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Position:Home>Visual Arts> My oil paintings seem not as vibrant the day after?Question: My oil paintings seem not as vibrant the day after!? Is it because the color sunk in or am I just seeing the colors brighter while painting and then get used to them and they appear more dull when I am bored!? Will Damar varnish make them brighter!? What else will Damar do!?
http://s200!.photobucket!.com/albums/aa13/!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Oil paints can sink a little as they dry!.The old time test was to lick your finger and apply the liquid to the surface of the painting where the colour has sunk!.If the colour revives then a coat of any Retouching varnish is the proper course of action,Do not as someone suggested apply neat Linseed oil,it will yellow and stay sticky,often for up to 6 months!.The traditional way to keep the strength of colour was to build ou layers of glazes,adding Turpentine to dilute the paint at first,then add progressive amounts of Linseed oil to the Turpentine,until you reach a maximum mix of 50/50!.Real Spirits of Turpentine is prefered,it also smells much pleasanter than White Spirit,which is only good for cleaning brushes!.Various schools of thought differ about Raw,or Boiled Linseed!. Check out Cellini's book Il Libro del Arte!. for a good read on clarifying Linseed,and much more Renaissance fun!.Cellini had advice on how to hold your hand in order to paint glass,don't worry to much give it a restfor a couple of days before going to the doctors in a panic!.Having said that my Doctoral research was in Aesthetics rather than Medicine!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The oils do sink in the second day!. This does a couple of things!. It makes the surface you have painted more absorbent making paint manipulation harder and it makes the semi dry areas look different than the new paint areas!. Don't use DAMMAR! Damar darkens greatly over the years!. If you use it at all, you use it at the end once the painting is dry, but there are better varnishes to use now!. Gamar to name one!. You want to "Oil In" the painting!. This is how you do it!. You get some cheesecloth and some high quality linseed oil!. You put a little oil on a piece of the cheesecloth and gentle rub it over the painting!. Not so much that the oil beads up!. Just a little bit!. You are basically re-saturating the oil paint that is laid down already!. If you think you have put too much down get a clean piece of cheesecloth and rub off the extra!. Don't rub too hard at any stage, very gently you don't want to hurt the paint surface you have already put down!. You'll notice a real difference in your painting session!.Www@QuestionHome@Com hmmm!.!.!.!.maybe its the quality of the oils!.!.!.!. and i know for a fact that as paints dry, they darken of course there is oil to sustain the brightness and color!.!.!. but just like any painting media or ink, colors are more vibrant when they are wet especially acrylics p!.s!., beautiful workWww@QuestionHome@Com |
