Learning about Oil Paint Mediums with Katie Blackwell

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This is one of my favorite parts about oil painting because you can take any of these mediums and change the texture and drying time of any paint that you choose.

What I have here are 3 different main categories - we have the texture, the quick-dry mediums, slow-dry mediums, and pretty much just the normal mediums.

Over here were have refined Linseed oil, cold-pressed Linseed oil - all of those are what's already in your paint.

Part of oil paint is a binder and pigment, and generally the binder is Linseed or Safflower oil. By adding any of the Linseeds you're just extending your paint. You're not changing anything about it.

So that's good if you want to keep the drying time about 2 weeks depending on the color.

If you want to speed up the process you can use something like Gamblin's Galkyd. Galkyd is really glossy and a little bit tackier.

Liquin's has a satin finish, there's also Sennelier's Fluid and Dry - they also have a Flow and Dry.

All of those you just mix in with your paints - the more you mix with it the thinner your paint's gonna get, but your painting will be dry by the next day.

There's also some stuff like Japan Drier that you have to be really careful with. You don't have to use nearly as much as you would with something like Galkyd or Liquin. You just use a tiny little drop. If you use anymore than that, your paint's gonna crack.

It's definitely not something you use for glazing.

We also have walnut oil from M. Graham, they have an Alkyd which is a quick dryer, but both of them are the only mediums out there that don't yellow your paint.

They're also pretty natural, they don't smell, they're not toxic, so if you have trouble with the toxicity of oils this is a good thing to get. They also have a whole line of paint made with walnut oil.

For texture, if you like impasto, we have liquid impasto, so that's still going to speed up the process of your paint but it's going to add some great thick texture to it.

There's also Sennelier's impasto medium, and Neo Megilp from Gamblin - all of these are going to thicken up your paint a little bit.

We also have Cold Wax medium from Gamblin that will thicken it and make it a little more matte. All the other mediums are going to give a little bit of gloss. The Cold Wax medium can also be used as a varnish.

All of these do amazing things. There's 30, 40, maybe even 100 more mediums out there for you to choose from. Next time you're in the Cheap Joe's store just ask a sales associate or turn the bottles around and read what they do.

You can get some incredible results and just play around with a couple of different things and see what it does to your painting.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• oil paint
• oil mediums
• mediums for oil painting
• gamblin
• m graham
• linseed oil
• walnut oil
• galkyd
• alkyd
• neo megilp
• oil thinner
• texture for oil paints
• cheap joes
• artist tips

[ThomasandDBZ2010]

Hi, Katie!

I enjoyed this video and yet, so far, I only got refined linseed oil at 0:26, and what does it actually do to the paint in any way and how much do you need this kind of oil for oil painting, so your paint won't crack?

I was an acrylic painter back since last year and now I am learning about oil painting. Just here, to ask you questions regarding oil paint and if you like, I could subscribe to you, friend you, etc.

-Felix Cheng

[Anthropidia]

@khblackwellart Hi Katie, love your work, you're very talented. I took your advice and used the liquin to thin my oils. Works great thanks so much:-)

I've created a slideshow of some of my work. it's on my channel. Most of them are in acrylics but a the very last one is in oils.

[khblackwellart]

@impdream70

Well, I'm not going to be too much help. Every damar varnish I've smelled is very pungent, "Gamvar " is suppose to be less odorous, due to it being synthetic, but I have not tried it myself. As for black oil, if your referring to the linseed oil...I'm not sure either. I couldn't find it with any of the vendors we normally order from or online. The closest I could find was the Maroger medium which contains black oil. Sorry I wasn't much help, good luck!

[khblackwellart]

@wilkoman3

I don't have much experience with water-soluble oils. I do find that they take a very long time to dry, longer than a lot of the traditional oils I use. Because of that I would recommend using the Winsor & Newton fast drying medium. Kevin Brown, an employee at the Charlotte store paints with w/s oils too. He said to try 1/3 Fast drying medium, painting medium and linseed oil. He said it won't dry as fast as using just the fast dryer and will help thin the paint.

[impdream70]

I have two questions, You mentioned the the M Graham Walnut oil has less of a smell and may be safer -what I find that is the strongest odor is really the Damar Varnish -any ideas. My favorite glaze medium is an equal mix of cold pressed/refined linseed with Damar and turpinoid, if I want it thicker I add some wax to it and adjust.My second question is maybe where I can get my hands on some GENUINE black oil. I have a very old bottle -which I treasure like rare scotch.

[wilkoman3]

Great work, I've just started with oils. I use the Artisan water mixable oils but I'm not sure what Medium to use for glazing???

[toodiesel]

I bought a print off you at one of the noda art shows, nice to see your tech videos

[stacystewartsmithart]

Great! I think it would be more beneficial if we could see zoom ins of the products while you speak.

[cooliesass]

Good video...thanks for the info!