Painting Materials – Whitaker's Link list

[William Whitaker]

A lot of you asked me about some of the oil painting materials I am using, materials that are not readily available through regular retail outlets. Therefore I’m going to use this thread to post various links.

Great kolinsky watercolor sables (I use them for details in my oil paintings)
www.trekell.com

My favorite artist’s hogs bristle brushes are Winsor & Newton’s Rathbone filberts. I typed Winsor&Newton Rathbone Filberts in Google and found a lot of links. Listed below are just a few.

http://www.wetpaintart.com/product_archive/brushes/winsor_&_newton/winsor_&_newton_rathbone_brushes.htm

http://www.reuels.com/reuels/page648.html

http://www.jerrysartarama.com/discount-art-supplies/online/3796/art-supplies/5

http://www.allartsupplies.com/item.php?articleId=2306&PHPSESSID=65def265f00e4c80feed9cb53e4538df

My favorite oil paints are by Vasari
http://www.shopvasaricolors.com/
These paints are expensive, but of the highest quality. I recommend them for those of you who are seeking the best for your finished paintings. If you are a beginner or a serious student, I’d hold off on these for a while yet.

I also use Gamblin oil paints, Rembrandt oil paints, Old Holland oil paints, and Graham oil paints – all found on the Internet. There are lots of other good brands too.

Gamblin makes the best final picture varnish, called GAMVAR. Gamblin’s odorless mineral spirit (for thinning paint and cleaning brushes) is called GAMSOL. Unlike a lot of other odorless minerals spirits, Gamsol really is odorless!

The best canvas panels in the world are made by Tim Giles at
www.newtraditionsartpanels.com
He started making these for plein air painters when he lived in the midwest. He can custom make any size you want. I have not stretched a canvas since I found this site three years ago. My favorite linens are A600 and L600 and my favorite support for the linen is Gatorfoam board. I painted my two Insomania demos on 14x18” panels consisting of A600 linen canvas on gatorfoam board.

ABS plastic is the best, most permanent support for very smooth panel painting. Sand the smooth shiny side until the shine is gone. You don’t need to prime it before you paint on it, but I always tone my surface, using a little oil paint thinned a bit with Gamblin’s Galkyd Lite. The best thing about ABS is that you can sand the painting off and use the panel again and again if your painting(s) don’t work.
Here are two great sources.
http://www.realgesso.com/contact.html
http://www.paintonabs.com/

Maroger medium (pronounced MAR-0-JAY)
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Maroger to read about it.
It is quite simply the best most versatile oil painting medium. Nothing else is quite like it or quite as effective. It is to other painting mediums as a Ferrari is to a Buick. It is expensive (the mastic ingredient costs a lot) but worth getting if you’ve had a lot of oil painting practice and now wish to get better faster. I recommend two sources:
www.oldmastersmaroger.com
www.studioproducts.com
The studio products site sells lots of nifty art stuff and has a very informative forum as well.

I’ll post more materials links here as I think of them, but I’m hoping this will do for those of you who asked at Insomania, yet had nothing to take notes on.

Bill

[DSillustration]

thanks for the info!

[fooxoo]

Thank you!!! Very informative! :teeth: Added to bookmarks!

[Jason Manley]

Thanks for all the help Bill. It was great talking biz and art and all the good stuff. I very much appreciate everything you did for the students and members here. Thank you.


J

[Layil]

yay! thanks for this great info Bill!

it was a pleasure to have you at the workshop. i hope you had as much fun being there.

:)

[Flake]

I didn't even go to the workshop but I still picked up a lot of useful information from the posts and demos, much appreciated Mr W.

[davi]

i added this straight to the wiki

http://www.conceptart.org/wiki/doku.php?id=william_whitaker:william_whitaker_s_pa inting_material_link_list

[deltron05]

Very appreciated sir....THANK YOU

[William Whitaker]

I can't get Winsor&Newton Rathbone filberts anymore, since as far as I know they've been discontinued. I have also learned from others that toward the end, the quality went way down.

Winsor&Newton was the standard for quality art supplies in the old days. However, companies seem to have a natural life. First they are small and super quality, then they grow and get a reputation, then they live on their reputation, then they are bought by larger company (Winsor&Newton by some international conglomerate) and then the indifferent owners do all they can to milk the cash cow, putting most of their effort into promotion and cutting back on quality.

Fortunately kiddies, we are living in the fantastic age of the Internet! Experts can create wonderful specialty stuff for us and sell direct. The Trekell brush company is one of those.

I use their Kolinsky watercolor rounds (usually #4, #1, and recently #0). They are as good if not better than the legendary Winsor&Newton series 7 Kolinskys I used for decades! But at a fraction of the cost!

I read a post on the Rational Painting Forum saying that the new Trekell Long Filbert hog bristle oil brushes are currently the best oil brushes in world. I was curious, so I ordered a set. Sure enough, they are the best. All my studio apprentices are required to use them now, (and when they aren't looking, I STEAL their brushes....!)