Old Masters Academy

Archive for September, 2012

Oil painting materials – Oil Paints

Oil painting materials – Oil Paints

Oil painting materials Oil Paints Oil paint is a mix of a powdered pigment bounded with a medium of drying oil.   Linseed oil is commonly used as a carrier in oil paint. Oil paints can be mixed with linseed oil as a medium to make paints more fluid; this medium also increases glossiness and makes paint more transparent. Linseed oil comes as cold pressed, alkali refined, sun bleached, sun thickened, and polymerised (stand oil). Traditionally, the old masters used to prepare oil paints themselves. Today, ready-made oil paints available in tubes from any art supply shop. It is possible to paint with oils without diluting them with solvents, by using brush pressure to spread the paint out thinly. In…

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Oil painting materials and techniques: Opaque and Transparent Colors

Oil painting materials and techniques: Opaque and Transparent Colors

Opaque and Transparent Colors.—Some colors have a jelly-like consistency when mixed with oil, others, the earths among them, are dense and opaque. We speak of them respectively as “transparent” and “solid” colors. These qualities, which divide the paints into two classes, have no relation to their permanency. As far as that is concerned you use them in the same way, as some transparent colors are safe and some fugitive; and the same with the opaque colors. The only difference is in the fact that, as a rule, the solid colors are better dryers. But you will notice that while you may mix these colors together as though this difference between them did not exist, in certain processes you use them differently….

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Oil painting materials and techniques: Chemical Changes of Pigments

Oil painting materials and techniques: Chemical Changes of Pigments

Chemical Changes of Pigments     The causes of change of color in pigments are of four kinds, all of them chemical effects. 1) the action of light; 2) the action of the atmosphere; 3) the action of the medium, and 4) the action of the pigments themselves on each other.   The action of light is to bring about or to assist in the decomposition of the pigment. It is less marked in oil than in water color, because the oil forms a sort of sheath for the color particles. The manner in which light does its deteriorating work is somewhat similar to that of heat.   The atmosphere affects the paint because of certain chemical elements contained in…

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The Oil Painting Guide. Oil painting techniques

The Oil Painting Guide. Oil painting techniques

Oil painting techniques Introduction Welcome to the Web Art Academy Club! We are fine art teachers Natalie Richy and Vladimir London, and have created the Web Art Academy for fine art students who want to learn traditional oil painting and drawing techniques.     The fine art video lessons presented in the Club are valuable for both beginning and advanced students. If you have just recently started your fine art education, this course would be very helpful to obtain a good understanding of oil painting methods. If you already have knowledge and experience in painting, this course would still provide many advanced know-how strategies you could use to improve your painting techniques.     You will discover what oil painting…

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Oil painting essential materials and techniques:  Grinding Pigments

Oil painting essential materials and techniques: Grinding Pigments

Oil painting essential materials and techniques: Grinding Pigments Grinding.—The color which the artist uses must be most evenly and perfectly ground. The grinding which will do for ordinary house paints will not do for the artist’s colors. Neither will the chemical processes suitable for the one serve for the other. Not only must the machinery, but the experience, skill and care, be much greater for artist’s colors. Therefore it is that the specialization of color-making is most important to good colors for the use of the artist. Reliable Makers.—If you would work to the best advantage as far as your colors are concerned, both as to getting the best effects which pure pigments skilfully and honestly prepared will give you,…

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