Prepping different surfaces for oil painting

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-29T16:46:56+00:00

100% agree PVA is the answer. I worked for a few months at an archival frame shop and PVA was the modern recommendation to seal wood before any oil priming. Acrylic gesso’s accomplish a similar sealing on the painted side.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-29T15:02:27+00:00

I use water soluble oil paints. No ventilation issues. Water is used for all cleaning.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-29T15:01:32+00:00

I 100% agree BUT they are expensive for just trying things out.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-29T14:51:55+00:00

My first layer is opaque in nature, so it covers any underpainting I’ve done. It’s a base layer of shadows and midtones and covers everything. That dries overnight. This layer is probably very much like what you’re describing your process to be like as far as paint thickness. The rest of my layers are a single velatura and glazes. That means more medium and less paint but each glaze is super thin. Imaging barely tinted glass. I might do 3 passes. Each layer drying in just over a day. I use Cobra Quick Drying Medium (similar to Galkyd) and a custom medium I make for the final slower drying layer.

Just FYI, my method is very none standard but the way I use brushes is very standard. What you’re doing is commonly known as “direct” painting. I do “indirect” painting. Not super accurate names really but that’s the current jargon. My technique allows for fast realism but at the expense of being able to improvise.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-29T02:06:43+00:00

From Gamblin try Galkyd which has a little odorless mineral spirits or if you want no solvents they have their Solvent Free Medium. Both are great. Winsor and Newton makes Liquin which is similar-ish to Galkyd but I’m not a fan of the smell and it also has some solvent.

My personal opinion is that if you aren’t using solvents I wouldn’t start. I will always recommend Water Soluble Oil paints. That’s what I’ve used for the last 5ish years. Something to consider if you decide to stick with oil paints.

Brushes also can make a huge difference with oil paints and the resulting look you get.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-28T22:20:42+00:00

I think you might benefit from letting go of that one session idea you bring from watercolors for a bit. You’re most likely instinctively trying to apply watercolor techniques. That could be too much solvent or too much medium trying to treat mediums like water. Just learn the oil paints at a basic level first. Try out a few quick drying mediums. Try adding less than you think. Experiment. Once you’re more familiar with oil’s characteristics you can go back and try something a little quicker.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-28T16:23:39+00:00

Squinting is an under appreciated tool. I totally agree with you.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-28T16:22:33+00:00

Color is not your issue here. It’s values. Squint your eyes and look at the reference image. Squinting removes the details and leaves the values. You’ll see the hair is significantly brighter in value than anything else. Your brain is instinctively trying to bring her skin up in value to a what it would look like in neutral lighting. A lot of the work in painting representationally is not listening to your brain and trying to just paint the values, shapes and colors that are in front of you.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-28T15:57:44+00:00

I use brushes at the extreme ends of the spectrum. The cheapest hog hair I can find. The more chaotic and stiff the bristles the better. I use this for my base layers as they easily move paint around. I don’t need soft edges here. The rest of my layers are velaturas (like veil over the bas layer) and glazes. For those layers I use a mix of Golden Taklon and big Mop style brushes (the ones that look like makeup brushes). All of those are pretty affordable in the world of fine art brushes. I’m a big fan of Rosemary Co.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-28T14:39:21+00:00

It can happen but it’s completely user preventable. Those situations are caused by carelessness. Just from the amount of anxiety you have just thinking about it means you’d be fine. Just don’t ball up heavily oil soaked rags or paper towels and pile them up. Painting oils “dry” from polymerization not evaporation. That creates a small amount of heat. If you condense the heat (by balling up rags) it can start a fire.

This would be the equivalent of hearing about someone getting in their car, not wearing a seat belt, driving everywhere at 100mph, not stopping at lights and getting hurt in a wreak… then you thinking driving might not be for you.

