The New Oil Painting

Your Essential Guide to Materials and Safe Practices

Kimberly Brooks

• Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781452184791
• eBook ISBN: 9781797200675
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

Here is everything you need to know about getting into oil painting—and maintaining a safe, solvent-free oil painting practice—in a slim, sophisticated guide. Oil painting is an exciting and adventurous medium, but aspiring artists can feel daunted by complex setups and the thought of using harsh chemicals. All of that changes now. The New Oil Painting walks you step-by-step through oil painting fundamentals—which materials you actually need, how to mix paint, how to set up your painting space—and, most revolutionary of all, how to eliminate harmful solvents from your work and replace them with safe, effective substitutes. This instructional handbook is organized into chapters with helpful diagrams throughout illustrating various techniques and tools. Whether you're a true beginner or have been painting with oils for years, you will find that this book has everything you need to build a new, thriving, toxin-free practice.• UNIQUE APPROACH: Not only does this book help aspiring artists build a repertoire of skills and materials, it also offers all artists, regardless of their experience levels, methods for eliminating solvents and other toxic substances from their oil painting practices. What was once a dangerous pastime is now a guilt-free, health-conscious, and rewarding activity. And using safe, nontoxic materials is better for the environment!
• LONG-TERM USE: Good art instruction can deliver over a long period of time, and this handy guide is no exception. Along with being able to use this as an entryway into oil painting, you can also use it for reference or reread sections when you need a brushup.
• EXPERT AUTHOR WITH IMPRESSIVE CREDENTIALS: Painter Kimberly Brooks was the founding arts editor at Huffington Post. As a painter, she exhibits her work frequently throughout the United States and was a featured artist with the National Endowment for the Arts. She has led oil painting workshops, and now she shares her vast knowledge of the subject in this accessible and comprehensive handbook.Perfect for: • Artists and art aspirants interested in exploring a new medium
• Experienced oil painters looking to eliminate solvents from their practices
• Painting students and teachers

PART 1

UNDERSTANDING YOUR MATERIALS

YOUR SPACE

Claiming a space of your own to paint is the first step.

Whether it’s a spacious warehouse or a corner of your living room, find a space to set up your studio. It should be a place where you can go regularly. The goal is to have a frictionless experience, one that will allow you to walk in and quickly get to work.

If you’re just starting out, any space will do. You can start with just an easel and a nearby table to set your palette, brushes, and paints on. Using safe and best practices means your studio will have no solvents or toxic smells, so it can be right in the heart of your home. Natural light is ideal but not essential. My own studio has skylights and French doors that open to a small garden, as well as a sink, a radio, and an old wooden desk. I mix my paints on a large turquoise table with a thick piece of glass for a palette.

When selecting an easel, you have many options, ranging from heavy easels with all the bells and whistles to more affordable, thin, collapsible aluminum tripods with a simple ledge for your brushes and a clamp for the canvas top. Or, like me, you can skip the easel entirely: I hang canvases or panels directly on the wall instead. Not only does it save space, but it also allows me to paint more with my body, always moving backward and forward. It makes me feel bolder and less fussy.

In lieu of a hammer and nail, here are some easel options for you to consider:

EASELS

$	Stanrite #500 Aluminum Easel
	Easels by Blick Studio
	Creative Mark Table Easel
	SoHo Urban Artist Lightweight Mahogany French Easel (INCLUDES DRAWER)
	Blick French Easel by Jullian (INCLUDES DRAWER)
$$	Testrite “Superior” Studio Easel
	The Dulce Easel
	Creative Mark Mirage All Media Adjustable Studio Easel (WITH WHEELS)
	Da Vinci Multi-angle Convertible Easel
$$$	Santa Fe Easel
	Halley Easel
	University Easel

PAINT

What is paint? Paint, first and foremost, is magic. It is color encased in tiny metal tubes, waiting to be spread around a surface to create anything you wish. Like I said: magic. Some painters paint for years knowing little more than that—without an understanding of the chemical nature of paint. But a basic knowledge of this material (one you might well spend the rest of your life coaxing onto a surface) will greatly enrich your experience. What is in these tubes, exactly? Paint has three main components: pigment, binder, and often, additives.

PIGMENT

The part of paint we love, its color, is composed of pigments. Pigments are tiny rocks. Unlike dyes, pigments do not dissolve. They vary in density, chemical composition, size, and shape. Under a microscope, those tiny particles are either spherical, flat, round, or cylindrical. All these attributes subtly affect the way they behave under your brush. The same pigments are used in all paints—whether oil, acrylic, or gouache.

BINDER

A binder, sometimes referred to as a vehicle, holds the pigment and secures it in place, forming a film as it dries, not unlike how mortar holds bricks. The most common binder for oil paint is linseed oil. Other types of binders are used for different mediums. For example, gum arabic is used for watercolor, egg with water for egg tempera. The amount of oil needed for oil paint depends on the particle size and other characteristics of a given pigment, resulting in some colors requiring more binder than others.

ADDITIVES

Additives stabilize, thicken, and suspend the particles of pigment better in the binder. Historically, the original additive was beeswax. In the modern era, other additives such as aluminum stearate and barium sulfate were introduced, both of which lend a buttery texture to most paints made today. Outside of the tube, driers such as cobalt can be added, but these should be avoided as they are hard to dose and cause premature aging.

DRYING OILS

The oils used in oil painting are known as drying oils. They allow the paint to dry and harden over time. The primary drying oil used in oil painting is linseed from the flax plant. Linseed oil molecules contain long, spindly chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms, which are perfect for forming bonds and cross-linking as they harden; this process is called polymerization. Other drying oils include walnut, safflower, and poppy, which generally extend the drying time and don’t create quite as strong a paint film as linseed oil because they have fewer double bonds.

Drying oils dry by a process called oxidation, whereby those long molecular chains absorb oxygen from the air. Oxidation is exothermic, meaning that, as an oil absorbs the oxygen atom, heat is released. This is why rags soaked in linseed oil, particularly boiled linseed oil, can spontaneously catch fire. Drying oils release no harmful fumes, nor are chemicals released as they oxidize. As drying oils oxidize, they increase in weight over time.

Oil paintings may feel dry to the touch after a few days, but they don’t actually d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Understanding your Materials
• Best Practices
• Glossary
• Resources
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• About the artist
• Index
• Chronicle Ebooks