Water Mixable Oil Paints
20th March 2023
In: Art
Using oil paints is one of my development goals for 2023. The aim is being able to adapt to the subjects I want to paint which, at this moment in time, is aspects of my local landscape.
Maybe it is naivety, or a lack of patience, but when I am using watercolour, I often wonder whether the scene would be best painted in another medium. Of course, I can only make that judgement if I widen my experience, hence my goal for 2023.
I haven’t used traditional oils (with solvents) to date as my set up at home is limited but I was intrigued by water mixable oils and recently I received a set as a gift.
The Winsor and Newton basic set has warm and cool blues, red and yellows, plus green, umber, yellow ochre and white. Also included is an Artisan linseed oil part of the water mixable range.
As for the technical aspects of water mixable oils, there are lots of videos on Youtube that explain it much better than I can, but the simple version is: water can replace thinners for cleaning brushes, other than this it is like painting with traditional oil paints.
For my first attempt I selected a simple shape, an apple on a table, but got the tone all wrong. I then repainted the apple above the original with a better outcome. I am not certain the consistency of the paint was quite right, as can be seen with most of the edges. Overall though, good start, all done within an hour and easy to clean up. I will now move on to a landscape and post the results in due course.
Maybe it is naivety, or a lack of patience, but when I am using watercolour, I often wonder whether the scene would be best painted in another medium. Of course, I can only make that judgement if I widen my experience, hence my goal for 2023.
I haven’t used traditional oils (with solvents) to date as my set up at home is limited but I was intrigued by water mixable oils and recently I received a set as a gift.
The Winsor and Newton basic set has warm and cool blues, red and yellows, plus green, umber, yellow ochre and white. Also included is an Artisan linseed oil part of the water mixable range.
As for the technical aspects of water mixable oils, there are lots of videos on Youtube that explain it much better than I can, but the simple version is: water can replace thinners for cleaning brushes, other than this it is like painting with traditional oil paints.
For my first attempt I selected a simple shape, an apple on a table, but got the tone all wrong. I then repainted the apple above the original with a better outcome. I am not certain the consistency of the paint was quite right, as can be seen with most of the edges. Overall though, good start, all done within an hour and easy to clean up. I will now move on to a landscape and post the results in due course.