Questions And Answers

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ADVICE ON  :

• Salvaging Oils and watercolors 
• Starting over in Oils
• Understanding color 
• Loosening pastel edges

Q. How do I salvage dried – up oil and water colour tubes ?

A. The solidification of tubed oil color is called livering. It's caused by a chem­ical reaction between impurities in the pigment-especially traces of sulfur and the oil vehicle. As a result, the tubed oil color forms rubbery masses, distorting its handling qualities. Impu­rities found in the tubed oil color are characteristic of poor, or incomplete, washing of pigments during initial pro­cessing. In general, livering tends to occur in lower-grade oil colors- not in colors made of high-quality, properly washed pigments correctly ground in the best oil vehicles.
The same problem can happen with tubed watercolors. Occasionally impure pigments will liver when ground into gum arable, the traditional vehicle for tubed watercolors. Some­times plasticizers or preservatives are added during production of high-qual­ity artist's watercolors to prevent this.

SALVAGING OPERATIONS

 Whether or not lumpy, gummy tube oil or watercolors are salvageable depends pretty much on how far gone they are. Reconditioning, then re tubing, the col­ors may require more time and effort than they're actually worth. In many instances, you're much better off with fresh, newly produced tube colors.

If you're determined to try to save your old paints, here are some sugges­tions for reclaiming those tube oils (be Sure to wear latex gloves to keep all traces of paint off your hands).

 First, you'll need to remove all of the color from the tube and deposit it onto your working palette so you can recondition its consistency

• Cut off the crimped end of the tube with a pair of scissors or tin snips.
• Using a heavy-weight paint knife', squeegee out the color onto your palette and discard the old tube.
•  Inspect the color, then remove all rubbery lumps with a palette knife.
• Test the handling qualities of the remaining color by painting a few daubs of it onto a swatch board.

Artist's canvas boards are perfect to use as swatch boards for oil paints. Watercolor paper works well for watercolors.

After this, your salvaging procedures will vary depending on whether you're dealing with oils or watercolors.

For dried-up oils:

Oil colors can be reconditioned by adding fresh cold-pressed linseed oil to them drop by-drop-a lesser amount is best. Re-check the handling quality of the paint to see how the oil additive has affected the color. Dab several strokes onto the swatch board once again.

If the consistency of the color is good, you can deposit it into a new container.

      

For dried-up watercolors:

You can use the same basic process to recondition tube watercolors, but substitute adding drops of gum arabic  (available in bottles by Winsor & Newton and Grumbacher) and water instead of oil.

 Keep in mind that with both oil and watercolors, reconditioning can work only to a point.  Often the consistency will never regain the original freshness of a new tube of color. And by  adding too much oil, gum arabic or water, permanence may be sacrificed You may have to  discard the color if your attempt at reconditioning fails.

STORING YOUR SAVINGS

Use common plastic food wrap to store small amounts of color (up to an ounce). Simply scoop up ~the color onto a square of plastic wrap, twist the ends together and secure with a wire twist. (This is reminiscent of the way animal

bladders were used to store oil colors before the development of collapsible

paint tubes, which came on the market around 1842.) To retrieve the color,

pierce the plastic wrap "bladder" with a pin and squeeze out the paint.

Plastic film containers work well to keep three to five tablespoons of oil color fresh.

Watercolors may dry out using this alternative container, however. Once used, these containers can be cleaned with thinner and paper towels, then reused Be sure to tap the film container repeatedly as you fill it with color to let the paint   settle and eliminate air pockets. Put a dab of color on the lid for easy

identification. Also press a small square of plastic wrap into the container to keep skin from forming on the paint's surface.

         

Aluminum tubes are the best way to store both your reconditioned

oil and watercolors. They are available in both three- and five-ounce sizes. Use

a large, heavy-weight, stainless steel palette knife for depositing large quantities of paint. Draw a dotted "fill line" about two inches (one inch for the small tubes) from the open end of the tube. As you fill it, tap the tube repeatedly in the palm of your hand to eliminate any air pockets. Crease the tube

with the large palette knife a quarter inch below the dotted fill lines and squeeze out any pigment that remains in that area. Crease, then bend the tube in

quarter-inch widths with the knife, then fold the tube up to the main crease. Once folded, use moderate pressure to squeeze the folded end with canvas pliers. This s ensures a good, even seal. Dab a bit of color onto the top of the cap for quick and easy identification.

Q. I've recently begun painting in oil and have painted over a number of false Starts with acrylic gesso. How can I remove the unwanted paint buildup?

A.       Acrylic gesso is formulated in an acrylic polymer binder that isn't compatible or permanent when applied 'over artist's oil paint. In fact, the acrylic won't properly bond with the oil paint

underneath, and will eventually peel and lift away from the oil paint layer.

If you're just beginning to paint in oils and are going through a period of false starts, try some of the following suggestions to remove the unwanted paint buildup.

If the oil paint is still wet:

• Use a palette knife to scrape off the wet oil paint buildup, especially if

         the paint is thick.

