What is a painting medium and should I be using it? Two good questions. Understanding what a an oil painting medium is and how it’s used will not only help you develop a process for applying your paint but it will also help you get the desired surface effect in your paintings.
A medium is something that is mixed with oil paint to change it’s consistency from fat (oily) paint to lean (thin) paint, or vice versa. That “something” can simply be a solvent like turpentine or any combination of oil, varnish, and solvent. There are other uses for painting medium but we’ll just stick to this definition for now.
There is no rule that says you must use a medium. In fact, many artists prefer to paint without it. It really depends on the look and feel you are after. Medium will alter the look and feel of the paint strokes as you apply them on the canvas. For example, a lean painting medium extends the color over the canvas allowing you to make longer, thinner strokes of color as compared to painting without a medium. I use a lean painting medium especially when starting a painting because I like the way it makes the paint flow on the canvas. A fat medium adds more body to the paint, producing heavier brush strokes. Fat mediums are often used on the top layers of a painting. Experimenting with various types of mediums will go a long way to help you know what works best with your technique of painting. You may end up realizing that using a medium is not your bag, so mess around with it a bit.
Using a painting medium: Simply keep a small amount of medium in a container close to your work area. Dip your brush into the medium and mix it with the paint on your palette as needed.
If you want to keep it simple or are just starting with mediums you can pick up some linseed or walnut oil and use it straight without diluting it with solvent. It’s an easy place to start and many artists enjoy painting this way. One benefit of using straight oil medium, as opposed to a thinned mixture, is that you are not using toxic solvents. However, you may eventually feel it necessary to explore other mixtures to modify the thickness and flow of the paint. In that case, I recommend experimenting with various recipes for oil painting mediums such as these:
Very lean (thin) painting medium
1 Part - Linseed oil
5 Parts – Turpentine
Lean painting medium that I currently use
1 Part – Stand oil
4 Parts – Turpentine
Lean painting medium and good all purpose formula
1 Part – Stand Oil
1 Part – Damar varnish
5 Parts – Turpentine
Fat (oily) painting medium
1 Part – Stand oil
1 Part – Damar varnish
3 Parts – Turpentine
In the examples above, turpentine can be substituted with odorless mineral spirits (OMS) if you prefer an odorless alternative. However, OMS cannot be used as a substitute for turpentine when a recipe calls for natural resins such as Damar. OMS is not strong enough to dissolve the natural resins. Remember that OMS is toxic like turpentine even though you can’t smell it. Make sure you have plenty of ventilation when working with mediums containing solvents.
Alternatively, if you are opposed to having any solvents in your working environment you might try an anti-solvent approach to painting. You can use a solvent-free medium like straight oil (linseed, walnut, safflower, etc.) or Liquin then use an oil like walnut oil to cleanup instead of a solvent.
Are you currently using medium as a part of your painting process? If so what are you using?
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Yesterday I explained some reasons why artists should use WordPress for their blog or website. Today I’m going to show you how to go about setting it up. You should know that using a self-hosted WordPress blog does require a bit more of your attention compared to it’s publicly hosted counterparts (.blospot.com, .wordpress.com, etc.). But like any good thing it’s worth the time.
Take a peek at just one example of what an artist has done with a self-hosted WordPress website at Michael Naples’ website. You can also get an idea of what you’re getting yourself into before switching by logging into this demo admistration area of WordPress (username: admin, password: demo123). Ignore those banner ads at the top of the screen.
If you don’t want to spend the time learning and are happy with a limited blog or website then by all means stick to what you’ve got. On the other hand, if you are willing to spend a small amount of time getting familiar with the flexibility and power that a self-hosted WordPress blog can offer your personal art gallery then keep reading.
Installing a WordPress Art Blog or Website
Step One – Sign up for web hosting
You must have web hosting to use self-hosted WordPress. If you already have your own hosting you can skip this step. Here are some web hosting companies that I have experience with and recommend. Keep in mind that these web hosts below include a free domain name with signup so you can kill two birds with one stone if you need a website name.
