(21:23) Somewhere in space, somewhen in time, a wise artist once said : *"Don't try to make your painting interesting, be interested in it."* I love this quote, just sharing it with everyone. :D
I have been using WN Winsor Yellow PY74 and WN Bright Red PR254 since last year and love them. Bright Red is series 1 (even cheaper then Winsor Red) and it comes also in 200 ml tubes. Its a fantastic color. It behaves very similar to PR255 (WN Scarlet Lake), but it tends to be a little cooler and more 'true red', where PR255 tends to be warmer. Also, PR254 is a strong color in mixes, a little goes a long way, and, curiously, my PR254 is NOT transparent as stated in WN's website, but semi-opaque, much like PR255. If you ask me, both are fantastic colors and together with PY74 they can easily make up for cadmiums in a palette. I would go as far as to say that I found PY74 to be more useful then Cadmium Yellow Light, because it mixes cleaner then PY35, it can mix darker and richer colors then PY35, and if I need maximum opacity, I can always add a little white (10%~30% TW) to PY74 and make it very opaque but still very saturated.
On the topic of the amount of paint to be used: it's such a good feeling to have a thought I had in the past validated by a pro. David A. Leffel even described the sound your brush should be making when applied to a canvas with the adequate amount of paint.
Alex, i cant thank enough for your videos, you help a lot, and your videos are worth watching again from time to time. You are a great teacher and you get to your point making things simple and more comprehensive. My best regards to you!!!
Great video, Alex. Obviously if money isn't a problem I'd go for professional paints. Indeed when I started I only bought professional paints, mostly Harding, and they were wonderful. The only thing is that because they were expensive I was scared to use them and didn't actually do many paintings. Since I switched to cheaper paints, mostly Van Gogh, I paint so much more. I definitely feel as a beginner that cheap materials and more paintings is better than quality materials and less. If I ever get good enough to sell my paintings or even just feel good enough to justify the added expense I'll definitely go back to professional paints.
I completely agree its definitely more important for beginners to learn to use enough paint, even if its cheaper paint rather than better quality paint.
Hi Alex. Thanks again for a comprehensive explanation of colours and brands. I asked Nevskaya Palitra today to confirm that Master Class is the brand used by students at the Repin Academy of Art in St Petersburg. They said that the Ladoga and Sonnet brands, which they also manufacture, is what students more commonly use there. This is because they are more affordable brands for students compared to Master Class. They market Ladoga oil paints as also being of professional quality but without more expensive and toxic pigments such as Cadmiums and Cobalts. They contain a little less pigment compared to Master Class but are still of a professional quality. The Sonnet brand is their student range and it is also used by students there. They said that Master Class oil paint would be used in diploma works by some students. I also asked about what their paint consists of and they said that Master Class and Ladoga is comprised of pigment, linseed oil as binder, damar resin, and traditional plant-based wax and nothing else. We sell both Master Class and Ladoga oil paint at www.craftystudio.ie. I am using oil paint from both of these ranges and love them.
I've never used it. I'm sure there are other better brands than winton. I think the only other student brands I've used are Georgian by Daler Rowney and Etude by Sennnelier.
Brilliant video, thank you! Funnily enough, this image is almost exactly the same as one that I have a really nice photo of, and I tried to paint about a year ago as a total beginner, but utterly failed to pull off. This video has really inspired me to go back to that picture and give it another go. Will definitely be saving this one and rewatching it many times! As for paint, I moved from cheap stuff to W&N Artists stuff a while ago and never looked back, but I think I may start replacing my current tubes with professional grade for the cheaper colours as and when needed now. That said, I recently needed to get Vermilion, and given the astounding price of it I plumped for a Daler Rowney Georgian Hue - I'm out of work thanks to the pandemic and money is a thing lol. I did have one question regarding paint - I recently bought W&N flake white hue for working on some renaissance master copies, and Joseph Sheppard's book is clear that the way lead white behaves is needed for it, not so much for the colour but because of it's body and opacity. Do you know if a hue version of a colour like this will behave in a similar manner, or should I try and source real lead white when I need to replace it? Great to see another video for you, can't wait for your next one!
