History & Paint Brands
Origins of Oil Painting
Oil Painting as we know it today is most commonly attributed to Jan Van Eyck, a Dutch painter from the 15th Century. Van Eyck, using his scientific knowledge, is the first recorded to stabilize the medium by successfully distilling Linseed Oil with animal bones. Prior to this time oil paints were little used (or, by my belief, in an unstable way which hasn’t lasted to our time). Van Eyck’s discovery came about in a time when many painters were experimenting with various ways to suspend colored pigments in a liquid body to paint with. Van Eyck perfected the medium and created beautiful, color-rich paintings which have lasted to our day. Unfortunately, Van Eyck kept his recipes secret until his death. Antonello da Messina is attributed with perfecting the medium further, and introducing the process to Italian artists—aiding in part to the Italian Renaissance. Following Messina, it was common to paint with oils on top of an egg-tempera painting. Egg-Tempera is a color pigment suspended in egg yolk and water, which hardens. It is more translucent than oils, but the colors aren’t as rich. So, who first perfected oil painting? As in all of history, it was the combined efforts of countries, with Holland and Italy at the forefront. In the 17th Century Rubens and his most famous student, Van Dyck, brought its influences and ideas to England from both Italy and their home countries in the far North of Europe. As with all art forms, oil painting as we know it today was the product of many minds—at times furthered in leaps by genius artists.
It is interesting to note that oil painting by technical definition—a colored pigment suspended in hard oils—dates back much further, to the 7th Century. Cave paintings in Afghanistan were found with oil paints on the walls from that time period. Oils have been used in all civilized cultures, and it is quite possible that painting with it reaches back much further than we know.
***Precautions***
The ingredients used in oil paint and the mediums and cleaners used with them can be hazardous to your health, but no more so than household cleaners and chemicals. These hazards are easily overcome with good habits. Never eat while you are painting. Always wash your hands and take a break for eating and drinking. Be conscious about touching your face, especially eyes and mouth. Read the labels on anything you are using—if there is a warning about ventilation, follow it.
Paint Brands
There are many brands of oil paints to choose from. To inform that choice you need to understand what oil paints are—powdered pigment and oil mixed together. Some brands of oil paints are expensive because they use expensive oil and they use expensive, rare, pigments. The costliest brands have different prices depending on the color, because the pigments come from different places in the world or are a more or less precious mineral. Other brands are less expensive because they use alternative or even synthetic pigments. For example, Cobalt is an expensive pigment and true Cobalt blues and purples are expensive. Some brands use cobalt substitutes, so they’re less expensive. The cheapest oil paints use cheap pigments and a lot of synthetic fillers. If you use these cheap paints, you will always struggle with color mixing because those fillers muddy your colors and the pigments have no intensity.
With oil colors, look for three things: intensity of color, fillers used in the paint, and type of oil. (You will learn in a later section that oils have different qualities, and not all brands of oil paint use the same types). As you begin oil painting, don’t buy the cheap paints, and don’t buy the crazy expensive ones (some can be $200 a tube). Below is a list to help you get started—it is by no means comprehensive:
Cheap paints | Mid-Range | Expensive |
What to look for: Avoid paints from craft sections, like Hobby Lobby brands. For only a little bit more money you can purchase a mid-range oil paint and your colors will be cleaner and more intuitive to mix. As artists, frustration and capability are some of our biggest stumbling blocks.
Brands: There are too many to list here. If a ~40mL tube of paint is less than $5 it will only frustrate you to use.
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What to look for: Deep, rich, intense colors. Pale colors will only become paler or muddy when you start to mix. Open the lid in the store and look at the actual paint in the tube.
Brands Master-Class St. Petersburg Van Gogh Rembrandt Gamblin Winsor-Newton Sennelier
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What to look for: I use some colors in this range, because of their intensity and vibrancy. I use them for areas of the paintings that call for the richest color possible.
Brands Williamsburg Old Holland Michael Harding Rublev-Natural Pigments Schminke-Mussini
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Some artists use a very limited palette—three to five colors including white. It is true that many varied colors can come from a few initial colors. I believe mastering that ability comes quicker if you use numerous colors in your palette to begin. Color mixing is more intuitive when they are right before your eyes. Vibrant, light-filled paintings require a range of colors on your palette. Some schools (even prestigious ones) have the belief that beginning oil painters should only use a few colors to begin, or they will fail drastically; but, becoming a colorist requires time spent with all colors. Our sense of color must be developed through experience and practice. Also, painting light accurately requires a wide spectrum of colors. Begin your color palette with a cool and warm version of each color, then add some colors that are tricky to mix such as Raw Umber, Naples, and the Siennas. Here’s the list of my color palette:
Titanium White Lead White (use carefully, excellent for flesh tones) Naples Yellow (find a pale cream color, not yellow) Lemon Yellow (cool yellow) Cadmium Yellow (warm yellow) Cadmium Orange (vibrant, not pale) Yellow Ochre Raw Sienna Burnt Sienna English Red
| Cadmium or Vermillion Red (deep primary red) Alizarin Crimson (cool red) Cobalt Violet or Deep Magenta Cobalt or Phthalo Blue (deep primary blue) Cerulean Blue Emerald Green (cool green) Sap or Chrome Oxide Green (warm green) Raw Umber
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