Bluehost – I’ve used Bluehost for 6 years now and have been very happy with them. Their support is especially good. This blog, The Painter’s Box, is hosted on Bluehost.
JustHost – Another host I like and have been very pleased with. It’s very similar to Bluehost in many ways and I have been surprised at how fast it loads websites. I’ve considered moving all my hosting to JustHost for this reason.
iPage – If you want the cheapest option this one is a great choice. They have an intuitive control panel and I like their free setup service. I’ve recommended them before.
One thing about signing up for web hosts. They’ll try to up sell you additional services. I recommend NOT adding any of the addon features. They are not needed and will just cost you more money. You do not need to spend more than $5-$10 per month on hosting.
Step Two – Install WordPress
Once you’ve got hosting for your new website or blog here’s how to get WordPress installed.
A. Log into your hosting account and go to the cPanel / control panel area of your account.
B. Find and click on “Simple Scripts” feature (or, alternatively, the Fantastico feature). If you’re using iPage then find “Install Central” under Scripts then choose the “Blogs” tab.
C. Select WordPress and Install. Viola!
Now all you need to do is select a theme and get familiar with your new website and then upload some art!
Bottom line is you want to use the best tools available to you to display your artwork. Just like selecting the right paint from your paint box or using a steady easel, WordPress is among the best tools you can use for showing your art to the world. Hello world!
Any questions?
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First thing… I’m a hypocrite. I am recommending you use WordPress for your art blog or website but I personally use more than just WordPress for my art sites. I use Pixelpost for my website, Blogger for my blog and WordPress for this site, The Painter’s Box. Ignore this for a moment and do what I say and not as I do. At some point in the future all of these sites will be using WordPress.
Before I go into the 5 reasons, I should clarify that when I’m talking about WordPress in this post I’m referring to WordPress.org not WordPress.com. For those of you who don’t know what the difference is, the .org version is a self-hosted version and the .com is hosted on the WordPress.com website. Typically the .com version has the WordPress name trailing the domain name. For example, myartgallery.wordpress.com
I’m using the terms blog and website loosely. WordPress allows you to display your site any way you want. You can choose to go with single pages like a website or multiple entries like a blog. So blogs are websites and websites are blogs as far as this post is concerned.
Why Artists Should Use WordPress
1. Control: As an artist you have a certain look and feel to your art and you want to have a website that reflects this. Hosting your own blog means that you own your own space . You can arrange and decorate as you please. WordPress allows you to have complete control over your virtual gallery… more than any other platform can. You don’t even need to know html (although it is a bonus if you do).
2. Themes: When it comes to themes WordPress is king. There are thousands of free and paid themes to choose from (if you want to see an example of some great free themes go check out 100 Free High Quality WP Themes on Smashing Magazine’s website). Blog providers like Blogger.com have limited theme support. If you you’ve ever used Blogger you probably know this all too well. With a self-hosted WordPress blog, not only can you use a custom or premium theme, there’s also a large community of WordPress specific designers that you can rely on for support. The possibilities for displaying your art with a ready made or custom made theme are endless.
3. Plugins: Plugins extend the functionality and reach of your blog. In other words plugins make your blog cool. Want to integrate a Facebook “Like” badge or other social sharing tools? It’s as simple as searching for the plugin within your dashboard, installing it with one click and inputting a few preferences. You can also add other elements like a professional contact form or a video gallery to your blog with the same ease. Blog providers like Blogger.com are very limited in this respect. Selecting the right plugins allows you to customize a blog for what you intend it to be used for. As an artist you want a great looking space for your art but also a functional one.
4. SEO: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the path to popularity. When your blog content is optimized for search engines it is indexed and ranked better by search engines thus showing your site more often in their search results. This means that people searching for art topics related to the content on your site have a better chance of finding it. You don’t want to worry about this too much, right? Well, WordPress does a great job of SEO right out of the box so you don’t have to think about it much. This helps new people or maybe even future collectors find your site.
5. It’s Free: Well not quite. You do need to buy hosting if you don’t already have it but the actual WordPress software is free. You can get good hosting in the range of $5-$10 per month.
