Notebook

Notebook, 1993-

MATERIALS & METHODS - Painting - Oil Painting

Characteristics - Painting Methods & Techniques - Materials and Equipment - Work Space & Storage - Manufacture of Pigments - Protection of the Picture

Oil Painting - Drying Qualities
Because strokes of oil paint dry more slowly, they can be easily blended with each other, providing a softer merging of one tone into the next [and, increasing the medium, the oil and turpentine, one can work in a wet on wet manner creating great luminosity and color transparency.] The subtle changes of light in a Van Eyck interior or in a Giovanni Bellini portrait indicate that fifteenth century artists made enthusiastic use of this quality of the oil medium to produce a controlled softness of blended tones that was not usual in the egg tempera technique as it was then practiced.

As the paint stays wet for a long time, the artist can wipe out mistakes with a rag or scrape them away with a painting knife more easily and selectively. Painters can make many corrections and still keep the canvas looking fresh.

Since the oil medium remains workable longer, painters can mix exact color nuances on their palettes with greater thoughtfulness and precision than was allowed by the faster drying paints. Furthermore, the appearance of oil paint, when it is used with the appropriate painting medium, remains virtually unaltered as it dries, whereas fresco, tempera, and water paints tend to change tone during the drying process, making the judgment of color more difficult for the artist. The nature of their drying process makes oil paints more portable and convenient to use, both in the studio and for landscape and other motifs outside the studio, since, in contrast with the fast-drying fresco, tempera, and encaustic colors, oil paints can be ground and stored ready to use in containers for longer periods of time. [p. 55]

[Kay, Reed. The Painter's Guide to Studio Methods and Materials. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1983.]





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