Fat Over Lean vs Slow Over Fast - Oil Painting Advice 

Thank you for your educational videos. I appreciate the lessons!

Great information as always!

my classmate learned this the hard way when he was gonna varnish an painting - the painting only had a thin fast drying and diluted glaze on top of an acrylic base so it was pretty dry to the touch - he decided to use a water based varnish just to see if it would work and after he sprayed it on the cracks were forming right in front of his eyes as the varnish dried within minutes.

As usual, an excellent educational experience! THANK YOU!😊

They ought to make some kind of test strip that one puts on the backside of the canvas on a completed painting that turns color when the painting is completely dried.

I would have thought a little bit of cracking gives a an appearance of antiquity. I'm more likely wrong about this as I usually am. Love Mark's videos.

I love these short bits of information! Thank you ❤️

Thank you as always

Thank you- always great information !

Thanks always great information you give us 👏🏻👏🏻

Always educational, thanks

Looking forward to you discussing the problem of 'Pentimento' --- ( _also known as 'ghosting'_ ) - - where an earlier image comes through the newer painting or where strongly pigmented colors bleed into fresher paint layers -

thank you!

do you have a list of oil paints the dry from slowest to fastest?

If you think of it really you just don’t want a top layer to dry and “harden” first (become inflexible) while a bottom layer is still drying because localized relative tension in the still drying layer can push and pull and break the top layer. Better for a lower layer to harden first (becoming strongly fixed to layers below it) while the upper layer is still drying and doing its thing.

Thank you Sir. Can you please do one how long a painting should take to complete; touching on returning to continue painting, and common tips to consider following this method.

Did i see a while back that Geneva oil paint wad no longet in production?

When will you be getting any more color checkers in stock?

I have been using straight Holbein Foundation white (lead) as a primer on linen and canvas panels. Takes quite awhile to dry before the panels are useable. Your thoughts on that? Thanks.

The more i learn about burnt umber the more do I wonder if I should use that paint at all? It seems to be a troublemaker

Hi Mark, Please, I have a small question. It is known that turpentine is volatile, and the question is: If I mix turpentine with oil painting will it also be volatile in this case?

How do you check for dryness? Some of my paintings are quite thin on the canvas and I don't want to scratch the paint.

Thank you. I have two questions: 1. What if my make my base stain by mixing umber with titanium white. Will mixes be an issue? 2. I thought Geneva Art Supply was being closed. It's back in business now?

How does one glaze a painting? Would I dilute the intended glazing paint with walnut oil to extend drying time to prevent cracking? Or would I add a bit of white and dilute it?

With respects to Slow Over Fast ("Fat Over Lean"), I learned some interesting things with respects to Liquin and other Alkyd mediums: 1. When doing any painting, try to use only ONE medium within the entire painting. (so gesso, solvent, tube paint, medium, and varnish) 2. If you want to only use Liquin medium mixed with solvents and tube paint, add slightly more proportions of Liquin to the paint and solvent mixture with each new layer. Max should be about 30% Liquin to tube paint. If you reach this and have more layers still, then you have no choice but keep mixing 30% Liquin layer, and waiting for it to dry, then another layer, dry, etc until done. 3. If you want to use multiple mediums and ignore #1, you can use Liquin and another slower drying medium (ex. Stand Linseed Oil) so long as you follow the following general rules, it should be fine: - Gesso first, let dry - Acrylic paint, let dry - Solvent + tube paint, let dry - A little Solvent + tube paint + a little Liquin, let dry - Almost no solvent + tube paint + more Liquin, let dry - tube paint + more Liquin, let dry - tube paint + even more Liquin (max 30%), let dry - tube paint + a little solvent + Stand Linseed Oil (or any slower drying medium), let dry - tube paint + a little solvent + more Stand Linseed Oil, let dry - tube paint + More Stand Linseed Oil (max 50%), let dry Repeat until done, but don't use more thank 1:1 ratio of Linseed oil with tube paint. Final drying time is achieved when you use a "solvent" test with good results. A solvent test is done by applying a small amount of solvent or varnish on a cotton tip, placing it on an inconspicuous area on the painting, and gently rolling (not scrubbing) the q-tip around the painting a little. Look at the q-tip end. If it has no paint, it's sufficiently dry. If it does have paint, then you need to wait longer. Once fully dried, apply varnish to protect the painting, then you're done. The above is a general, proportion-free guideline to help you as a painter develop your own methods for oil painting in layers. Alternatively, you could get in to Alla Prima painting, which uses only one layer that you mix new paint colors in on canvas to get different colors and effects, but for multi-layer painting, the above is an amateur's suggested proportioning and approach.

Today I figured out Mark is sitting in front of a green-screen not in his studio and I died a little inside.

Can you di a video how to paint turquoise blue and city's like Venice :)

fat over lean is antiquated with modern mediums. It should be thought of as flexible over less flexible. That is all that "fat over lean" means.

What are your thoughts on these newer poly/cotton blended canvases?

I think the cracking in Sargeant's painting is from Ivory black or mars brown. That doesn't appear to be a chroma black. And the googles says he mixed burnt umber in his earth palette. Either way I'm not a fan of burnt umber. It just dries too fast on the palette. I like using mars black instead. A lot of the realist painters used pure blacks, zorn, bougourou, sargeant, repin..