Page 8 - Artist Materials Advisor

The age-old advice to wait at least six months before varnishing oil paintings is a good practice but one that many artists resist. And it is understandable why because when a painting is completed, it often needs to be delivered immediately for exhibit or into the customer’s hands. This article reviews the reasons for this advice and determines whether this is true or not.

With the recent surge in popularity of painting on metal, such as aluminum composite material (ACM) and copper, some have questioned its viability regarding the thermal expansion of the metal. When an object is heated or cooled, its length changes by an amount proportional to the original length and the temperature change. This is known as “linear thermal expansion,” or the change in the length of a material.

White pigments consist of natural or synthetic inorganic pigments. Inorganic pigments are easier to disperse in most paint vehicles than organic pigments. Nevertheless, many white pigments undergo treatment to improve their dispersibility, lightfastness, and weather resistance.  White pigments are used for white colors, tinting colors, and covering tones in paint.

The first project of the newly formed Inter-Society Color Council (ISCC) Project Committee on Artists' Materials was “a study of the pigments used in the manufacture of artists' paints as well as the labeling practices used by these manufacturers.” The committee membership and the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) D01.57 subcommittee were virtually identical. It was composed of artists, conservators, analytical chemists and color scientists, and artists' paint manufacturers and their chemists.

Search the words ‘Zorn Palette’ in Google, and you will find over 604,000 entries. Each discusses the famous four-color palette of Anders Zorn, a Swedish painter adored by thousands worldwide and long hailed as the artist’s artist. Among the many entries in Google are those expressing disbelief about the claim he only had four colors on his palette.

Drawing has always been my primary means of expression. It has been both a meditation and an obsession since I was a boy. I always say my favorite drawing tool is a 2HB Dixon Ticonderoga pencil. But ever since I saw Leonardo da Vinci's Studies of a Horse and Bust of a Warrior, I knew that I had to explore the metalpoint medium.

This is a revised table initially published in 2007 with current information on commercial oil colors as of November 1, 2019. The information in this table is compiled from public sources, such as manufacturers’ literature, product labels, and distributors’ websites. The information is subject to change. Please consult with the manufacturer for the latest pigment content of their paint.

Let's toss out the concepts of “fat over lean” and, for that matter, “thick over thin” (or the confused “thick over lean”) while we are at it, and let's consider the physical structure of the paint. To help you to understand the properties of oil paint, it is helpful to understand the relation between the pigment and oil. One way to think about the relationship between pigment and binder is a brick wall. Every mason knows there is an ideal ratio of mortar to brick. Too much mortar, and the wall is weak. Not enough mortar, and the bricks fall apart.

The color of the old masters was more granular and had more body than oil colors today. Anyone who has ever painted with hand-ground colors will recognize the difference.

Emulsion grounds typically consist of an emulsifying adhesive, such as animal collagen glue and vegetable oil with chalk and lead white. There are many formulas for emulsion grounds, also called "half-chalk grounds," but the one herein we've tried and found that it works quite well if you follow the instructions carefully. This formula and its preparation is based on the Full Oil Ground described in Egg Tempera Painting, Tempera Underpainting, Oil Emulsion Painting.