This article on Dutch Golden Age grounds provides a background on “half oil” grounds and includes recipes you can try: https://paintingbestpractices.com/oil-painting-grounds-danish-golden-age-preparation-layers/

It is difficult to determine the best options because very little information is available on the various MDO materials. Our best recommendation is to use ACM, since these must conform to standards that provide more confidence.

We recommend Artefex as a source of prepared ACM panels for painting and drawing: https://artefex.biz

Local sign shops are usually a source of plan ACM panels that you can prepare by adhering canvas or applying an alkyd ground, such as Rublev Colours Lead or Titanium White Alkyd Grounds from Natural Pigments.

Hi, I am looking for affordable & good quality ACM panels, and wondering if anyone knows of good sources besides Artefex, which is very pricey! I just ordered some from Home Depot, the brand is Falken Design, does anyone know anything about this brand, pro or con, or could recommend another brand or source that ships or that is in NYC that I…

Read more

I was not able to locate a primary technical description from Syd Solomon himself detailing the exact chemistry of this process, but the description you shared is consistent with a casein-based resist method used by some painters in mixed-media work. In that approach, a water-sensitive protein film (such as lactic casein) is applied to…

Read more

I recently came across the following statements: “Abstract/Expressionist painter Syd Solomon used … a resist technique in oil painting….In the sixties, he began using polymer tempera as a base combining it with oils and colored inks. He became fascinated with a resist technique where he used a lactic casein solution as a masking agent.…

Read more

Hi Jennifer, I find it makes sense to use earth colors for the underpainting as they are fast drying. Save the slow drying for the very topmost layer: ultramarine blue, cadmiums, ivory black are colors I have noticed dry extremely slowly. I mark my paint on the tube with oil content and speed of drying.

Thanks! After reading the article on water-miscible oils, I have decided to use traditional oils for my underpainting instead! Would the best solvent-free method for traditional oils be to use paint straight from the tube, spread as thinly as possible, and then wait for it to dry fully before painting the subsequent layer, which would have a…

Read more

There are several articles on water-miscible oils in the Resources section you should first review. Once you have come back here and let’s discuss this further.

Hello,
I am maintaining a solvent-free practice, and for my initial layer, which can be a simple block-in or loose drawing, or an overall toning of the canvas, I have been using water-mixable oils thinned with water. For my support, I am using oil-primed linen. Is this OK? What, if anything, is known about the longevity of water-mixable oils?…

Read more

All right then, there they go into the trash…. Thanks!

Ann

Unfortunately, nothing can impart structural improvement to oil paints containing dammar resin.

You can slow the drying process by reducing the amount of black oil and replacing it with linseed oil.

Cadmium sulfide pigments darkened when used with lead white upon first introduction to art, due to free-sulfur impurities in early forms of the pigment. This is not the case today because cadmium pigments contain only trace amounts of free sulfur. This may also have been true of early forms of synthetic ultramarine when it was first introduced…

Read more

Ugh. I have so many tubes of Mussini that have the Damar in them – is there something I can add to it when I use them that will counteract the risk of cracking. Right now I am planning to toss them, even the cobol blue, etc.

Thanks,

Ann

Thanks, I like the background, but the face is so ….. emotionless so that part I am not fond of. Maybe technically ok, but I think more emotion is needed. Just a little.

Ann

Thanks so much! No more wine, vinegar, or vodka in the egg yolk then. I have never paid attention to the amount of water to add to the egg, but now I’ll go read that article that was just published on that. Thanks for your input, and your irises are lovely!

Ann

Thanks for the tip!

I went through all my oil paints & got rid of any of them that had zinc white in them.

Pam

I am going through all my oil paints, and I am wondering if you have list of brands that you have found issues with and I should therefore consider tossing. For example I have a lot of Mussini like the one in the picture. Do those have additives I don’t want in my paintings?

Thanks,

Ann

After the impasto session, I mixed black oil and chalk into lead white to see what it would do. The paint was very thick and ropy and reminded me of Rembrandt’s impastos. It also dried extremely fast – too fast to use for highlights. Definitely for a structural impasto.

BTW, that is a very beautiful icon! Brava!!

Hi Ann,

I once added alcohol to my egg oil emulsion. It definitely lasted much longer, but it curdled the emulsion over time. So no, I don’t add a preservative to my egg oil emulsion. It doesn’t last very long without a preservative – maybe a week (if refrigerated overnight). But I find it very fast and easy to make, in about 2 minutes, so…

Read more

I just read Lead combined with cadmiums or ultramarine could darken eventually?

This does matter to me as I’m working on great pieces. One currently I am using Black Oil which I really love, with a multitude of pigments including glazes of cadmiums and ultramarine as well as Lead white. I assume it should mostly be okay except based…

Read more

I have been looking for suitable MDO board for making linen covered panels. There are types with a paint ready veneer, (without a primer), some with a softwood veneer, and some with a hardwood veneer. Core material is quite variable also.

I did make some MDO panels with a veneer that looks like a resin treated hardboard, and they seem just…

Read more

I’m replying to myself… I was able to find the section that addressed this in the webinar. It was fully explained.

Tempered Hardboard was presented as a substrate in the Webinar. I was thinking of using it for linen covered panels with a shellac based primer on the back and sides. I would probably keep them in the 12”x 16” and smaller range to prevent warping, and use MDO for larger pieces.

Would there be drawbacks to using tempered hardboard this way?