This is a two part still life painting demo of a recent painting I did entitled “Two Roses”. I’ve added some commentary to help with an explanation of the process. Enjoy!
To watch this video in HD select 720p or 1080p in the lower right corner and maximize the video to full screen. As usual… leave your comments below!
Two Roses painting demo part two…
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Would Andrew Wyeth still have been one of the greatest American painters if he used Q-tips instead of brushes? Probably so.
It was not his expertise in the use of brushes that made his paintings beautiful and believable, it was his understanding of the principles of art and a personal vision that made his paintings great. Brushes aren’t going to make you a better painter so don’t get too caught up in the type or brand. In my experience I have found it helpful to see what brushes other painters use so I thought I’d share some of the brushes I use. None of which are Q-tips in case you’re wondering.
Let’s first talk about brush shapes and hair types.
Brush Shapes
Brush shapes
Open up any art supply catalog and you’ll see every brush shape imaginable. Let’s just keep it simple.
Flats – Flat square edge. Good for broad strokes and creating straight lines. Brights - (Not shown) The shorter stubbier brother of the flat brush. Filberts – Flat oval edge. This is probably the most popular type of brush used by artists. Rounds – Pointed shape. Good for fine detail and long lines.
These four brush shapes are more than enough to help you to get the surface quality you’re looking for.
Brush Hair Type
There are two types of brush hair, natural hair and synthetic hair. Natural hair brushes range from stiff hog hair to soft mongoose hair. Synthetic brushes also range in their stiffness and are usually less costly. The type of brush hair you use is largely a matter of letting experience tell you which brush you should use. For example, I prefer to use natural hair brushes because I find that the synthetic hairs have a slippery feel to them, that is, they don’t hold the paint on the brush as well as the natural hair brushes do. Also, because I like to paint on smooth surfaces, experience has shown me that soft natural hair brushes seem to do a better job of laying on the paint. Stiff bristle brushes like hog hair have a tendency to scrape off the paint underneath. As there are many combinations of brush types, painting surfaces and painting techniques, your experience will vary.
Paint brushes I use
Here is a picture of some of the brushes that I use. Number 1 and 3 are the ones I use most… and yes number 7 is a size zero (is that really a size?). I use it for signatures. All of these brushes are relatively affordable. Which reminds me, I should mention that an expensive brush doesn’t necessarily mean a good brush. So, whatever you do don’t go out and buy a $200 brush.
I’m not sure if the Richeson Signature Filberts are still being made. I haven’t been able to find them lately but there are plenty of other good brands of bristle brushes out there. Numbers 4 and 5 are good examples.
When selecting paint brushes my suggestion is to get a few different types of brushes and experiment. This will give you the best reasoning for selecting certain brushes later. Filberts and flats are a good place to start. After a while you’ll know which brushes you should use simply by paying attention to which brushes you reach for over and over again as you are painting.
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I think a good place to start is to explain what colors I’m using. For this painting I’m laying out ten pigments on my palette. These are actually the same ten pigments I use for most of my paintings; titanium white, cadmium yellow light, cadmium orange, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue and viridian. On occasion I’ll add a few colors to this ten-pigment palette but for the most part these colors allow me to mix the colors I need to paint most subjects.
(Click on images to enlarge)
Painting a portrait of Stella - Initial drawing and average skin tone
To begin I apply a warm grayish tone to the canvas. I use a large old brush to scrub a mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna with generous amounts OMS (odorless mineral spirits) onto the canvas. After letting it dry for a few minutes I wipe it down with a clean rag. The effect is a slightly warm (in color) surface that I can paint on allowing me to judge colors more accurately. I personally find it difficult to judge colors when painting directly onto a bright white canvas.
After the tone is dry I use some of the same mixture to do a quick sketch of the portrait. Time spent here is generally no longer than a few minutes. I don’t want to spend a ton of time on this step because much of the drawing will be covered with the first layer of paint anyway. The point of this step is to place general marks of the face, hair and shoulders to give me a place to start painting and a sense of composition.
