It is said that oilcolours were invented for painting flesh… the paint certainly stays wet long enough to easily blend and soften. From the 16th Century until the advent of acrylic colours in the 1960’s, oilcolour was the Western artist’s main choice for painting. The amount of pigment that can be loaded into an oil binder and the way light is refracted through it gives oilpaint its unique luminosity and brilliance. Even in the 21st Century, its colour strength and blending ability is unsurpassed.

We stock three different types of oilpaint:

Oilcolours – pigment ground in plant oil (mainly linseed, but also safflower, poppy, and walnut oils), available both in student quality and professional quality;

Resin-Oilcolours – a Renaissance recipe unique to German manufacturer Schmincke, where excess fatty oils are replaced by carefully measured amounts of natural resins, that balance the drying, enhance the brilliance, and yellow less than standard Oilcolours;

Alkyd Oilcolours – pigment ground in a synthetic alkyd resin that greatly shortens the drying time.

All three types are compatible with each other.

Oilcolour dries by absorbing oxygen and this absorption can increase the volume of the paint layer by up to 15%. Because different colours dry at different rates, this can lead to cracking. If a fast drying colour is applied over a slow drying colour, it can crack, as the underlying layer continues to expand as it dries. This has been avoided traditionally by adding a little more oil to successive paint layers, described as “fat over lean”, as the addition of oil will slow the drying down. Nowadays, it is also easy to add driers to slow-drying base colours to speed them up. There is oilcolour available that doesn’t expand as it dries – the Mussini Resin-oilcolour from Schmincke; and oilcolour that dries at an even rate, such as Norma Professional, also from Schmincke.

Driers are added to paint to speed the drying for quick execution of an underpainting, or for rapid layering techniques. A modern synthetic resin called alkyd is a good drier, as it can half the drying time of a colour and creates a flexible paint film. Adding too much alkyd resin to oilcolour can result in poor adhesion for subsequent paint layers. A good rule of thumb for a medium to paint ratio is no more than 1:4. Alkyd resins are available as liquids, gels, and pastes, depending on what effect you want them to have on the consistency of your paint, and popular brand names are Winsor & Newton Liquin, Schmincke Rapid Medium, and Art Spectrum Liquol, each with their own characteristics.

Glazes are transparent layers of colour. Traditionally glazes use linseed oil as an additive to increase the transparency and flow of the colour. Linseed oil is available in different viscosity, from very thin, fine Refined Linseed to thick Stand Oil which imparts a unique drag and closing-over of brush marks. Sometimes other additives are combined with linseed oil, to increase the drying rate or affect the gloss.

Try to avoid using solvents such as turpentine wherever possible – their overuse is a nasty 19th Century habit that can harm you, your brushes and your painting if not properly used. For very thin layers, Mussini Medium 1 is a useful alternative that maintains the film integrity and doesn’t chalk the paint. For cleaning brushes, see our Brushes Feature Topic.

Varnishing of oilpaintings is done for both protection and to even out gloss and matt areas, and should take place several months after completion. Until the oilcolour has fully cured, it is vulnerable to the solvent in the varnish, and can re-wet or turn sticky if varnished before time. Timing will depend on thickness of paint, driers used, climate, and type of varnish. For temporary protection, or for brightening dull spots, a retouch spray varnish such as Schmincke Gloss Film can be used.

In the search for the perfect oilcolour binder, many interesting substances have been added to paint. Rembrandt sometimes added honey; urine was mentioned by Vasari in Renaissance Italy; and Michelangelo was rumoured to mix his “manly virility” into his paint! The need for each artist to hand-make their oilpaint ended in 1841, when an American living in London, John G. Rand, invented the first collapsible tube and paint could be pre-made and packaged. Today’s artists have more colour available to them than ever before.

Norma Professional Oilcolours work particularly well on the Schmincke Primer, a half-chalk primer with slightly more absorbency than acrylic gesso. While it’s relatively expensive, it’s a concentrate (to be diluted up to 30% with water) and once tried, there’s no substitute! Schmincke Primer fills the weave of the canvas quickly and creates a warm white, silky-smooth, plaster-type finish which Norma just glides over, and adheres particularly well to.

The Mussini Medium 3 is a good additive to the paint to increase flow and speed drying, which - due to its natural resin composition - does not cause the paint film to seem overly plastic, unlike alkyd resin.

Transparent Painting Medium is a mix of Stand Oil, Dammar and siccatives offering characteristics similar to those of the “Old Master’s” techniques - increasing the drag and enhancing the translucency of the paint layers.

Neutral Varnish is designed to even out the dull and shiny patches in oilpainting, and is perfect for those who want a natural finish to their work.

Black Sable brushes are favoured for their strength and softness, combining the resilience of hog hair control of red sable, making them ideal for wet-on-wet and blending techniques.