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Oils and Alkyds Changing paint characteristics
Many artist's using modern oil paints presume that they are painting
with the same paints as were used by Renaissance masters. That is not
really true. Not only are many of the pigments very different but the
oils themselves have changed, and the basic characteristics including
the way it handles on the brush and on the canvas are markedly
different for many reasons including simple changes in taste and skill
levels. The Renaissance master was virtually a chemist in his
understanding of the materials at hand. They needed to be since all
paint was in effect manufactured on the premises from base ingredients.
Nor were there the mechanized tools and myriad chemicals to adjust the
natural product to a uniform consistency. Today's painter expects to
slap some paint onto a surface and start spreading it with carefree and
creative abandon. The Renaissance master would not only not have that
luxury, but would no doubt be aghast at what is likely to be regarded
as disrespect for materials and tradition. The very nature of oil
paints 500 years ago dictated that this would have to be so. The
materials were often very poor and it was only the careful attention to
working with the strengths of the various materials and consciously
avoiding the weaknesses that lead to pictures that could survive the
ages. It seems quite bizarre that now that we have such high quality
materials we tend to put them together in ways that are likely to self
destruct in relatively short times.
Related Links:
Acrylics and
Tempera
Watercolor and
Gouache
Encaustic and
Fresco
Drawing materials
Early oil paint Paints
with individual characters
Every pigment has a natural tendency to behave in a certain manner that
affects and modifies the oil used. Some like the lead based pigments
are very beneficial to the oil. Lead tends to make the dried oil paint
film more flexible than it would be otherwise, and it speeds the drying
of the paint. Little wonder that artist's loved Lead White despite its
known toxicity. Burnt Umber was also a fast drier, although it made
only a fairly flexible oil paint film. There were other colors however
that were much slower in drying, and some that produced oil films that
were brittle and very prone to cracking. Ivory Black is an example of
that.
Some pigments were variable in their fineness. In an age where all
grinding was done in the studio by apprentices with hand mullers, it
was not possible to pulverize all pigments equally. There was no
pigment factory down the road who would supply pigments in ultra fine
powders like we have these days, grinding was a mixture of apprentice
willingness, and the demands reasonable or otherwise of the studio
master. It was inevitable that quality was variable from studio to
studio, from batch to batch, and from pigment to pigment. Thus a
pigment that is easy to work with like say Venetian Red would end up
being a very different sort of paint to a naturally coarse pigment like
Egyptian Blue.
The oils used were different too. From the beginning Hemp Oil, Nut Oil,
Poppy Oil, and Linseed Oil were all experimented with. Nut Oil was
favorite of Leonardo da Vinci but it proved to be unreliable. Poppy Oil
was popular because it was light in color. But it was Linseed Oil that
became the favorite due to its overall desirable characteristics. It
dried faster than the others and made a tough durable paint film. It
was normally cold pressed in slow turning stone mills, either horse
powered, or windmills. It is a dark oil that results very high in the
sort of long molecules that bind most toughly for the strongest paint
films. Cold Pressed Linseed Oil from a windmill is still made and sold
by Old Holland, the oldest paint manufacturer in the world. It is worth
trying for it's many good qualities. Cold Pressed Oil made in more
conventional mills is available from other suppliers and is also
superior for making paint, however nothing can beat the oil that comes
from slow turning stone mills. This oil gives a unique quality to the
paint that is enjoyable to use. Many artist's as in earlier centuries
may decide it is wise to grind white and delicate blues in Poppy Oil
and darker and yellower colors in the Cold Pressed Linseed Oil. This
adds to the variety of paint characteristics naturally.
Renaissance oil paint was most noticeable for the individual
characteristics of the various pigments and oils used. The maker of
artist's
paint in the studio often prefers to avoid the addition of dryers and
stabilizers so is likely to make paint very similar to that used in the
Renaissance in this regard. Be aware that painting with it is a whole
new experience.
Modern oil paints Modern
ways aren't all bad
Producing a 'short' oil paint has been a desirable characteristic from
the early days. A paint that is short has a buttery body. It was soon
discovered that a tiny addition of beeswax could help shorten the
paint. But what was meant by short has changed in the last 500 years.
Renaissance oil paint was not as buttery as oil paint tends to be these
days. In the early days paint was generally applied in thin layers.
Glazing was normal and impasto played a smaller role in highlights, but
as time passed the desire to impast increased. By the time of Rembrandt
his thicker texture was de rigueur. but in subsequent centuries
artist's painted more and more alla prima where thicker buttery paint
was not only desirable but considered creatively necessary. This
coincided with
the rise in industrial paint production with the machinery and
chemistry to meet artist's demands. The expressive use of brush strokes
was born.
