a little oil help please.

[rsoffar]

ok well i am wanting to start my journey into the world of oils and the things i have are what my sister gave me. she once was going to start painting but never did.
here is what she gave me.

gamar solvent
gamar resin mixture
gamblin stand oil
turpenoid

what are these used for?
(i know what the turpenoid is but thats the only one)

and as for colors these are what she had for me

cad red light
yellow ochre
burnt sienna
phthalo blue
cad yellow deep
cad red medium
ivory black
titanium white

any help or pointers for me to get started would be awesome.

[Craig D]

Hi rsoffar

Well, I think if you go here, http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107524
that you will get some info to get you started.


Some of the other threads in this section such as the one started by Seedling
called the Big Oil Painting Thread will be helpfull.

Good luck

[DavePalumbo]

The turp and stand oil are probably all you'll use right now. The turp for cleaning brushes and the stand oil mixed with some turp (about half) for medium (which is to use with your oils to make them more liquid).

As I understand it, the resin and solvent are mixed to create a varnish. How it's more worthwhile than a bottle of varnish which doesn't require mixing I don't know. In any case, they say that you shouldn't be using real varnish on anything that's been dry less than 6-8 months anyhow, and preferably a year. You can use retouch varnish sooner, but it will fade after a few months.

As for the colors, it's not the palette that I use but I don't see why it couldn't work. You've got reds, yellows, and blues (the Ivory Black is also a blue if whitened, though you might want to add perhaps some Ultramarine Blue) and a white. Actually, you might even try working without the cadmiums first. There's an ongoing thread about limited palette here (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99774) that shows examples of the range one can get from very simple palettes and I think the colors are generally listed for each piece, so you can try some of those out.

Other than that, get some cheap surfaces (gesso on cardboard for example) and some not-totally-cheapest brushes and get to work :)

[rsoffar]

thx a lot, i have been reading that thread about the limited palettes also. guess ill just give it a go.
i think there is a palumbo that does a drawing class at the art students league up here in ny... any relation? (of course it could be something that is close to palumbo, as i am not actually in his class so im not 100%)

[DavePalumbo]

I'm told there's a painter named Anthony Palumbo (also my brother's name, who also paints) who's based in NY but no relation to me, though I have no idea if he teaches. :shrug:

[Bowlin]

Dave, do you use stand oil? And what type of varnish do you use? Do you not use retouch varnish till a more permanent one is needed?

[Brittons]

For painting in oil, I would reccomend HIGHLY the morgan weistling DVD. You can get it at www.morganweistling.com. I think the DVD is $200.00, but there are places that rent it. He goes over everything from stretching your canvas, to making a pallate to brushes, to actually applying all of it to a painting. For my money, I think that's the most thorough DVD/instruction I've come across and I use it constantly as a reference. For the record, I get no money or fancy cars for endorsing this! Well worth the high price tag.

Also, you might want to try not using any turp or toxic medium and opt instead for walnut oil. I've been using that for a few years and it works fine. Just clean your brushes in that brush cleaner you get at the art store with the beige containers and you're all good. I've been using some brushes for like a half a year/year and they're fine. The walnut oil supposedly won't yellow your painting either, so that's nice thing (unless you like the aged/yellow look).

The color pallate you have should be alright... A limited pallate can really help simplify in the beginning. White, red, blue/black and some sort of yellow.

As far as canvas, if you're just learning and want to save tons of money, just get a jar of gesso and paint it on something. It could even be cardboard or wood or whatever. Not that cardboard is a good surface, but if you're getting used to painting, it will make a viable painted surface if you gesso it right. Once you want to keep things, it's good to learn to stretch your canvas and get a roll of high quality linen, double oil primed. Cotton is pretty absorbent and frustrating I think.

[DavePalumbo]

No, for my medium I use roughly half linseed half turp. But all those oils and mediums, really it's just finding the right feel. Hell, I didn't even use medium other than straight turp until a little under a year ago.

As for varnishing, I'm not sure that I've ever applied true varnish to a painting. Generally I like to give a coat of retouch before photographing my jobs because it really brings the life out in the piece. The only time I don't is if I'm really against the wall on the deadline and need to shoot before I'm sure it's dry. It's bad news if there's any paint which isn't completely surface dry.

I always give a coat or two of retouch for any gallery work I show. I'd do the final varnish instead, but it's rare that I'll have my paintings finished that many months ahead of time and I won't run the risk of varnishing too early.

I will NEVER EVER again use spray varnish. Never again. Wicked horrible stuff.

I would reccomend HIGHLY the morgan weistling DVD

haven't seen that DVD, though I'll add as another recommendation (cue broken record) that you check out Richard Schmidt's book Alla Prima. That book is as close to a bible for oil painting as you can find.

[Bowlin]

The Morgan Weistling Dvd's are good. And it's not 1 dvd, it's 4 of them. It is soooooo long, but thorough! He paints in small dabs (broken color?) and constantly explains himself as he paints. It's more for advance learning. I'd suggest Shawn Barber's dvd on this site first mostly because he makes it feel more comfortable to experiment and play with the paint.

I believe Morgan posted one time on this site and someone offended him (not knowing who it was) and he said he wouldn't post anymore. That really ticked me off.

[dbclemons]

The Gamblin "solvent" is likely their GamSol, an odorless mineral spirit. I would suggest using that instead of Turpenoid for painting, between those two choices. A good gum spirit turpentine would be even better. The "resin mixture" could be their Alkyd product, Galkyd, which comes in different flavors. I'm not a big fan of alkyds myself. Stand oil is a type of processed (polymerized) linseed oil that can be used as a paint additive by itself (or mixed with turpentine) to adjust the flow and leveling quality of the paint. It dries a bit more slowly than other types. You shouldn't need add too much if any at all.

Gamblin makes a good spirit varnish called GamVar. I also like Goldens' MSA varnish as a final varnish.

http://www.gamblincolors.com/index.html

[DavePalumbo]

The Gamblin "solvent" is likely their GamSol, an odorless mineral spirit. I would suggest using that instead of Turpenoid for painting, between those two choices. A good gum spirit turpentine would be even better. The "resin mixture" could be their Alkyd product, Galkyd, which comes in different flavors

I'm pretty sure what he's describing is a two-part varnish (it's the word "gamar" which makes me think so, otherwise I'd agree with you). You mix it when you plan on using it and it stays good about a month. Like I said earlier though, I don't know how it's supposed to be better than your standard one-bottle variety.

edit: I was just reading about Gamar resin/solvent mixture here: sanders-studios.com (http://www.sanders-studios.com/instruction/tutorials/historyanddefinitions/nationalgallery.html) and it seems that one of the benefits of this sort of varnish is that you can apply it much much sooner. They say once the piece is dry to the touch. So that's kind of cool.

[dbclemons]

Ah-ha. Duh - I missed that entirely, sorry. RSOFFAR, what you have as a solvent (bottle) and resin mixture (jar) is apparantly the GamVar kit. It's got a "v" hidden in the label where the "m" is. As far as I know, they're not meant to be used separately, but you can dilute it (Gamblin recommends their Gamsol at 20%.) to make a retouch varnish.

I was told by Gamblin that the GamVar mixture was good for up to a year or so, becoming "less stable" after that. I write a date on what I mix up.

There's also a description of the "how long to varnish" rule in their FAQ (http://www.gamblincolors.com/faq/index.html). They recommend waiting at least 3 months if you're using alkyd (fast drying) paints in a regular fashion, but some may be "dry enough after just 2 weeks" if you paint very thin.