Learning about Oil Paint Mediums with Katie Blackwell

http://www.cheapjoes.com -- Welcome to Cheap Joe's Test Studio! This is one of my favorite parts about oil painting because you can take any of these mediums and change the texture and drying time of any paint that you choose. What I have here are 3 different main categories - we have the texture, the quick-dry mediums, slow-dry mediums, and pretty much just the normal mediums. Over here were have refined Linseed oil, cold-pressed Linseed oil - all of those are what's already in your paint. Part of oil paint is a binder and pigment, and generally the binder is Linseed or Safflower oil. By adding any of the Linseeds you're just extending your paint. You're not changing anything about it. So that's good if you want to keep the drying time about 2 weeks depending on the color. If you want to speed up the process you can use something like Gamblin's Galkyd. Galkyd is really glossy and a little bit tackier. Liquin's has a satin finish, there's also Sennelier's Fluid and Dry - they also have a Flow and Dry. All of those you just mix in with your paints - the more you mix with it the thinner your paint's gonna get, but your painting will be dry by the next day. There's also some stuff like Japan Drier that you have to be really careful with. You don't have to use nearly as much as you would with something like Galkyd or Liquin. You just use a tiny little drop. If you use anymore than that, your paint's gonna crack. It's definitely not something you use for glazing. We also have walnut oil from M. Graham, they have an Alkyd which is a quick dryer, but both of them are the only mediums out there that don't yellow your paint. They're also pretty natural, they don't smell, they're not toxic, so if you have trouble with the toxicity of oils this is a good thing to get. They also have a whole line of paint made with walnut oil. For texture, if you like impasto, we have liquid impasto, so that's still going to speed up the process of your paint but it's going to add some great thick texture to it. There's also Sennelier's impasto medium, and Neo Megilp from Gamblin - all of these are going to thicken up your paint a little bit. We also have Cold Wax medium from Gamblin that will thicken it and make it a little more matte. All the other mediums are going to give a little bit of gloss. The Cold Wax medium can also be used as a varnish. All of these do amazing things. There's 30, 40, maybe even 100 more mediums out there for you to choose from. Next time you're in the Cheap Joe's store just ask a sales associate or turn the bottles around and read what they do. You can get some incredible results and just play around with a couple of different things and see what it does to your painting.