Oil paint question

J

Jeffrey Nelson

Active member
I've been painting with oil paints for about a year and I noticed some of the colors react differently to the drying mixture I am using. My mentor has me using 14 parts turpentine, 6 parts paint thinner, 1 part copal, and 1 part pale drying oil. What I have noticed is with some colors it makes them really shiny(Tit. white) and it gives other colors a dull sheen (Burnt Umber). I was hoping someone would have an answer or would share how they thin /dry the paint. Thanks, Jeff
 
Little turps and some cobalt drier for slow drying colors works great. Add a little copal, or linseed oil if you want better flexibility and more sheen.
 
I've been painting with oil paints for about a year and I noticed some of the colors react differently to the drying mixture I am using. My mentor has me using 14 parts turpentine, 6 parts paint thinner, 1 part copal, and 1 part pale drying oil. What I have noticed is with some colors it makes them really shiny(Tit. white) and it gives other colors a dull sheen (Burnt Umber). I was hoping someone would have an answer or would share how they thin /dry the paint. Thanks, Jeff
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are you painting directly over ronan or rustoleum with finish coats?
 
Jode, let me make sure I get what you are saying. So basically every time you go to paint with oils you mix up thinner/drier in a squirt bottle, say 6 teaspoons terps, and 1 teaspoon cobalt drier. If you want more shine add a teaspoon of copal or linseed oil. ? Do you measure it out or a little of this and a dash of this? Thanks for the info, Jeff
 
Your on the right track, but No.....I don't use exact mixes.....I put my paint on a palate or a plastic plate. The I add just enough terps, OMS, or copal to make it brushable. I'll add one drop of drier to slow drying colors like white, cadiums or blacks......real cold weather like now you have to thin a little more, warm weather not as much.

Theres a million ways to make paint dry, but it doesn't have to be complicated.
 
There nothing wrong with the mix your using btw.....a lot of times different colors dry with different sheens. Just the nature of the paint vehicle and pigment loads.
 
say 6 teaspoons terps, and 1 teaspoon cobalt drier.
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I've only been oil painting about a year myself (well, with tube oils) but I can tell you 1 tsp of cobalt drier is enough for about 10 gazillion decoys.

Last year in Ohio I sat next to Tom so I could borrow some of his mediums since I flew in to take Jode's paint seminar and I didn't know if I could fly with mediums. Jode was mixing some small amounts of paint and when I borrowed Tom's cobalt drier, I got about twice what I meant to get in the paint, which he showed me was about twice what I should have meant to in the first place... meaning way too much. The next day, that paint on the decoy had dried so quickly that it was chalky and I rubbed it off my decoy with a finger. It only takes as much as will barely hold on the end of your palette knife dipped in the jar.

I have had a hard time dialing back the medium (I've tried several) enough and now I'm to a point where I use a glass dropper to put one drop of linseed oil on my pile of white paint about the size of a dime, maybe 2 drops for a quarter sized pile. (Would be about the same if it were turps or Grum #1 or something) It's only because my white paint is stiff from the tube. The rest of my colors don't even need any medium.

It has taken me a while to learn that it comes off the brush on the decoy easier than it looks like it is going to on the palette. I was mixing my colors to the consistency of canned oil paint like Rustoleum, Ronan's. The only time I do that now is I'm using a liner brush and have to be really wet. I did one decoy over the summer in warmer temperatures-- 95 or so... using turps as medium. When that decoy dried, the paint flaked off in some spots because I had so much turpentine in it.

I'm still learning on every bird though so take all that with a grain of salt, these other guys have been doing it a lot longer.
 
I have had the same bottle of dryer for 10 years and 90% of it remains. But to start,,,Copal is a glossy drier.
From a brand description
"When added to oil colors, Copal Painting Medium improves flow, accelerates drying, and imparts hardness and a high gloss to the dry paint film."
It is great for flat art, not decoy art.

I use cobalt dryer. Only with very few colors. Never on an earth tone. Earth tones like BU already have natural catalysts. Cobalt is a catalyst that kicks off the chain curing process. Been around since the renaissance.

I have a chemical dropper I use to put in a tiny cup.

I use similar to Jode. Dip brush into terps, wipe much away, then a tip in cobalt, then the paint. I
 
I've been painting with oil paints for about a year and I noticed some of the colors react differently to the drying mixture I am using. My mentor has me using 14 parts turpentine, 6 parts paint thinner, 1 part copal, and 1 part pale drying oil. What I have noticed is with some colors it makes them really shiny(Tit. white) and it gives other colors a dull sheen (Burnt Umber). I was hoping someone would have an answer or would share how they thin /dry the paint. Thanks, Jeff
Click to expand...

are you painting directly over ronan or rustoleum with finish coats?
Click to expand...


This certainly could be going down the path of what's causing you issues as well. Ill ask it as well are you painting directly over ronans or rustoleum or do you have a base coat of tube oils on the decoy? Mediums and driers are important parts of the process but not the only thing that can case an uneven finish.
 
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Jode, that helps make a little more sense of it. I don't have any cobalt., but I am going to pick some up for my next bird and give it a try with technic you described. Thanks, Jeff
 
Dave, the cobalt drier goes a long ways. I get that part. So you're saying in both instances the paint dried so fast that it didn't create a bond to the undercoats, and flaked,rubbed off? You said you could paint a lot of colors without any medium? Straight from the tube? What kind of drying time are you getting doing that? The way I have been doing it most colors will dry over night. Thanks for the input, I will take any advice I can get. Jeff
 
Steve, it sounds like the copal is part of my issue. I'm also thinking that I am thinning down the paint too much. I didn't know that paint would dry straight from the tube. I was under the impression the paint would take a month to dry if you didn't use driers in a larger amount. Thanks for the tip. Jeff
 
Brandon, The bird I noticed the haze on was painted with linseed oil. Then, once it dried, I painted the base coat with tube paint. The paint wasn't so much uneven as it seemed to have a white haze after it dried. Any thoughts? Jeff
 
Dave, the cobalt drier goes a long ways. I get that part. So you're saying in both instances the paint dried so fast that it didn't create a bond to the undercoats, and flaked,rubbed off? You said you could paint a lot of colors without any medium? Straight from the tube? What kind of drying time are you getting doing that? The way I have been doing it most colors will dry over night. Thanks for the input, I will take any advice I can get. Jeff
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I don't use cobalt drier in the earth colors: RU, RS, BU, BS. I use it in white, cadmiums, yellow ochre. I don't usually add it to my pile of ultramarine blue, but that is usually mixed with white which has drier, or BU, which dries fast.

If I paint on a bird tonight, tomorrow night the paint is tacky enough that I can paint over it without blending with the undercoat or affecting the flow of color out of the brush.

I think there are a million ways to do oils right, and probably a million to do them wrong but for painting decoys, the coats are so thin on the bird that they dry pretty quickly. Mediums for oil paints on decoys are first and foremost for flow: getting the paint from the brush to the decoy, and secondly for drying time and finish gloss. Even with linseed oil, one of the glossier finishes you can get with oil paint, I get virtually no gloss due to the fact that I add so little and paint so thinly.
 
I'm a little late to this party but have a easy solution.
At a painting seminar a couple years ago I was introduced to Daniel
Smith Painting Medium for Oils and Alkyds. I have to order it from them and pay some stupid hazardous substance but it is great to work with.
It is alkyd based and comes out of the tube as a jell witch makes it
easy to measure. Very little shine and good drying.
Just an option that works for me, John
 
I have never used the Daniel Smith medium. I do use their paints and the quality of paint is exceptional in my opinion.
 
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