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wildbrush's art.to.day |
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| 2.1. - PAINTING SUPPORTS | |||
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2.1.1. - ROCK AND MUD Walls were the first supports, paintings still exist today after twenty thousand years of protection deep inside ancient caves. 2.1.2. - PAPYRUS Papyrus is soaked, pressed and dried strips of pith, it's a member of the sedge family. Papyrus was once abundant in Egypt and used by the Greeks and Romans as paper. 2.1.3. - PAPER Paper is made of wood, cotton and linen, linen is best, but cotton will do. Cotton paper is called rag 100%. The paper is glued throughout with an animal size, this is called vat sizing, and it is to be preferred. The papers I've found best are; a new paper called Twinrocker, Whatman, Strathmore, Lanaquarelle, Fabriano, Winsor & Newton, D'Arches and Waterford. They are all pH neutral, vat and surface sized. 2.1.4. - WOOD Wood is a classic support, today a good grade of plywood or masonite will do. Use 1/8 in. mahogany or birch for pictures up to 22 x 30 in. and 1/4 in. for pictures up to 3 x 4 ft., larger panels should be braced from the rear. 2.1.5. FLAX LINEN Linen makes the best and strongest canvas, today we have no hemp canvas. It used to be the strongest and best. 2.1.6. - COTTON Canvas can be used as a support, up to 3 x 4 ft. 2.1.7. - SAILCLOTH Cotton sailcloth makes an excellent canvas. 2.1.8. - HANDKERCHIEF OR AEROPLANE LINEN This linen is good for small work and can be glued to wood for larger works. 2.1.9. - FRESCO 2.1.9.1. - LIME Is the oxide of calcium (CaO), calcinated limestone or quicklime. Limestone and gypsum both heat to make plaster of Paris. Egypt made the first cement, they fired their plentiful limestone and added clean sand. This natural limestone is calcium carbonate. Burning gives off carbonic acid gas or carbon dioxide, leaving caustic lime. Add water and you make slaked lime or calcium hydroxide. This is the mural material, add silica sand or crushed marble or, as the later Italians did, add some volcanic ash. ( A good grade of volcanic ash came from Pozzuoli, it was light, fine and had rough edges). Slaking gives off heat and water, the top layer again absorbs carbonic acid gas from the air and forms a film of carbonate lime, on the top of a lime and water solution called calcium hydrate. Now, this paste calcium hydrate is neutral, or no longer caustic. Limestone that contains clay slakes very slowly. The best lime has been burnt over wood, coal would give off sulfuric acid and make gypsum, that would damage pigments. Lime plus hydraulic clay set too quickly for murals, but would work for dried secco paintings. The best lime has set for two to twenty years, after removing the top layer of crust, the calcium hydrate can be mixed with different proportions of water to form "milk of lime" and "lime wash". Clear "lime water" is made from settled milk of lime and is an excellent medium to paint on dry, set plaster or cement. Thin lime paste mixes with skim milk, casein, glue, (one percent hide glue slows drying time, 200 percent), also resin varnish and egg. They are all used in secco painting and in stucco luster, the imitation marble. The "Athos Book" (Greek-Byzantine), said to add fibrous materials as oakum, chopped rope, calves hair and straw to prevent cracking. Clay causes cracks in mortar, sand is best, granite powder should be used in the final coat or powdered limestone. 2.1.9.2. - CEMENT Is hydraulic lime, Portland Cement contains 75 percent caustic lime and 25 percent clay, the addition of sand makes concrete. 2.1.9.3. - GYPSUM Is sulphate of lime or hydrated calcium sulphate or light spar, heated, slightly burnt (calcined) gypsum is plaster of Paris. Alabaster is a granular gypsum, and kaolin clay is decomposed light spar. Heated gypsum forms a sulfur dioxide gas and sulfuric acid. Is sulphate of lime or hydrated calcium sulphate or light spar, heated, slightly burnt (calcined) gypsum is plaster of Paris. Alabaster is a granular gypsum, and kaolin clay is decomposed light spar. Heated gypsum forms a sulfur dioxide gas and sulfuric acid. 2.1.9.4. - MORTAR Is sand and lime mixed 3:1, the last layer uses a finer sand and more lime, marble meal is best. A good "secco" ceiling fresco will measure from 1/4" to 1/2" thick, let the final coat set for a day. Then, scrub off the skin of carbonate of lime and apply some lime-wash, paint onto the wet or dry lime-wash with paints ground in skim-milk casein or lime milk. Very fat lime plaster with too much lime, cracks easily. This secco paint may include lime-water, casein, glue or egg. Casein will increase the weather