Why linseed oil for oil painting

Although we have seen people say they simply put their mixture into a blender to mix it together, the violent action of the blender blades tends to cause an effect that keeps large amounts of air in the mixture that causes issues when applied to your oil paint.

We know it takes time but in our opinion, using your hands to mix the two is always the better option. It is not essential to add turpentine to linseed oil as both can be used as stand alone mediums with oil paint to great effect.

The difficulty of mixing the two together correctly is the main reason that people tend to use turpentine as their solution of choice for based layers and then switch over to linseed oil as their medium for their upper layers of their painting without mixing the two. The end result is almost the same as if you had mixed the two together and as we mentioned earlier in the article, the additional detail offered by mixing the two together is often pointless for base layers of paint.

The majority of people just want a quick and easy base layer onto their canvas with minimal detail and then they will use the additional paint layers on their canvas for the higher detailed work with a medium such as linseed oil. That brings our article going over how you can use linseed oil and turpentine in oil painting together while we linked to our dedicated articles on using both mediums as a stand alone option earlier in the article.

Although professional level artists may get a benefit from using both turpentine and linseed oil together, we feel that beginners and most intermediates will probably be better off if they just choose to use linseed oil as a stand alone medium and wait for each of their layers to dry. Skip to content Our content may have affiliate links that can result in commissions for qualifying purchases, full details in our privacy policy.

Table Of Contents. Linseed oil makes strong flexible paint films. Since WWII improvements in refining processes, finally, assures flax seeds are separated from weed seeds.

Weed seeds are similar in size but produce a non-drying oil. When mixed with linseed oil, weed seed oil inhibits drying. Adding more binder is a plus.

Using only linseed oil to thin colors makes oilier fatter paint layers. Historically, painters made a painting medium from oil and solvent to increase paint flow, especially for glazing. The fatter the layers, the more they wrinkle. I asked about which colors and mediums he had used. And, yes, the painter was making very shallow pours on the canvas using thinned out alkyd resin painting medium.

Curious, I called his art supply dealer to check inventory for gallon cans. Seems the painter had received a gallon of linseed oil instead of his usual medium. While seemingly an easy fix for me - all I had to do was ship more linseed oil, I worried.

September 10, pm. Buy it. Buy: Old Holland Stand Oil. Powered by WordPress. Our Sites. Close the menu Menu. ARTnews Expand the sub menu. This is the most popular oil medium for fine art. When using linseed oil for oil painting, it slows down the drying time of your paint, which can be very useful when painting in layers. Each layer on top should take longer to dry than the previous one, so you can apply more of this medium with each layer. A more economical alternative is Loxley Refined Linseed Oil , which comes in a ml bottle and will last you a long time.

It is classed as a semi-drying oil, which means it dries slower than Linseed Oil. This makes Liquin an excellent Linseed Oil alternative. It also adds a silky consistency to your paint, giving the surface a glossy finish. It can speed up the drying time of a heavy-loaded canvas and holds the texture beautifully.

It will also give your colours a rich, glossy finish. It should be noted that Liquin Fine Detail is not suitable for use as a varnish or final coat. Although technically a solvent, turpentine is very popular with traditional oil painters.

It speeds up drying time as it dilutes the paint and evaporates off of it, much like water does with acrylics.