stay that way longer. 

Hope this helps.  All the best , David

Hi David,

A further question about the painting mediums:  Do I blend this with linseed oil as one would use turps throughout the entire process, with more medium in the under layers and more oil later?  Or do you use it alone for glazing? (that is on top of oil layers?)

Thanks, Jennifer

Jennifer,

Use ONLY the painting medium to dilute your colors (and the
occasional dab of solvent, esp. in the underlayers) - NEVER
ADD LINSEED OIL (or any other kind of oil) TO YOUR PAINT - NEVER!!!!!

I have read and heard about the advice to add oil to successive layers of paint to accommodate the widely misunderstood notion of 'fat over lean' - it reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of oils paints - they already contain too much oil!!! 

I wrote an article I wrote a couple of years ago on the fat over lean issue and you can find it on my website.

Take your linseed oil and use it to polish antique furniture!

 

Hi David

Thanks for your answer..... I have to say: YIKES!  I'm totally blown away.  I am pretty much self-taught. I've taken a couple of painting classes and I've never heard this before, just been told to use more solvent/turps in the early layers and more oil in the later layers.   In fact, a very well known artist (who I won't name) told me I was "just fine" to use oil and nothing else as long as I observed the fat over lean principle (less - more).  I wasn't totally comfortable about it, so recently I've started underpainting in acrylics so I could use less oil.  I've been merrily painting like this and sold paintings, but always wondered....... One of my concerns with this new method is that everything will dry too quickly.  I like to take my time and paint more into areas that aren't totally dry a few days later.  In fact I've been advised by one academy trained teacher to "oil out" prior work before painting over it - that is to rub it with a tiny bit of oil to help the new paint adhere.  The main reasons I don't use acrylics is they dry too fast and the colours always seem to change.  I will try your method using this new medium only.  Should I be adding more and more as I make more layers?

Also, what did oil painters do before the invention of alkyd mediums?  I thought linseed oil had been used for centuries? I really appreciate that you have taken the time to help me with this.
 
Many thanks, Jennifer

 

Hello again Jennifer,

many well known painters over the last couple of centuries have made the kind of erroneous technical assumptions that you mention, it is not their fault, no one was there to tell them different and after the master/apprentice system dissolved in the 18th century very little of the scientific information about painting materials and techniques was passed on in written form...  I had to spend years researching to learn it all myself... 

If you know the various drying times of the different pigments and layer them accordingly you will not have any problems, that is, fast dryers under slow dryers.  You don't need to add more of anything (including the medium, and ESP NOT MORE OIL!) to accommodate the 'fat over lean' principle.  Thin layers of faster drying paint, with a SMALL amount of added solvent to help, is a good idea in the underpainting.  Then just proceed to paint on successive layers adding the medium when you want a more transparent effect.

For centuries painters avoided oils or looked for ways to make them dry faster by adding resins, you actually WANT them to dry slow!  Being able to return a few days later to muck around in the still wet paint is unusual.  Adding extra oil will definitely slow down the drying time enough for you to do this however.  There have been great artists who have wanted to do the same thing as you, Da Vinci is perhaps the most famous.  He wanted a slow drying paint so he could play with the blending, you know, the 'sfumato' technique that he made famous.  But he knew enough not to add more pure oil to his paint.  Instead, he ground his paints in walnut oil instead of the more popular linseed oil, which dries much faster than walnut.  The only company making walnut oil paints today is M. Graham. 

There are two other options that you should consider.  Some companies make both fast and slow drying mediums that you can add to your paint.  Nothing will retard the drying time as much as straight oil but of course you don't want to keep adding that to your paint... 

The academy trained teachers suggestion of 'oiling out' can be modified.  Many painters, including me, return to their paintings days or even weeks later and start the new painting session by first applying a transparent glaze, that is a combination of a color and a high quality painting medium, and then painting into the wet glaze.  The idea is the same only we are substituting the medium for the oil.  Adding a pigment (colour) to the glaze instead gives the mixture added stability.  Rembrandt would labor away at his paintings for months and often put them aside for weeks at a time.  When he returned to them he would invariably apply a dark glaze, usually brown, black or blue, over the whole piece, wipe some it off and then start painting ala prima into the still we glaze.

There are a couple more articles on my website
(davidlangevin.com) that may give you some more insight and information on these matters. 

Cheers, David