Best Oil Paints

[SweetPea]

Hey Guys 3 questions if you dont mind

1 what are the best, by best i mean most traditional, oil paints, Grumbacher, Winsor and Newton, etc?

2 ive read that hog's hair brushes were the most used brushes back in the renaissance days, but ive never tried any, were they a good investment for those of you who have?

3 What are the best colleges for traditional classical oil painting? ive asked my art teachers but theyve said that pretty much every college has a good painting program, but im looking for something more specialised in just that topic.

Thanks guys!

[Flake]

The most traditional would be the ones you personally grind in oil then tube.

"Best" in a modern sense is totally subjective. Do you like your paint "fluffy", "toothpastey" or "stiff"?
All the pigments will behave differently.

Most companies cannot even agree on what colour something is, far less exact matching of handling qualities..

Oil paint really is one of those "try for yourself, see what you like" things.

Edit: if it's heavy it's probably decent paint. "Artist quality" tends to weigh more, more pigment less fillers, buy the heavy one.

2 ive read that hog's hair brushes were the most used brushes back in the renaissance days, but ive never tried any, were they a good investment for those of you who have?

Dunno about that. I'd guess sable or equivalent was most used. Hogs, sure, but certainly not the flat hogs that are popular recently. If they were hogs they'd be rounds or pointy rounds I'd think.

Renaissance paintings rock because of design, draughtsmanship, skills etc. Brushes had very little to do with it in my opinion.
You could do the same with £2.99 synthetic brushes if everything else was up to speed.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

What Flake said. From my own limited experience, Winsor Newton and Utrecht tend to be on the stiffer side. Gamblin's flows more and has quite a bit of pigment in it. I like Rembrandt a lot, handles like butter and is great for the cost. LeFranc's titanium white is awesome, but I haven't used their other paints. Not used any other brands.

Your teachers are wrong about the painting programs :P. I didn't learn a damn thing from my painting teachers during undergrad. Your best bet is to look around at programs all over and find out which places have teachers you'd like to work with.

[Elwell]

3 what are the best colleges for traditional classical oil painting? Ive asked my art teachers but theyve said that pretty much every college has a good painting program,

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHA!!!!!!!!

Don't worry about "the best" paint for now. Any artist's grade paint will do you fine.

[SweetPea]

thanks guys, i appreciate it,

ive got mostly georgian oils atm, just cuz i didnt know much and they were cheapest, and i was using like the set of about 12 brushes for about $9 which were bristle, but ive also bought some princeton synthetic brushes which i really like, so i guess ill just try a couple other kinds out one at a time? yea i read up a bit on the brushes used and found that it was primarily if not exclusively rounds. I personally like filberts and flat synthetics as well, but i cant stand flat bristled ones.... bleh

as far as what you guys were saying for the paints being "stiffer" do you mean that as they were just less workable or what?

as far as the looking around for the teachers, the only way i really know to find who id like to work with / learn from would be to see their art, so is there anyway i can search for the art of the teachers?

Thanks again guys

[Elwell]

Pretty much anything would be better than Georgian.

[Shatterdome]

Pretty much anything would be better than Georgian.

haha, yeah, georgian is walmart oils. I buy whatever is on sale and work with it, my profs say you can generally expect the more expensive paints to have more pigment. That means you can use less paint and more medium....but ya, do not go with walmart paints :P

Also, yeah if you are hung up on "Renaissance" painting styles, yup you can grind it yourself, and that was probably worse than even georgian walmart paint.

I doubt you will find any type of school that specializes in traditional art techniques....that doesn't sell anymore.

Basically every school you take a fine arts course in starts you with drawing and painting in oils, but as you major or go for a thesis/master you really have to think more modern and try to subvert what paint can do, etc....

Art school profs definitely despise "pretty pictures"....in my experience....

[Derek the Usurper]

The best oil paint is the paint you grind yourself.

Hog's hair filberts or something similar are good for laying down paint, and work well as your main brushes. Not sure of the use by the masters, but it seems probable.

The best classical oil painting schools are not accredited colleges.

[SweetPea]

haha yea i figured, so i suppose ill get whatever is on discount and if nothing is then get grumbacher or rembrandt, those seemed like they were good from what ive heard.

As far as grinding and mixing it myself, would it really be that much worse of a paint? wouldnt i get a color thats better for me personally since i made the mixtures (assuming that i made them right) ive never made my own paint personally so i dont know much about it..

Yea i know it doesnt really sell, but hey im definitely not in it for the money, what i was thinking of maybe doing is making the art for the church

hmmmm eeeeevil haha

see theres where i think it differs tho, cuz i think theres a difference between soemthing thats 'pretty' and beauty, which i find in renaissance art.... what do you guys think?