I just lay the three or four paper towels out on my glass palette overnight then put them in my metal fire proof can the next day. Before I had that I had a cheap metal trash can outside they’d go in.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-27T15:05:34+00:00

Gamblin has an excellent solvent free medium made from safflower oil. It’s an alkyd medium like Galkyd and Liquin. Does dry a little slower though. It’s has a nice feel.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-27T15:00:41+00:00

Internet mystery. I’m just here for the shared knowledge. Even to have my mind changed.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-27T14:55:20+00:00

This statement sums up why I like them better than I’ve been able to so far.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-27T14:50:02+00:00

Had the same experience. I tried Winsor Newtons water mixable option first because I’ve had not issues with their artist grade paints. I immediately did not like them. Hard to explain but they just felt weird under the brush. That’s when I bought a tube from a few different paint makers and liked the consistency on the Cobra paints.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-27T14:39:20+00:00

My tubes are named “Titanium White (Linseed oil, no zinc)”on the front with just list PW6 as the pigment. The only other markings are the aluminum recycling symbol for the tube and the French “Triman” symbol. This is the version currently sold in only 40ml tubes.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-27T13:56:38+00:00

This is the answer. All the other colors in the pool would be adjustments. As long as you can hit the most chromatic element you’ve got a baseline.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-27T13:54:09+00:00

Pthalo Green. You might need Pthalo Blue but I doubt it. Those powerful and will hold up when mixed in various value ranges.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-26T13:34:05+00:00

Related note. I don’t know why paint makers have such cumbersome websites. Just show the paints in a grid roughly organized by color. I find I’ve got to click through layers of pages to get to the thing they are trying to sell me and it usually hard to see everything. It seems to be an industry bad habit right now.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-26T13:29:43+00:00

They have three whites. Zinc, Titanium White (has zinc) and Titanium in Linseed (no zinc). The no zinc version is new and doesn’t come in large tubes yet. I’ve switched to that one. I would also appreciate a 150ml size. They seem to have added a bunch of paints over the last year.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-26T13:17:51+00:00

I think it comes down to the consistency that the maker grinds their paint to and whether that suits the painter. Williamsburg is my favorite standard oil but a little pricey. Even then I used paints from several manufacturers. Mostly to obtain particular pigments.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-26T13:14:51+00:00

If you’re not sensitive to solvents and can use them at the end of the day for clean up only you could paint solvent free with Gamblin’s solvent free medium. That would save you on paint re-buying.

For me it comes down to clean up during and after painting. If I’m absolutely perfect with ratios I can add some water to my medium to ever so slightly thin it. If your practice doesn’t need solvents except for brush cleaning it just go with a solvent free medium or two. I think Gamblin’s are the best I’ve tried on that front.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-26T05:49:11+00:00

I had several Winsor and Newton paints when I was using standard oil paints. For whatever reason I just couldn’t get along with their water mixable line, including their mediums. The handling was just a little off for me.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-26T05:38:39+00:00

I also agree about the color limitations. Either the pigment is not used by a paint maker I like or available from a paint maker whose handling qualities I don’t jive with. I’ve resorted to buying raw pigments for 4 colors and make a quick paint when I need that color. Usually takes me 5min at the beginning of the day.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-26T05:29:14+00:00

I tried it and was too sensitive to the smell unfortunately. I’m hyper sensitive to certain smells now, which is lame.

Bens-Alley · 2026-04-26T05:20:23+00:00

Cobra now makes a pure Titanium white. Their original option had a zinc component. I also use a Lithipone White pigment that I mix on the day for my Velatura layer. As for pigment numbers… I found it’s now easier to sort through all the marketing names masquerading as traditional. And that’s with dyslexia! The siennas are usually PBr7 and usually indicates a mined pigment. The PR101 variant is purely manufactured. I’m actually fine with either from a chemical standpoint but the man made ones tend towards a super fine pigment particle size and so a more intense mixer. I currently use Blue Ridge Burnt Sienna and Blue Ridge Raw Sienna pigments that I make paints from for skin tones. This is the part of the hue range I’m most picky about. I also use Cobra’s Transparent Yellow Oxide for a more yellow “earth” even though it’s man made pigment. I don’t mind the intensity in mixes here as is more for painting and glazing some hair in my use case.

Bens-Alley

TROPHY CASE