Oil Painting Palette
An oil painting traditionally begins with the artist sketching the subject onto a canvas with charcoal or thinned paint. The oil paint is then prepared by mixing with turpentine, linseed oil, or a solvent, until it is of the desired thickness. Other additives such as varnishes, cold wax, and resins can be mixed with oil paint to adjust its sheen, translucency, and ability of the artist to hide the brushstroke.
Oil Vs. Layers
A canvas must be properly primed, so that the oil paint will not rot the canvas over time. As the paint is applied, each layer must contain more oil than the layer below it to allow proper drying and to prevent cracking and peeling; this rule is known as “fat over lean.”
Drying Time
Paint brushes are often used to apply the paint to the canvas, but other methods can be used, such as rags and palette knives. Oil paint takes much longer to dry than many other types of paint, allowing the artist to change the color, texture, or form of the picture. Oil paint dries by a process known as oxidation, in which it hardens into a dry solid.
While the paint is still wet, the painter sometimes even dares to remove the entire upper layer and repaint a new look. This is accomplished by using a rag and some turpentine. Once the paint dries and hardens, it must be scraped off. Oil paint is usually dry to the touch in a day to two weeks.
After about six months to a year, the paint is dry enough to be ready for a coating of varnish. It takes about 60 to 80 years for the painting to be considered a “completely dry painting” by art conservators.
Ingredients In Oil
The ingredients used for oil painting come from plants. The flax seed produces linseed oil, and the flax plant produces the linen commonly used to make the canvas. Safflower oil is used to form lighter colors such as white, since it yellows less than linseed oil, even though it takes longer to become completely dry.
Modern science has produced water miscible oil paint. As the name suggest, this oil paint was created with a tiny modification in its molecular structure, allowing it to be used with and easily cleaned up with plain water. Heat-set oil, another creation of modern science, is an imitation oil paint that resembles oil paint, and remains liquid when heated to 265-280 degrees Fahrenheit.
