oil paste

Traditional method
You will need:
pigment
alcohol 96% or turpentine
raw linseed oil
safflower oil
dammar medium varnish
beeswax
VCA cleanser for cleaning equipment and brushes
glass paint rubber
glass plate 30 x 30 cm
filling knives, 2
teaspoon
empty paint tube
jar with lid

Place the glass plate on a flat surface with a sheet of white paper under the glass. This helps you gauge the colour accurately. Place 2 teaspoons pigment on the glass plate and moisten with a dash of linseed oil. Mix the pigment and the linseed oil into a thick paste with a filling knife. Rub the paste out over the entire glass surface, using the glass rubber with a powerful circular motion. To test the paint, take a dab onto the tip of the knife and flick it off again. If a little tail remains standing, you have ‘short’ paint. You can now enrich the paint with the medium varnish, which is 1 part boiled linseed oil mixed with 3 parts dammar varnish. This allows the paint to be brushed out. Continue the rubbing action. The paint can be stored in empty paint tubes.

To make large quantities of paint, it can be enriched with raw linseed oil mixed with about 10% beeswax grains. The oil has to be warmed to mix with the beeswax.

Tip:
To fill the tube, fold a piece of smooth paper (baking paper) double so it fits into the tube. Put the paint on the paper and remove the tube’s cap. Place the paint-loaded paper into the tube and tap it softly on the table to get the paint to drop slowly inside. Re-cap the tube. This prevents oil settling out inside the tube.

Non-yellowing oils are: safflower, walnut, poppy and boiled linseed oils. The following pigments dry faster as they contain their own drying substances:  all manganese pigments, all cobalt pigments (X) and all umbers. The powerful rubbing action to combine pigment and oil covers the pigment in a film of binder. The paint can be thinned with oil medium. Glossy paint can be made using about 40% medium varnish.
To prepare a non-yellowing white paint, use a mixture of linseed and safflower oils. Safflower oil can be used to ‘shorten’ paint. Safflower oil slows drying, so use it if your paint dries too quickly.
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