I recently bought some Gamblin Flake white replacement to see if it behaves like lead white, but I haven't got around to using it yet. I imagine it will be similar to the W&N hue. It probably won't be exactly like proper flake white but it should hopefully have more body, be more transparent and warmer than titanium white. Instead of Daler Rowney Cadmium Hue, you should try the Winsor Red from this video. It uses a pigment called Pyrrole PR255, which works really well as a replacement for cadmium red. Old Holland use pyrrole for their Vermillion, which cost about the same as their cadmium red (real vermillion is made with mercury so it's highly toxic). The W&N pyrrole is much cheaper. I didn't use any in this painting but I might do another portrait video using pyrrole instead of Cadmium to see how it compares.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting oh fantastic, that's really useful to know! I've liked the flake white I've got, and it certainly dries quicker than titanium white and mixes in a different way. It's a nice paint to use at any rate. I'm very much still a learner, but I'm hooked on painting now and I think I'm out of my total beginner phase, so I think I'll justify spending more on better paint in the future, up to a limit. Finishing off the really cheap tubes I started on and replacing them with good quality stuff has been quite the revelation.
...you use the student brand paints for underpaintings and use better quality for overlayers...especially for bigger works. Imagine trying to mix earths from cadmiums on a large Pic. Student brands have a certain chroma range and where you don't need a punchy colour or a high tint strength , use the lesser paint. As for student brands , the best I've found is classico from maimeri...they actually do have some lesser amounts of cads and cobalts in their student paints .Cheers.
Between student grade paint i prefer Talens Van Gogh ..i tested cad. yellow light in both student grade (Winton and Van gogh / PY 35) and the Winton is just "water". Van Gogh is better. In the mid range the best are Master Class St. Petesburg with a lot lot load of pigment (better than most professionals in other brands to this category).
This is one of the most enlightening videos I've watched in some time. If there was anyone ever guilty of being stingy with paint, it's me! I do agree with you that it's engrained in (most of) us to not waste anything. For me it's also small tubes that cause me to do this.
You're definitely not the only one. I've got students who've been painting for years and no matter how many times I keep telling them, still keep to using tiny amounts of paint! But if you get the chance to see the palette of any really good painters that you like, I bet you'll find they put out loads of paint. It's definitely worth buying large tubes for the cheaper pigments that you use a lot of. It's better value.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting How do they keep the piles of paint from drying up, of is it that they just paint frequently enough that they're constantly replacing those piles before they ever do?
@@atlantic_love I cover my palette with cling wrap from the kitchen or wax paper will do. The paint will eventually set-up anyway after 3-5 days. I paint approx. six 24"x32" paintings per month these days, typically switching from landscape to abstract every other. I like access to a lot of series 3 or better paint on my pallet at all times. When I want to totally clean my pallet, I mix all left over paint into mud and set it aside in a little throw away plastic container or just put it on a wax paper and fold it shut and set it aside. Then when I start a new painting I simply add burnt umber or raw Sienna to the mud and cover large areas of foreground. The same for toning down large areas of blue sky. when I'm not quite sure how I want the sky. I just need to cover white canvass and build the middle and foreground a bit without the bright white canvass being so annoying. Most times I cover the entire canvas with a light coat of mud before starting an abstract. It gives me a better neutral reference for my 1st midtowns. I like starting with cheap paint and mud is the cheapest I can think of. LOL
Thank you very much. Though I've still got a lot to learn about landscape painting myself so I don't feel so confident teaching them. This one was a very simple subject, which is why I chose it for a demo. The centre of interest was the tree, which doesn't change. So really, it's an outdoor still life. If the main interest was the clouds in the sky which are constantly changing or some fleeting lighting effect, I would have struggled filming it for a demo. And even with this one I still reckon I could have made the foreground more interesting.
