How to get consistent sheen on oil paintings

[Tony]

Is there a way to temporarily get a consistent finish on oil paintings?

Oil paintings shouldn't be varnished for at least six months after
painting, so how can you get a consistent sheen on them during that time?

[Justine Thyme]

In article <3BE0CBE4...@telus.net>, ton...@telus.net says...

>Oil paintings shouldn't be varnished for at least six months after
>painting, so how can you get a consistent sheen on them during that time?

First of all, you need to understand why there
is the inconsistency. It's due to the different
absorption rates of various pigments. If you'll
use a medium that incorporates damar varnish
in the recipe, you can minimize the differences
and achieve a more uniform sheen. I find that
a finished painting with dull matte spots is
hard to get uniformly shiny even when you do
varnish, since those flat spots soak up more
varnish than the shiny areas. You can get the
best varnish coat ON AN OIL PAINTING by brushing it
on, rather than using an aerosol spray.

[Tony]

Thanks Justine.

I forgot to explain that I'm using water-soluble oils. (I'm so
accustomed to working with them now that when I say "oil paint" I assume
that everyone knows I mean the water-miscable kind, which is so much
superior to the smelly, toxic, hard-to-clean-up, old-fashioned kind of
oil paint that most oil painters still use).

Since then, I wrote to the manufacturerer, and was informed that the
sheen is caused by varying amounts of linseed oil and drying medium that
I'm adding to the piles of paint on my palette.

Fortunately (for health reasons, that is) they don't use damar varnish
in the water-mixable paints.(and it's fortunate because I don't have to
add another solvent to the paint).

I'm going to try to keep the paint/solvent proportions consistent to try
to reduce the sheen.

Tony

[Andrew D]

In article <3BE42239...@telus.net>, Tony <ton...@telus.net> wrote:

[snip]
+I forgot to explain that I'm using water-soluble oils. (I'm so
+accustomed to working with them now that when I say "oil paint" I assume
+that everyone knows I mean the water-miscable kind, which is so much
+superior to the smelly, toxic, hard-to-clean-up, old-fashioned kind of
+oil paint that most oil painters still use).
+
+Since then, I wrote to the manufacturerer, and was informed that the
+sheen is caused by varying amounts of linseed oil and drying medium that
+I'm adding to the piles of paint on my palette.
+
+Fortunately (for health reasons, that is) they don't use damar varnish
+in the water-mixable paints.(and it's fortunate because I don't have to
+add another solvent to the paint).
+
+I'm going to try to keep the paint/solvent proportions consistent to try
+to reduce the sheen.

A light spray of retouching varnish well help a little. I found that
playing with the various mediums (water-soluble) helped quite a bit. Some
of the "water-based" oils definitely seem drier than their traditional
counterparts. (I've switched to odourless solvents now).

Andy D.

"I'm a great speller - but a hopless tpyist!"