Any Matte or Semi-Gloss medium or Gel Medium can impart a waxy look. The specific manner in which it is applied can also increase or decrease this effect. It can be helpful to test with several mediums or gels on sacrificial pieces until you get a feel for the mediums or gels and application techniques that … Read more
Most painters have a sense of how to prepare panels for oil and acrylic paintings when they are meant to be shown indoors, and we even published a couple of Just Paint articles on the topic: Understanding Wood Supports for Art – A Brief History Plywood as a Substrate for Painting However for both Muralists … Read more
By Vaikunt Raghavan, Ph.D. Basics of Wetting and Adhesion When a liquid comes into contact with any solid, new interfaces or boundaries are generated between these dissimilar materials. Although many factors exist which will promote or inhibit adhesion of the acrylic paint onto the solid plastic, the most important element is the ability of the … Read more
The evidence was undeniable as our eyes swung slowly across the drawdowns that spread out before us. The handful of initial colors ground in every possible combination of oil all pointed to a similar conclusion: there was something here that simply could not be ignored. The clarity of the colors was exceptional and in some … Read more
Historically, wood panels were used for paintings long before the adoption of flexible fabric supports. Most of the earliest icons still intact from the 2nd and 3rd century as well as a large portion of the Renaissance paintings were created on solid wood panels. Many of Raphael’s paintings for example are painted on primed wood … Read more
By Mark Golden Whether painting in oils, acrylics or other traditional or non-traditional painting media, the quality and physical make-up of the support and its preparation is a critical determinant of the final outcome of a work of art. The support not only sets up the working properties of the chosen media but it also … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE (6/6/23): Please note the statement saying “…the sample ended up doing no better than our standard Williamsburg Titanium White, which contains no drier whatsoever,” was true at the time of publishing, but in 2012, a formula change occurred so the statement needs to be edited for accuracy. Therefore, the statement should now read … Read more
It all comes down to stresses and strains of one sort or another. Almost everything about an oil painting will swell and contract, stiffen and flow, in response to the environment or physical handling. To make matters worse, the degree and nature of these changes will themselves change over time as the various materials undergo … Read more
Updated February 17, 2023 to ensure product accessibility accuracy. Make a mark, erase it? Can you? Is it permanent? Will it remain with stubborn pride? Will it all wipe away except for a stain that tells of its past? Will it disappear as if it had never been there? Was it ever there? Will it … Read more
By Scott Bennett Introduction What is an “Experimental Product”? GOLDEN Experimental Products are a series of limited-production, custom materials made available to the professional artist wishing to engage in experimentation and push the technical boundaries of their work with developmental materials. Although availability is limited, all GOLDEN Experimental Products have passed the basic requirements for freeze/thaw … Read more