thanks for your answer i saw in your video you have oil linnen canvas this cotton canvas i bought on panduro its trash i have it for test pantings but i will buy oil linnen later on i follow your videos i like them very much thanks master alex
I certainly know two professional painters who use bad paint. I used to work in a studio in the UK with an artist who sold work mainly in the US for thousands and his studio was full of Georgian oils. Also there was a successful acrylic painter who sold work and had a reputation and he used Amsterdam Standard, swore by it, and his paintings were all abstract and bright. I started using some of it myself and it worked well. With my oils though I am more fussy.
I can only think of one pro realist painter who I've seen use student paint and that was a few years ago. They do over sized very expressive portraits. Most of the painters I know, who use cheap old brushes and paint on gesso'd boards and stuff, still use pro quality paint. I don't know about acrylic paint. There are loads of professional artist who only use in Acrylics. But do they use the same pigments as oils. I just had a quick look online at Golden, which is a good quality brand and Cobalt blue was the same price as Ultramarine?
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting The guy who used the Georgian paints did do huge works, 7 ft x 7ft quite often. In my work in oils I will use Wintons Winsor Blue, Prussian Blue, and Yellow Ochre, and sometimes Cerulean hue as I can't afford the real stuff. All my Reds and yellows though are artist grade because they're a different animal altogether from the cheap ones.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting yeah I'm talking about pigments, not brands. I use more often Pyrrole than cadmiums for this reason. Earth and iron oxides too are fast dryers. Nothing is faster than prussian blue and I prefer to use sennelier mars black than ivory because it's fast as an umber with the same usage. The only cheap pigment slow to dry is titanium but hey... My palette is basically earths, umbers and those pigments above plus ultramarine. Also quinadricon magenta is really fast (I don't know why others organic are really slow like perylenes). Once I made a painting almost only mixing prussian and quinadricon magenta and was not like acrylics but was dry at touch in less than a day.
thanks alex for a good answer i will check out his website you are very good at explaining in your videos i like your panting style and try to learn more about it iam looking forward to your next video
I'm using Master Class oil paints because it's much more cheaper than others in Russia. What do you think about this paints comparing to other? BTW I recommend to try Indian Yellow from this brand. I like this colour in mix with white. Also this paint suitable for glazing.
I've only tried some of their more expensive pigments, cobalt blue and cadmium yellow and I reckon they're pretty good. Tho there is only one place I've found that sells them, in Ireland.
thanks alex for god answer i will try your method i just saw i have a canvas in cotton does it matter or should have gesso on surface first you are kind when you helping me thanks
The cotton duck will be more absorbent, but if that's what you have use it, don't let it stop you from painting. Adding an extra coat of gesso to it will make it less absorbent. Have you seen my other videos on preparing supports: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RVU7GKa33a4.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2bgKUTmnvG4.html
I recently discovered this channel and I think it's fantastic. I only have one question that I hope you can answer, do you really consider master class oil paints in the mid-range quality? Greetings.
According to their manufacture they are professional quality? They are definitely not that, but seeing as they also make a student grade range I'd say Master class qualify as mod range. I tried their cadmium yellow and cobalt blue, both expensive pigments and certainly very cheap compared to other brands. They were ok, similar to Winsor and Newton. Though I don't particularly like W&N much. IMO the best medium range brand is Rembrandt by Royal Talens. I've not used Gamblin much.
I often use Ivory black mixed with solvent for my ground. If it's too dark you probably need less pigment and more solvent in the mixture. Also wiping it back with a paper towel will lighten it. Other colours I frequently use for a ground are raw umber or a mixture of transparent oxide red and blue.
thank you so much for this! after two years, i'm preparing myself for a transition from acrylics to oils. i know you're not into acrylics but do you have any advice? xx
Thank Krisei. I would start by doing simple still life exercises like this one, working in monochrome even, in order to get the hang of handling paint. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Sm9hCGY6k6k.html
Thank you. I mainly use stiffer hog brushes. I was using softer brushes so as not to disrupt all the paint underneath that I'd put on with the palette knife.