Another noticeable characteristic of modern oil paints is their
consistency, especially in regard to drying. The Renaissance master
didn't need to add dryers to paint as they had 2 colors that could be
added to most mixtures that would do the job for them. Darker colors
could have a small addition of burnt or raw Umber, and lighter colors
and all tints would benefit from additions of the fast drying Lead
White. Old master painting was very dependent on the use of Lead White
which provides the modern maker of paint in the studio with a dilemma.
Few want to take the risks involved with using Lead White, especially
when dealing with it as a pigment, yet few also are willing to add
dryers intentionally to colors either. Catch 22. There are 2 work
around's. First is to use the Cobalt and Manganese colors as pigment
colors. They both dry quite quickly, not so fast as Lead White, but
there are more colors to use on the palette such as greens, blues,
violet and yellow. Avoiding the slowest dryers such as the Cadmium's
helps. The modern maker of paint who follows this path finds themselves
in the same position as a Renaissance master - having to think about
their materials more as they paint. That is not such a bad thing.
The second work around is to make oil paint with Linseed or Poppy Oil
and to use alkyd mediums. This method retains the basic working
characteristics of traditional oil paint while speeding drying
significantly. It is possible to take this to the next step and grind
the colors into alkyd mediums in the first place as described below,
but most artist's who want paint to dry this quickly are interested in
acrylics rather than oil paint. It does however offer a fast drying
option for paints that need to be used in areas exposed to weather and
other situations where durability is a major issue.
On the other hand it is relatively easy to use dryers and stabilizers
to make paints of similar consistent characteristics to store bought
colors. The page extenders,
stabilizers, fillers, and dryers describes these additional ingredients
in detail, just click here. Their use in paint making is addressed
in the demonstration
Alkyds Fast drying oil
paint
Alkyd paint characteristics can be summed up as being what you would
expect of fast drying oil paints Paint body and all wet characteristics
are similar to traditional oil paint. The difference is principally in
the drying. They tend to have shorter open times for working the paint
with wet in wet techniques, and arrive at a honey like stickiness
within a normal painting session. Often the mixture of Alkyd with
traditional oil paint combines the desirable characteristics of each
very favorably. It is no accident that the Alkyd painting mediums
outsell the paints by a significant factor.
References
Alberti, L B, On Painting 1435
(Penguin Classics)
Cellini, B, The Life Of Benvenuto
Cellini, finished 1562 but not published until 1730
(Heron)
Cennini, C d'A, The Craftsman's
Handbook. 1437 (Dover)
Doerner, M, The Materials Of The Artist And Their Use
In Painting, 1921 (Harcourt Brace)
Eastlake, Sir C L, Materials For A History Of Oil
Painting, 1847 (Dover)
Feller, R L, Artists Pigments 1986
(National Gallery Of Art / Cambridge University)
Gettens, R J, and Stout, G L, Painting
Materials: A Short Encyclopedia, 1942
(Dover)
Gottsegen, M D, A Manual Of Painting Materials And
Techniques, 1987 (Harper & Row)
Maire, F, Colors: What They Are And What To Expect Of
Them, 1910 (Drake)
Mayer, R, The Artists Handbook Of Materials And
Techniques, fifth edition 1991 (Faber
& Faber)
Merrifield, Mrs. M P, Medieval And Renaissance Treatises
On
The Arts Of Painting 1849 (Dover)
Muther, R, The History Of Painting From The Fourth
Century To The Early Nineteenth Century, 1907 (Putnam)
Parkhurst, D B, The Painter In Oil 1898
(Lothrop, Lee & Shepard)
Patton, T C, Pigment Handbook, 1973
(Wiley)
Pliny, The Elder (Gaius Plinius), Natural
History, 77AD (Penguin Classics)
Taubs, F, A Guide To Traditional And Modern Painting
Methods, 1963 (Thames & Hudson)
Theophilus, On Divers Arts, 1125 (Dover)
Various, Encyclopedia Britannica,
fifteenth edition 1981 (Encyclopeadia Britannica, Inc)
Various, Paint And Painting, 1982,
(Winsor & Newton / The Tate Gallery)
Various, The Artist's Colourmen's
Story, 1984 (Winsor & Newton)
Vasari, G, The Lives Of The Most Excellent Painters,
Sculptors And Architects, 1568 (Penguin Classics)
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