resistance, but will make the paint sticky while it's being applied. The total thickness of a wall fresco should be about 1 1/2" thick. Pompiian walls were 3" thick, and could be painted on for up to two weeks wet, joins went unseen if they were necessary. Here is Doerner's advice on preparing a surface for fresco. On a thoroughly wet wall, apply the roughcast, make it with 3 parts clean dry sand, mixed with one part lime. Through this on about 1/2" thick, the equalizing coat is applied when the roughcast no longer indents with finger pressure. This second coat can be slightly drier then the first, in about the same thickness, still using coarse sand. Apply all coats from the bottom up. The third coat is made with 2 parts finer sand and 1 part lime, this coating is thinner, perhaps 3/8" thick. A last coat is made of 1 part fine sand or marble meal and 1 part lime. Wet and brush the third coat with lime-wash before applying the painting layer 1/8" to 1/4" thick. Work this coat to perfection, two hours per square yard isn't too long. Vitruvius described the plaster used by the ancient Pompeians. Six coats were applied, wet on wet, the last coat was given a mirror polish with a smooth roller, They all totaled to 3" thick, skim milk was added to the pigments for additional gloss. Color's must be lime-proof, the best white is dried pit lime, wet and dried several times until it tastes neutral, or use litmus paper. This was the "bianco sangiovanni" of Cennini. Naturally this white has no binding power of its own and needs to be applied with egg or casein. Organic madder root could then be mixed in and used because the white was neutral. Yellow's were; Amberg ocher, a bright yellow that's long gone, yellow ocher, Naples yellow and native orpiment. The brown's were carefully washed iron-in-clay pigments, umber's and sienna's both raw and burnt. Red and orange's were realgar, an arsenic pigment like orpiment, magenta was madder root, painted secco with egg or casein, like the blue, lapis lazuli. It's not lapis lazuli couldn't handle the lye, but because it was such an expensive pigment, who could afford the sinking in properties of fresco. Other blues were azurite, and light and dark frit. Cobalt native made a rose color, and burning the oxide moved the hue to blue. Green's were copper green frit, malachite and amazonite. Black's were made of carbon or iron oxide, they were applied very early on, and took many coats with the addition of an agent like egg, it could easily be painted over, like any color could. The more coats, the more intense the color. One need not be afraid to run over outlines with local color, they can be easily modeled over as the support absorbs color. Highlights are added last as shadows are deepened. Only paint until the plaster begins to set, the thicker the mortar the longer the working time. Paint from light to dark to light, lights are made from thick lime putty. A lime-water damp sponge will blend large areas. If you get lime in your eyes, wash it out with sugar and skim milk. fresco should not be reworked for at least a month, apply the secco with wax-ammonia soap or casein and stipple in the additions. Dolomitic limestone sets slowly but dries hard, shortly after the fresco has set, use a glass roller to bring up a high gloss. DON'T TRY TO DO A FRESCO WITH COMMERCIAL CEMENT BECAUSE IT CONTAINS UNBURNT GYPSUM AND CLAY. |
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| 2.2. - PRIMING GROUNDS | |||
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| 2.3. - THINNERS AND ADDITIVES TO MEDIUMS | |||
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| 2.4. - CATALYST AGENTS | |||
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These catalyst agents cause a chemical change within, by its addition to a different substance. 2.4.1. - ALUM Alum is a double sulfate of aluminum and potassium. It's used to temper dried paints and grounds, making them insoluble to water, but not impervious. It will act as a mordant to set dyes and harden plaster like cement, Brown beeswax can be whitened by boiling it in alum water. 2.4.2. - AMMONIA Ammonia is a suffocating gas, compounding nitrogen and hydrogen, it is soluble in water. Ammonia is an alkaloid compound that transforms shellac and wax, making them water-soluble. When the gas escapes the dried ammonia they again become insoluble, as in "cera colla" painting (see, Wax Mediums). 2.4.3. - BORAX Borax, like alum, is an alkali, in ancient day's it was called "tin-cal", a Chinese word. Borax is found in landlocked lakes in Tibet and in the Dead Sea, where it was gathered and used in India as a textile mordant and in Egypt as a flux ingredient to make frit, an isolated copper pigment in glass. It was also used to make a water varnish from stick-lac, the alcohol based tree sap pigments could also be made water soluble in a borax solution. (more under, "LAKE MINERALS") 2.4.4. - FORMALDEHYDE Formaldehyde is a gas, usually sold in a 40 percent solution of water, called formalin, It hardens proteins and stops mold and fungus; it's also used as a preservative. |