I use Michael Harding Alizarin and he's always maintained that it has ok lightfastness, but recently he's started doing Alizarin Claret which he says is better?
Probably the practice and science of drawing, but I'd get both. They're not the easiest books to read but IMO they're probably one of the best sources of information we have for what artists were taught 100 years ago. Richard Schmid's book Alla Prima is a lot more accessible and has become the bible for many of today's realists painters, tho it is expensive.
There are a range of different fillers used. Off the top of my head, two common fillers are Chalk and Aluminium Hydroxide. For some colours, especially synthetic pigments its impossible to mix paint without them. So you may find small amounts of filler in some colours, even with expensive brands. But the main reason manufacturers use fillers is to bulk up cheaper brands to save money on pigment.
You need to make your own paint, and paint with it. Then, you will be able to see, that the pigment itself makes the paint what it is, not the fillers, or oil, a lot of people love the Winton oils,just for the specific colors
MH will definitely give you stronger colours than student grade paint as it contains much more pigment. But so will other brands of professional grade and mid-range paints. The other thing to remember about tinting strength is that it also depends on the specific pigments, some colours are stronger than others like cadmium reds and yellows. You'll find a lot of information on the properties of different pigments on the MH website.
No I never use medium on the first day of a painting, only if I came back to it after it has dried. I made another video on mediums here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-22zHMjpdK2Y.html
@ConfusedOilPainter I'm pissed, spent a while on it, its only small but I was trying to compress my values to create a certain mood, felt it was working really well, it's beyond my skill level. Its nearly done, il carry on and see what happens but if I ever get my hands on john pototschnik il fucking strangle him, though I was safe taking advice from a seasond, successful painter. Suppose thats what I get for thinking. Appreciate the feedback.
I've never used liquin. It speeds drying. Did you paint on top of the liquin after you had oiled out? Maybe by oiling it sped up the drying time of the second layer of paint before the paint underneath had properly dried? Oil paint can be dry to touch but some pigments can take months to dry properly. If the bottom layers of paint aren't dry, the oil in the top layers will sink into them and you'll end up with loads of dull patches. Is this what happened? If this is the case you should be able to rescue your painting by varnishing it in 6 months time. I'm a bit wary of mediums as I've had a few accidents with them in the past, so I'm not very expert on them. As much as possible I try to use paint straight out of the tube. I rarely oil out, occasionally only in sections of a painting and when I do I use a medium of stand oil mixed with turpentine.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting the layer underneath was touch dry, i oiled it out with the liquin, I painted on top of it but my concern is adhesion problems down the line. There are a couple of patches but not that noticeable. I can live with them, it's the adhesion of the paint to the liquin that concerns me. I've decided to start it again on a fresh panel. Live and learn! Thanks for your reply Alex, much appreciated.
Nobody makes oil paints with dyes... they use less expensive pigments. Less expensive pigment don't mean worse. Titanium white or yellow ocher are cheap but are as good as cadmiums or cobalts. The price is related to availability and manufacturing complexity.
Cheaper student Grade paint is still inferior art it contains fillers and a much greater amount of oil. Yes, Titanium White and Yellow ochre are cheaper pigments, but they are not bright red or bright yellow. When you buy student grade paint and it says Cadmium Red Hue and it is the same price as the cheaper pigments, this is because it doesn't contain actual Cadmium Red. Yes there are cheaper substitutes for more expensive colours, like the Hansa yellows I experiment with in this painting, or Pyrolle red for Cadmium. These are quite good, but they don't have the tinting strength of Cadmiums. Now, depending on your subject you could just limit yourself to just cheaper earth pigments like the old masters for many of their portraits. Or as I recommend in this video, if you're a student you could try substituting more expensive pigments for cheaper alternatives, rather than buying inferior student grade paint. But once you start selling paintings, the cost of expensive pigments isn't actually that much when you compare it to the cost of materials for many other products?
