Page 11 - Paints
Painting is the application of colorants to a surface that creates an image, design, or decoration. In art, painting describes both the act and the result. Most painting is created with pigment in liquid form applied with a brush. In this section, get answers on how to make artists paint, select surfaces, and apply paint. We discuss different types of paint binders, such as oil, acrylic, encaustic, cold wax, watercolors, and tempera. You'll also find detailed discussions about pigments and additives used in artists's paint and how to choose them for your art.
Why hand mull pigments into paint? Two primary reasons for doing so are to break down agglomerates of pigment particles and disperse pigments into the paint evenly. Most artists know the need to mix pigment with a binding medium smoothly. Still, few know how breaking agglomerations of pigment particles can also improve the saturation of the paint color. Fewer still know about the possibilities that grinding pigments afford for altering the visual appearance of pigment in paint.
At least one artists' materials manufacturer uses 'nanospheres' as an ingredient in some of their oil paint. What are these scrumptious-sounding little globes, and what do they do to the paint? The term 'nanospheres' is not typically used in the industry to designate fumed silica but appears to be a term coined by some companies to obscure the actual ingredients. Indeed, the term sounds more enticing than fumed silica and plays well with the idea of the optical properties of paint.
Tempera grassa, which Pietro Annigoni learned from the Russian artist Nikolai Lokoff, is a variation of tempera painting that some believe to have been used by artists in the 16th century, although there is little evidence so far to support this claim.
An interesting reference in a manual regarding the drying properties of oil paint has some application to oil painters. Some of the information is outdated and inaccurate, yet it does provide an easy-to-understand explanation of drying properties. I have edited some of the content to make it more applicable to artists.
Each day we receive many questions about how to make paint. One question that is often asked is regarding a "formula" for making paint.
Did watercolorists of the 18th and 19th centuries use mediums to brush and manipulate their watercolors? The evidence shows that they handled their colors differently from contemporary artists today. Here are some historical references on the use of watercolor mediums by British watercolorists of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Rublev Colours Artists' Oils let you experience what the old masters well understood—the unique characteristics of pigments. The pigments used by old masters in their paintings were ground from natural minerals and earths, fermented in dyer vats, and concocted in alchemist laboratories. Rublev Colours Artists' Oils give you the same pigments used by the old masters prepared with linseed oil as ready-made paints.
Rublev Colours* artists' paints are made in the United States by Natural Pigments that include Artists' Oils, Watercolors, and painting mediums for use by professional fine artists. Rublev Colours are different from other commercial artists' colors. One reason is we use natural and historical pigments like those used by the old masters. Another is we make them as they did before modern artists' paint manufacturing—without synthetic, modern additives.
Here is a typical recipe to make gouache paint. Gouache consists of water, pigment, and gum binder, the same as watercolor paint. The difference is primarily the addition of a white extender, which creates an opaque water-based paint.
To create a fresco, it is necessary to understand the process. In buon or true fresco, you paint with pure pigments on wet lime plaster. As the plaster cures, a layer of crystal forms over the pigment, locking it into the surface. The author, assistant to Dego Rivera, discusses the brief history of fresco painting techniques.
There’s a bewildering array of drying oils for oil painting. Where do all the different drying oils come from? How are they different? And how do you choose the right one for your painting?
Gel painting mediums come in a variety of thicknesses and properties, but their primary purpose is to change the consistency or appearance of paint. Think of gel medium as transparent paint so that when added to oil colors, it diminishes the opacity of the color while helping to maintain its consistency. Gel mediums increase the transparency of oil colors without making the paint more fluid, such as when adding drying oil to increase the transparency of a color. This is advantageous when you want a transparent layer of color without making the paint runny.
