Hi Liz , ive just found your channel and have been a watercolourist for 30 years and just found water mixable oils , I’ve always wanted to try oils but never could because of the chemicals and not having a ventilated space ! I’m so exited to see this video , i also watched your older video on your cobra paints and thouroghly enjoyed it ! Your art is wonderful , thanks so much for sharing
Oh thankyou so much Jennifer! I definetly think these are a great way to give oils a go, I've recommended in another comment just pick two colours and start (a darker colour and a lighter) that will let you play and have a feel for the paint without the pressure of colour mixing as much 💕) good luck!!
So many pretty colours! Such luminous glaze! Also thanks for the demonstration of mixing the different colour glazes on the orb thing, definitely helped convey the idea of glazing with multiple colours & including light/shadow temperature etc in it.
Oh I'm so glad! This is a lot more talking than I used to do in a video but I needed to get the thoughts out of my brain of why I add the different colours - I'm so glad that was helpful 💕
I actually had no idea there was a glazing specific medium. I learned glazing through an online course called 'Paint the ocean'. It actually was run by a QLD artist who does beautiful ocean paintings. Anyway he has his techniques where he makes his own mediums by mixing a few things together. I think I recall him talking about using transparent paints and thinning it down a bit more with the medium mix. But this is what I am worried about and struggle with. No 1, I have not really ever got the consistency right and have probably made it too runny, where it wasn't really able to do what I wanted. The other issue is I know people say to be cautious about the quantity of what you mix with the paint and if you add to much medium, you could have yellowing. I obviously want to avoid that, so I have kind of avoided glazing too much and it has been on my list of things to learn. I mentioned questions I have which don't relate to this video. I bought the Gamlin sample pack that has 6 of their products and I got this from your store. I have only previously used the solvent free gel (which I used too much of and it made my underpainting very very sticky) and I gave used Lindseed and Gamsol too. There is also somethings I have never used or know anything about in the kit (Cold Wax, Galkyd Lite and Neo Megilp). Have you used any of these things and have experience? I am passionate about oils and prefer to paint without all the heavy toxins and I know Gamlin have so many great products that are better than the traditional ones. I think people write off oils as being a really toxic medium and don't really understand that it doesn't have to be. Most of the toxic pigments are gone and those that remain are probably also in watercolor and acrylics too and there is also no need for turps in this day and age.Yet people have written off oils and they don't really want to believe that oils can be used pretty safely.
Firstly the oil mediums: these are only needed to be used when the colour straight from the tube isn't behaving as you would like (might be too thick, too slow drying, too thin etc) my main aim with mediums is to keep it simple. If I'm painting a piece with an average 2-5 layers I like to use a medium that dries fast and just helps the paint spread a little bit. Linseed oil on its own with no additives will do the job and I normally use a small shot glass to dip my brush in, wipe it on the edge of the glass then pickup paint - it's basically using enough to keep the brush moist, this gives me a good consistency of spreading the paint if from the tube its a bit thick. If I don't add any solvent to my Linseed oil I can use just that for the whole painting but I need to be sure each layer is quite dry before doing more - so this can take a week or two between layers. Liquin(fine detail) or Galkyd are both fast dry mediums I like that have similar consistency to Linseed oil but dry faster. If you are very concerned about yellowing (the amount of medium I use to keep the brush moist doesn't cause me yellowing concern) you could try Safflower oil instead which is much less yellowing. Yellowing happens over a very very long period of time (50 years +) and is normally dependant on how the painting is hung/stored too
Glazing medium in general has a much higher oil content than general painting mediums, which allows it to spread thin so well but also have a very slow drying time 👍 I use it specifically when I know the majority of the painting is complete but I want to do considerable colour 'tinting' of what's there and I don't mind the slow dry time - every tool for the right job 👍
The Gamblin website and RU-vid channel (made by the company themselves) is pretty great with introductory info on every medium so definetly check that out but in summary: Neomegilp is thin gel medium, a good all rounder with much less yellowing than traditional mediums, it will feel like it has more body on the paintbrush than a liquid medium Cold wax will give a matte effect to your paint and thicken it, it's interesting but less is more in my experience - often it's easier to buff some wax over a finished piece with a lint free rag than paint 'with it' though so you have a more consistent finish and drying time Galkyd lite is a thin (less oil) version of normal Galkyd the Gamblin fast drying liquid paint medium. If you are starting a new piece it's often advantageous to do your first 'sketchy/block in' layer in a thinner medium so the paint flows very well and dries faster, then when working on detail or the guts of the painting switch to a medium with more oil content to give yourself more control and a longer dry time to get it right 👍
Completely agree with the safety of oil paints comments - the word toxins doesn't really suit the conversation - the majority of danger is either 'ingesting pigments with heavy metals such as cadmiums or cobalts' Note: they specifically are harmful when ingested, don't eat your paint! Or the evaporation fumes of solvents being harmful. Solvents can be used much more minimally these days, I only use them for cleaning at the end of my session rather than throughout 👍 maintain good ventilation and or breathing protection (I use a filtered face mask when doing a lot of cleaning or varnishing)
Great video and painting! Thanks so much, I have a love and hate with cobra 😅 but my next painting is going to be with only cobra and the quick dry medium. Never used that before.
No worries! They definitely take a bit of getting used to - for me it was only using water for cleanup (not during painting) that made them so much easier to use! May I ask what are your negatives with them? (I like to know for people who ask me!) Thankyou!
@@LizGridleyArtist I used them with water and found them very sticky. Once tried to use them with water like mineral spirits and that was a complete disaster. Later I heard that you have to mix them really good with the water before use.
Thanks, Liz, for the demonstration and painting. I used to paint with traditional oil paints, but I am too worried about the toxics, especially the disposal of the turps and the toxic fumes. I think you convinced me of Cobra. Just a question: Would you mind suggesting a beginner's palette? I mostly paint flowers, animals, landscapes, and seascapes. Not portraits so much.
You can definetly try and find equivalents to your normal oil palette - probably the best place to start considering your diverse subjects. But I'd say palette helpful paints would be raw umber, yellow Ochre, ultramarine blue and pyrrole red (with titanium white) 👍 everyone is different though!
I’m searching information regarding to varnishing. How long I should spect for do it? 3/6 months? And I could use regular oil varnish? I hope u can answer this. Great work!