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting I understand your point, and fully agree, but I wasn’t referring to student oils versus professional oils. But that the price of a certain powder pigment does not always reflect its quality. Of course, a profissional cadmium paint will be better than a lower grade cadmium paint. A good cadmium red is excellent, but not the best for me if what I need is a transparent red that happens to be less expensive. I don't see pyrrol red as a substitute to cadmium red. I use different painting media and, for example, in watercolor I’ve always used cobalts, but I never use cadmiums, I don’t need them, regardless of their price. And in oils I only recently started using cadmium and only when I need a bright red or yellow accent. I use professional paints always, I even have some premium oils made “by hand”. Of course, the high concentration of pigment is good, but, after a certain point, it’s not possible to squeeze more pigment into the tube because then we have reinforced concrete instead of paint. However, there are a plethora of quality levels (and prices), within the professional paint spectrum alone, that seem to defy the laws of physics.🙃
I only used solvent at the very beginning for the initial wash. The rest is just paint straight out of the tube. I don't know if you've seen my most recent video on mediums: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-22zHMjpdK2Y.html
It varies because of the exchange rate, but today one pound get you $1.32 0r €1.17. Also, materials vary in price quite a lot depending where you are in the world. In the USA you'll probably find Williamsburg paint is a little cheaper than Michael Harding, the quality brand I use here in the UK. I believe Windsor and Newton is more expensive there than it is here, but Rembrandt is cheaper.
why every painting "teatchers" on the net always go like "you should do this, you shouldn't do that, you gotta use this, don't use that, etc..." ? why not just say "i prefer do this and use that" ?
When it comes to Artistic choices and techniques, I completely agree with you. But with oil painting materials there are definitely some things you should never do, if you want to preserve your work. What specifically were you referring to in this video?
Hi Deborah, the real time demo's take me a lot longer to make. However, all the demos on my Patreon channel are filmed in real time. Also you may be interested, I did do a series of master copy videos here on RU-vid that are also filmed in real time: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JoCSaNKDyNg.html
Russian paint has less pigment in their tubes than Winton. Their level of quality is at the Pebeo student grade paints or less. It’s not just a student grade, is a typical russian rip off, where they state it’s an artist’s paint etc. they have no certification, European and American pigments are basically not available to them. They buy the cheapest Chinese pigments mostly. As for the oil quality, it’s the same, they simple are not able to produce good quality oil between 140 million people. It’s just pathetic. However what they do really good is pay off and bribe different artists and retailers. I’ve tried almost every each of their paints and I have Soviet era paints as well, even the old soviet stuff is superior that this shit. Don’t buy russian paints, it’s a waste of money
Fair enough. I tried the Nevskaya Palitra to see what they were like, as they were really cheap and supposedly professional quality. Also, I'd often wondered what materials they used at the Repin Academy. I was told the students their use the cheaper Lagoda range? Which are completely awful. I definitely didn't consider Nevskaya to be professional quality. The tinting strength of their Cadmium Yellow was ok and they seemed to have the same consistency as mid level stuff like Windsor and Newton.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting painters in Russia and mostly all around ex-Soviet countries they mostly use MasterClass, which is given by economical reasons and the mafia-style monopoly they've established. As for the Ladoga, I won't be surprised if they are using it too, as I've heard from many people who are forced to use russian paints - both are of equally awful quality. I haven't tried them meself though. However, not many people have actually tried smth like Old Holland or Michael Harding in there, so they are happy with what they have. As for the Yellow Cadmium from MasterClass, it's mostly PY3 in the tube. Basically, you won't find much cadmiums or cobalts in their paints, the price speaks for itself.
This was painted on oil primed linen that was glued to a panel. I have a couple of other videos on preparing supports and I demonstrate how these panels are made: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2bgKUTmnvG4.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RVU7GKa33a4.html