[aefx]

Don't worry about tubing your own paint, you'll have better results by spending that time instead actually painting. Finding the best paints is a long process where you find out what works best for you. Generally if you buy the highest quality paints per brand and experiment with them you'll find something eventually. Until then it wouldn't hurt to read what other artists have to say about their experimentations with paint, for instance Stapleton Kearns' blog has a lot of great information on this: http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/ In particular this writeup on White paint: http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/2009/04/this-titanium-white-is-my-favorite.html

[Noah Bradley]

You're not really painting unless you mix your own paints with pigments that you mined out of the earth with tools you forged yourself.

No, seriously, just buy some decent artist's grade paint and you'll be fine.

[jrr]

you do realize that the shittiest georgian paints you buy are still better than the paints the artists used during the Renaissance. it's how you use it.

[m0n3y]

you do realize that the shittiest georgian paints you buy are still better than the paints the artists used during the Renaissance. it's how you use it.

absolutely not true in the slightest. Its like saying the shittiest puff pastry from the supermarket freezer is still better than the stuff the pastry chef makes in his kitchen. what do u think that pastry chef knows about pastry? and what do u think that renaissance painter knows about paint?

[Demo]

absolutely not true in the slightest. Its like saying the shittiest puff pastry from the supermarket freezer is still better than the stuff the pastry chef makes in his kitchen. what do u think that pastry chef knows about pastry? and what do u think that renaissance painter knows about paint?

UMMM that doesn't fit with what Jrr said at all, hes not saying ever 5 dollar box of paints from wal-mart will be as great as the ones renaissance artist used back in the day, hes stating that the amount of materials that we can get today are more readily accessible then when artist back in the day had to hunt them down. so instead of the shittiest puff pastry from the super market today being equal to a top chefs think about the shitty pastry compared to a pastry from 900c.e.

[bjoern3000]

Pure pigments will be the most versatile.

You can do oil painting by grinding it with oils, you can do acrylic painting by grinding them in acrylics and you can even watercolor by mixing them in water.

;)

[dpaint]

Williamsburg and old holland make the best traditional pigments on the market if you have the money for them. As for brushes depends on what kind of painter you are if you want a high degree of finish with no brush mark then you probably want sable, otherwise hog bristle will do just fine.
For a school look at the teachers work, academic, illustrative or modern and that will determine who you pick. Also there are some good ateliers now for just that kind of thing so Nelson Shanks, Jeff Watts, Tony Ryder; do your homework look at some current art magazines and then research them on the net.

[CKLamb]

Hey don't knock Georgian! I've done many an underpainting with that cheap crap!

[Vermis]

Pretty much anything would be better than Georgian.

I dunno. I've got a box of Reeve's oils somewhere.

[Flake]

You're not really painting unless you mix your own paints with pigments that you mined out of the earth with tools you forged yourself.

Don't forget to trap and shave the hairy animals yourself, for that authentic brushes experience..

you do realize that the shittiest georgian paints you buy are still better than the paints the artists used during the Renaissance. it's how you use it.
True. If a Rembrandt saw the sheer range of materials and permanent inexpensive colours we have, his mind would be blown. He'd buy, like, 8 and ignore the other 150 but he'd be terribly impressed and do really badass things with those 8...

I dunno. I've got a box of Reeve's oils somewhere.

I had some of their acrylics.

I can only assume whoever does the labels is more colourblind than myself.

Bad paint.

[SweetPea]

haha thanks lots guys, i really do appreciate it,

one more question tho, im about to start an oil painting on panel, what wood should i use for that, and what gessoes are good, ive been told really finely sanded ply wood would work, but ive no experience with it, and the gessoe that i bought, dont remember the name, is really watery..

Also, making it 2 questions, if i am to buy some new oil paints, not georgian haha grumbacher say, should i just go ahead and throw out the georgians or do you think theyd mix well enough to be alright? ive got some georgians left over, but im fresh out of ocher so i need to go get some no matter what

Thanks lots guys its all really helpful

[Flake]

Stop worrying about paint, just paint something.
That's the hard bit.

If it's any good conservators will make sure future generations get to enjoy it.

Your job is to make a cool painting that is worth saving. Get to it.

[Noah Bradley]

I'm a sucker for using masonite to paint on. It's thinner, sturdier, and lighter than wood is. And it's dirt cheap: probably about $8 for an 4x8' sheet, which you can have cut down to size.

If you're going to go with wood, a birch plywood will give you a really smooth surface.

If your gesso is watery, make sure you do a few coats.

Good luck painting! :)

[SweetPea]

sweet thanks guys