• To get back to the ground beneath, wipe out the area further with a rag dipped in mineral spirits.

If the oil paint is dry to the touch:

•   First, try scraping out of the unwanted passages with a palette knife.
•   Or, use a medium-grit garnet paper and gently sand the unwanted portions. Be sure     to slip a sheet of mat- board behind the canvas for proper support. This light sanding  will remove the unwanted buildup and leave some tooth for the next oil paint        application.

Once the oil paint has been removed, let the work dry to the touch if it's still

wet. 0nce it's dry to the touch, you can simply paint back into the problem area with oil paint to correct whatever needs attention.

Q. I'm interested in getting more color into my work. Painting "values" seems easy to me, but I need more color. What can I do?

A. A good way to develop your work with a greater emphasis on color is to

cultivate a thorough understanding of color types, color dimensions and color

mixing. By getting these basics down, you can bring more visual interest, depth and dimension to your work.

FOUR TYPES OF COLOR

When we paint we go through a mixing process: We take one oil color and mix it into others for the right effect. But no matter what we lay down on the canvas, there are only four possible color types to paint with-a pure hue, a tint,

a tone and a shade of some color.

  A pure hue is any hue on the color wheel

   (pigment theory) which doesn't have white, black or its complement mixed

   into it. A pure hue can be either a primary (red, for example) or secondary    (orange, for        example) color.

   Because orange is basically a mixture of yellow and red paint, it's still a pure hue as long as    white, black, or its complement (blue) hasn't been added.

   
A tint 

is the mixture of any pure hue plus white. Fink is a tint of red- it's mixed by adding white to the pure hue of red. A greater amount of red mixed into a smaller amount of white will give you a pink that's dark in value.

If you reversed the mixtures , you would get a pink that's very light in value-both mixtures are still tints of the pure hue of red.

  

A tone

is the mixture of any pure hue plus white and either gray (white plus black) or the complement of the pure hue. You can mix a tone of yellow,

for example, by adding some white and purple. The same holds for substituting gray (black and white) for the purple and white.

   
A shade 

is a mixture of any pure hue, plus the addition of either its complement or black. For example, you can mix a shade of green by adding red o black to the green paint. You can mix a shade of blue by adding orange or black to the blue paint. As you can see, whether you use complements (cross-mixing) or grays (gray mixing) to mix your tints, tones, and shades of pure hues, there are really only four types of colors you mix during the painting process.  But there are other considerations that come into play as you paint, which affect the colors you mix, including the three dimensions of color.

THREE DIMENSIONS OF COLOR

There are three dimensions to the four types of color you mix for the painting process: hue, value and intensity (or aromaticity) . While both mixing colors and painting them onto the canvas, there are adjustments to make to the four color types. A pure hue can be mixed to be warmer or cooler in hue; lighter or darker in value; and duller or brighter in intensity. These six adjustments are made as you mix or paint either on your palette, or as you work back into your painting.

Q. I'm working in soft pastels and find my edges getting too sharp and forms over modeled. How can I loosen up the edges? Is there a way to blend colors without going too smooth?

A. The fact that your forms are over- modeled and you're developing too sharp edges suggests that your basic pastel handling needs loosening up.

One surefire technique for loosening sharp edges is brushing them together with a dry, stiff, flat bristle brush. I like to use one-inch "pastry" or "basting" brushes since they seem to have the right spring.

As for a quick way to compensate for over modeling in soft pastels, try scumbling. The scumbling technique works by dragging a soft pastel directly over the problem area with only slight pressure on the pastel stick.

It lets the underlying color peek through the new layer of color, bringing more texture and interest to the problem area. Scumbling with a complementary color can invigorate your entire color scheme, but if a complementary color is too much of a jump , try feathering . It works by painting with side strokes of the same underlying color, drawn in one parallel direction.

Before you reach the point of needing to loosen over modeled edges, you might try starting with a looser approach from the outset. This means refraining from modeling or blending colors until the painting is completely blocked in. Over modeling suggests that too much attention is focused too early on individual forms, thus sacrificing a feeling for the work as a whole.

Instead, block in the entire painting rather than finishing one part at a time. A good approach to blocking in your painting is using broken color.

With this approach , you develop each area using a multiplicity of colors. This prevents you from fixating on tiny details that throw the painting's parts out of context and interfere with the overall composition.

To paint a simple still life of a red apple on a blue-and-green tablecloth, for instance, you might select three colors for each area-for the shadow and light sides of the apple and for the blue and green portions of the tablecloth.

Apply the soft pastels in patches of unblended, unmodeled color. Move over your work surface and block in all areas simultaneously and with equal treatment. Keep moving from the background, to the red apple, to the foreground, and so on. Avoid making sharp edges or doing any modeling.

As for modeling form, try to restrict the modeling to the center portion of the form, leaving the edges somewhat soft.

Strong modeling toward the central portion of a form, together with medium or soft edges, will give your work a fresh, three dimensional snap.