Drying medium?

[Richard Bingham]

Originally Posted by Michele Rushworth

. . . flake white it feels like I'm painting with skim milk. . . black areas that seem to take forever to dry.

As with any other pigment, there are a lot of variations with differing pigment loads. Vasari flake is very good. Robert Doak offers a number of variations, SP is also very high quality. Naturally, flake is more transparent, while titanium is as opaque as one can find. Lead whites dry more rapidly, titanium is exceedingly slow.

Carbon blacks absorb much more oil than almost any other pigment. They also tend to be slow driers. Prussian blue and the umbers naturally contain manganese compounds, and dry rapidly. Mixes of the two can provide a rapid drying "black" that's almost as dark as carbon blacks from the tube.

[George Holmes]

If you haven't yet, try copal medium, I've had luck with Grumbacher; but I'm not familiar with other brands to know if they're similar. Speeds drying, but not as fast as Liquin.

[Richard Bingham]

Originally Posted by George Holmes

. . . try copal medium, . . . Grumbacher; Speeds drying, but not as fast as Liquin.

Last time I examined a bottle of Grumbacher "copal medium", alkyd resin was the active ingredient. No copal was harmed in the making of this product.

Liquin and other alkyd preparations do hasten the drying rate of oil paint. Delamination can be a consequence of using alkyd mediums in layered techniques, however.

Opting for resin mediums (copals, balsams, damar, mastic etc.) the unique handling character imparted to paint by each of these is more of a consideration than drying time alone.

[George Holmes]

Richard, thanks for setting me straight on the imitation copal.

[Richard Bingham]

My pleasure, George. I hope to offend no one, it seems passions can run high when mediums and painting additives are discussed. There is more mis-information at large than truth, and the whole subject is a minefield for painters.

Add to this the fact that many high-quality standby materials (those " . . . tried and true . . . used for generations . . . " Michele requested) have been out of use by mainstream art materials suppliers for some time, and are becoming ever more scarce and difficult to obtain.

Examples: linseed oil has been supplanted by safflower oil as the vehicle in most tube paint, not because it results in superior paint, but because it is inexpensive, and readily available in vast quantities as its main application is in the fast food industry.

Pure gum spirits of turpentine is practically impossible to obtain, where at one time it was a common hardware-store or paint store item. The currently available foul-smelling stuff is steam distilled from stumps and forest waste, rather than fractionally distilled from pure sap tapped from living conifers. There is a world of difference in quality.

The natural and fossil resins have been supplanted by petrochemicals such as alkyds in the production of commercial paints and varnishes. Again, availability and low cost is the driving force behind their introduction into art materials, supplanting traditional resins such as copal, damar, venice turps, balsam, mastic etc., etc.

With a track-record of 500+ years of durably provable techniques, it seems to me there is little reason to re-invent the process of oil painting by employing synthetics and different materials that lack this provenance.

[David Carroll]

Hi Michelle,

Garrett's copal heavey medium works well for accelerating drying. I've used it and like it. It Creates a beutiful shiny paint layer. If you call, Ron will talk with you about how to best use his products, and answer any questions you have. he's a very nice man. He will also probably send you a test sample if you asked for one. His copal products are very highly regarded.

http://www.garrettcopal.com/prod_hist.htm

The umber and p/b sounds real good too, especially if you don't want to add medium into your process. Sometimes I add a little OH titanium white (doesn't contain zinc white) into flake to make it more opaque. It sort of splits the difference.

Studioproducts.com sells High Quality mediums and materials and provides a forum with loads of info.

The more mediums I try the more I like to just paint with paint. It seems the only real concensus I've seen regarding the achival quality of oil paint is that anything added to the paint reduces it's archival permanance. Maybe Richard can share his knowladge on this point as this is just what I have read.

I hope this helped a little.

Peace,

[Richard Monro]

Michelle,

It is important to get some authoritaive advice on this subject in as much as most of what has been offered so far, while well intentioned, is opinion.

I suggest Ralph Mayer's "The Artist's handbook of Materials and Techniques" be referenced to find your answer. It is authorative, technically sound and thoroughly researched. Every artist should have a copy in their studio.

For instance, copal is a varnish not a drying medium, and copal has its own special archival concerns. Mayer's research will set matters straight for you.