oil painting mediums

Learn the essential fat-over-lean rule in oil painting. This guide covers techniques, FAQs, and tips to ensure your paintings are durable and long-lasting. Ideal for both beginners and professionals.

Discover the benefits of using extender pigments in oil paint and learn effective techniques for incorporating them into your artwork. Explore how these additives can modify texture, adjust drying time, control transparency, and manipulate opacity. Unlock the full potential of extender pigments in oil painting.

Dramatic changes in the techniques and materials used by artists began to occur in the latter half of the eighteenth century as the binding media was given much more attention than in previous centuries. This is related to the rising professional status of artists and the formation of academies for training artists, especially in Britain. Rather than using well-tested and reliable methods and materials based on studio practice and apprenticeship, artists began trying out new processes. This, in turn, is related to the vain search for the ‘lost secrets of the masters that led to even more experimentation and scandals, such as that experienced by the Royal Academy of Arts and its president, Benjamin West, at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Oil paint is a slow-drying paint consisting of pigment particles suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by adding a solvent, such as turpentine or mineral spirits (white spirits), and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the dried film. In this article, you will find complete descriptions of oil painting mediums or additives (or, as we prefer to call them, "amendments") made by Natural Pigments. These amendments are designed to alter the consistency of oil paint in novel ways, different from the varnishes introduced into everyday use during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.