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…

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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?…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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?

Join the discussion from the March 2026 Technical Studio Session.

Thanks so much John!

This helps a lot.

Ann,

For oil paintings, it is generally best to avoid commercial paint markers—such as Krylon or Molotow markers—when the goal is long-term permanence. Most of these products are formulated with acrylic resins, solvent-borne industrial paints, or alkyd systems designed for craft, signage, or mixed-media work. While they may perform well on many…

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Hi Koo,

I didn’t have time earlier to give a full response. First of all, thank you so much for all the detail you shared about how you make an egg emulsion, as well as all the historical context—which I didn’t know anything about.

I’d also like to ask how long you keep the egg emulsion after you’ve made it. I used to keep mine for months: I’d mix…

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I am working on these large panels of icons of various saints (attached below). I need to put a red line around all the halos, and it has to be exact and the same width. Is it safe to use those Krylon Oil based markers, or can I get an empty one (they abound) and make a mixture of linseed oil, paint, and some mineral spirits to make my own. …

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Thanks so much for your notes. I originally studied at the Prosopon school, where the recipe was to add a little wine or vinegar to the mix. Since I like to create a first chaos layer (Roskrysh) I’m going to stick to just water, as it requires a rather thin mixture of egg and water…. This one is from about 10 years ago, but the background…

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