My red box
I keep my oils in two cabinets. Here is the red drawer. I hate running out of things while I work–it’s a mania. Painting is like taking a journey and I don’t want the journey to end prematurely. That’s one reason I have a lot of paint. I also test and review brands, brands that
Transparent earth colors
Oil paint can be profitably judged for either its covering strength or transparency. This comports with some well known bits of studio wisdom: “fat over lean,” and “thick lights, thin darks.” Covering colors, often called ‘body’ colors, hide everything beneath them. Transparent colors modify what is beneath them while leaving them visible. In watercolors, transparent
Review: Van Gogh oil paints
When I started my oil paint brand reference, I excluded ‘student grade’ brands. The distinction between student grade and other brands was based on price. Everyone understands that you get what you pay for but art supplies is one product area where the old adage is not reliable. Art supply manufacturers include some of the
Mixing paint on the palette
I never use a palette knife on my palette. To mix a tone, I plunge my brush into the paints and use the brush to mix what I need. For example, on this nearly-fresh palette, I dipped my brush into the cobalt blue–the second blue from the bottom right–and used my brush to mix it
What’s wrong with Rembrandt oils
When I was starting, my budget restricted my paint choices to the cheapest brands. When I had some extra money (haha), I’d treat myself to a tube of Rembrandt paint. Rembrandt was decidedly low-end among the professional-grade oils, but a step up from my day-to-day paints. Rembrandt oils are still at the lower end of
More RGH oils
I’ve written a lot about the small paint manufacturer RGH for several reasons. First, I always support the small suppliers who are inspired by a high view of the craft. Suppliers such as RGH and James Grove are rare. Importantly, they continue to produce the all-important lead-based paints. Also, I use their stuff in my
Turpentine diaries 1/28/18
I’ve written several times about the oil paint manufacturer RGH. No, I don’t have a relationship with them, it’s just that I use their product a lot. Their flake white is my current go-to white. They also sometimes send me free paint when I order from them, such as the jar of blue ochre on
Turpentine diaries 1/7/18
I worked on Booth at the Fair these past two days. It’s starting to move my way. I can struggle with paintings for a variety of reasons, sometimes technical, sometimes who knows what. This painting hit a groove straightaway and began to slide into place, except I didn’t want it to go that direction. Now, like