Once the marks are set I want to mix an average light color of the skin. For this painting a combination of mostly cad. orange, yellow ochre and a touch of cad. red mixed with some white make for a good start. With generous amounts of medium and a soft brush I apply the skin tone thinly on the face area. I’m keeping in mind the fat over lean rule, meaning painting thin at the start of the painting and working with thicker paint later.
Starting the painting at the eyes
I start the painting with the eyes as I typically do with portraits. This is a good place to start because if I can’t get the eyes right then there’s no point in moving on. Also, the measurement between the eyes, nose and mouth will help me maintain correct proportions later as I refer back to these measurements for the rest of the painting. For example, as you can see in the image above, the eye to the right is mostly complete before I move on to the left eye. If I’m basing the next feature of her face off the last part I painted then it needs to be accurate before moving on.
The shadows of the skin are mixed with yellow ochre, alizarin crimson and viridian.
Making sure the measurements and shapes are correct
Getting that second eye in now and continuing on to the nose. Through this whole process I’m staying very close to the initial color I placed for the average skin tone and also the mixture for the shadows. Although the color is important it takes a back seat in my mind to the most important factor, making sure proportions are right. In order to do this I look at the large shapes of the face and relate them to each other.
At this point I brush in some lines to indicate the placement of the lips.
Placing the highlights on the eyes
I like the eyes the way they are so they’re ready for the final highlights. One benefit of painting the highlights in at this point is that it will help me judge the values of the rest of the painting (the word “values” basically refers to the lights and darks in a painting. I’ll write more in depth about values in a future post). Before I started the painting I could see that the lightest value on Stella’s face were the small highlights in her eyes. I load a small brush with pure white and place the highlights very carefully. I can continue the painting now knowing that nothing else in the painting should be lighter than those highlights. This helps maintain a sense of realism in the painting.
Finishing up the face and moving on to the hair
I’m modeling the lips and cheeks a bit more now. Adding a touch more cad. red into the average mix for the skin on my palette now for the cheeks. Since the light is coming from a window to the left I want to add the cooler skin tone on some of the planes of her face that are perpendicular to the window. I combine cobalt blue, alizarin crimson and white to the skin mixture to get this cool tone.
You can see in the image to the right that I start to paint the hair. This is a mixture mostly of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue and a touch of cad. red. I know that I will be painting over this with slightly cooler colors so the fact that her actual hair is not that reddish brown doesn’t bother me. In fact, painting cool colors on top of warm colors often adds an effect of realism that I really like.
Finishing the hair and starting the background
I’m painting down into the neck area here with a slightly more gray version of the skin color. I add a bit of viridian to gray the flesh mixture on my palette.
Adding more hair and some of the background now. The background color is a similar mixture as the hair, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue but I’m also adding viridian. To achieve the gradation of the background I’m adding a slight amount of white as I paint left to right.
Can you see how I’ve placed a stroke of cooler color in the hair in the image on the left? You can see it if you compare the colors in the hair on either side of her face. This is what I mean by painting cool over warm.
Painting the dress
The face is pretty much done at this point so I’m thinking about how I should paint the dress. My main concern is to not paint the dress in a way that will take away from the focus of the painting which is Stella’s face. I’m going to achieve this by painting the dress loosely, that is, paint it with less detail than other parts of the painting.
To get the color of the dress I mix burnt sienna, alizarin crimson and a touch of cobalt blue. In the image to the right you can see some cooler strokes. This mixture is a combination of alizarin crimson, cobalt blue and white. This indicates the cool light coming through the window. For the subtle dark lines in the dress I mix burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. The looseness of this approach also allows for the initial warm tone I applied to the canvas to show through creating some interesting texture. I like the effect and will make sure not to cover that up.
"Stella" 16x12 inches, oil on linen
… And here’s the final portrait. After sending a photo of the final painting to Stella’s parents they felt that the lips looked a little thin so I made them a little larger and softened the edges a bit. Done!
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What is a painting medium and should I be using it? Two good questions. Understanding what a an oil painting medium is and how it’s used will not only help you develop a process for applying your paint but it will also help you get the desired surface effect in your paintings.
