Beginner's question about oil paints for glazing

[SteveR]

This is a really elementary question, very much a beginner's. How do I
get a particular colour the way I want it (opaque vs. transparent)
without spending lots of money on versions with the wrong transparency?

I'm started to become interested in taking up oil painting. I was
reading _The Oil Painting Book - Materials and Techniques for Today's
Artist_ by Bill Creevy, and he shows some interesting techniques,
including glazing. He gives a list of transparent and opaque colours,
as if you can pick a colour from, say, the transparent list, and you
will always find that it is transparent, regardless of supplier. He
says, for example, that Ivory Black, Davy's Gray, and Payne's Gray are
transparent colours. However, when I looked at Daler Rowney oils, they
say that Ivory Black is opaque, and the same for Payne's Gray. I've
seen other suppliers saying that they are semi-opaque. How do I get a
particular colour the way I want it without spending lots of money on
versions with the wrong transparency?

--
SteveR
(throw away the dustbin, send to stever@... instead)

Humans are way too stupid to be dumb animals.
http://www.accidentalcreditor.org.uk/

[Terry]

Experiment by mixing your paint with various amounts of medium. More
medium will make your paint more transparent. You can use any drying oil
(linseed is popular), or an oil-modified alkyd resin (Liquin is an
example), or a mixture of the two.

Cheers,
Terry

[SteveR]

Terry <us...@example.net> writes:
>Experiment by mixing your paint with various amounts of medium. More
>medium will make your paint more transparent. You can use any drying
>oil (linseed is popular), or an oil-modified alkyd resin (Liquin is an
>example), or a mixture of the two.

I've read that diluting opaque paints doesn't work for producing glazes.
Should I just buy the paint and test it to see if it works? This seems
like it could be expensive if it doesn't work out, and I was hoping to
avoid buying paints just for experimentation.

Are there any good books on glazing techniques, especially if they
include advice on materials?

>Cheers,
>Terry
>
>SteveR wrote:
>
>> This is a really elementary question, very much a beginner's. How do

[snip]

>>money on versions with the wrong transparency?

Cheers,

[Mike Thompson]

SteveR,

It's a good idea to build up a collection of oil paints with one opaque
and one transparent for each color.

For glazing, use the transparent. The colors you mentioned: a black and
a grey are not the usual fare for glazing. The 'new' artificial dyes
make very good glazes for example the phthalo colors both green and
blue. A tiny amount added to galkyd or liquin will give a terrific
glaze. Anthraquinone red or arylamide yellow and orange are also good.
If you want greys then mix complementary colors using these dyes.

Most of the 'Winsor' colors in the W&N range are these dyes.

For the colors that you use in a painting, paint color swatches of
canvas and glue them in a notebook. This is invaluable to record
mistakes to be avoided and those chance success you can repeat.

When your notebook is full you will no longer be a beginner!
Mike
www.mikethompsonpaintings.com

[Marc Sabatella]

> He gives a list of transparent and opaque colours,
> as if you can pick a colour from, say, the transparent list, and you
> will always find that it is transparent, regardless of supplier. He
> says, for example, that Ivory Black, Davy's Gray, and Payne's Gray are
> transparent colours. However, when I looked at Daler Rowney oils,
they
> say that Ivory Black is opaque, and the same for Payne's Gray. I've
> seen other suppliers saying that they are semi-opaque. How do I get a
> particular colour the way I want it without spending lots of money on
> versions with the wrong transparency?

Don't go by Creevy's list, but by the manufacturers'. In particular,
the grays are usually just mixtures that different manufacturers will
create differently, so there would be no reason to expect them all to be
similar in opacity. Also, as you may have learned, anything labelled
"hue" (as in, "viridian hue") is an imitation, which might actually be a
fine pigment and will usually resemble the intended color but may well
differ in opacity. This can work for you as well as against you - the
pigments in something called "Cadmium Red Hue" might well be quite
transparent, even though cadmium red itself most definitely isn't.

--------------
Marc Sabatella
ma...@outsideshore.com

The Outside Shore
Music, art, & educational materials:
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