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| 2.5. - WATER BASED MEDIUMS AND GLUES | |||
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2.5.1. - GUMS Gums are hygroscopic, they will always absorb water unless it's tempered with alum or a 4% solution of formalin; formalin is a 37% solution of formaldehyde, available at your drugstore, sometimes. Gums will emulsify with oil, balsams and resins. They are more painterly then egg emulsions alone. Here's a good recipe for a gum emulsion; 5 parts gum, 1 part stand oil or sun thickened linseed oil, 1 part dammar resin and 1 part glycerin. The glycerin will improve the brush quality and act as the preservative. 2.5.1.1. - ARABIC GUM Acacia - the best is from Africa. 2.5.1.2. - SENEGAL FRENCH It's the hardest gum and best for water colors. 2.5.1.3. - KORDOFAN An ancient gum from Sudan. 2.5.1.4. - CHERRY One of the many fruit tree gums, almond, fig, peach, apricot, plum, they are all similar and mix well with egg and casein. 2.5.1.5. - TRAGACANTH Comes from the astragalus scrub in Asia-Minor, it's used as the binder for pastels. 2.5.1.6. - SARCOLLA An ancient gum made from the astragalus sarcolla plant of Iran, it's similar to gum arabic and best for gum tempera. 2.5.1.7. - PASTE Vegetable glues are starch pastes, rice starch makes the best glues, Others are; potato starch, wheat starch and rye starch, They all can be emulsified with oil, balsams and resin. Vegetable glues give very bright gouache-like tones and have no effect on pigments. Starches set free by the addition of an alkali like ammonia become insoluble in water when dry. Vasari and Plenderleith talk of bookbinders' boiled paste. |
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2.5.4. - WATER BASED MEDIUM, EGG AND EGG TEMPERA 2.5.4.1. - EGG TEMPERA 2.5.4.1. - TEMPERA'S ARE EMULSIONS Water and oil plus the stabilizer. The first tempera's were made about 1000 A/D, first with mastic, then linseed oil. The ratio's went like this; one part egg, one part mastic or oil, OR, two parts egg, one part oil, one part mastic. More egg made it water based, more oil made it oil based. Later sun thickened oils or stand oil was used. Most liked to use Strasbourg turpentine (balsam), today we have to use Venetian turpentine because no one imports Strasbourg to the U.S. except http://www.kremer-pigmente.de/ 2.5.4.2. - OIL OVER EGG TEMPERA Van Eyck (1390-1441) became very skilled at this technique, painting in water based egg tempera, then glazing with oil and balsam, going back to tempera for details and glazing again, Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516), in his life time went from egg tempera to pure oil. Egg yolk contains albumen (water), egg oil (nondrying) and lecithin (emulsifier). Egg yolk itself is a painting medium, it bleaches white in sunlight. Mix egg and dry pigment, 1:1. Egg, unvarnished looks like gouache, it's a flat finish. Egg and egg emulsions dry hard, elastic and more resistant then oil color mediums by themselves. Oil of cloves, one drop per egg, will preserve a sealed wet egg, kept cool for one year. The icon, painted on wood was the next medium after fresco. Byzantium, after a ninth-century council had confirmed the defeat of the Iconoclasts, so it was safe to paint in the less durable egg. This style spread over Northern Europe and stayed in Russia for eight centuries. Egg without the addition of oil is called distemper, this was a preferred style from Giotto (1266-1337) to Botticelli (1444-1510), The addition of alum to the egg made it waterproof. Giotto also added cherry gum to make it more fluid, it acts as a preservative as it was slightly alkaline. The support was wood or linen primed with gypsum or chalk. The ground had to be kept very clean because the thin medium shows through colors. A poor ground could be improved by a coat of egg and lime white before painting. Sandarac (sandracca) was a good hard, final varnish. Today, dammar will do the job. Egg white is used mostly, it's called "glair medium" and was used like ink on illuminated manuscripts in the 5th century, and as a size for gold leaf. Egg white and alum make a good bodied paint medium, capable of making very opaque strokes. |
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| 2.6. - MEDIUMS: TURPENTINE AND OILS | |||
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2.6.1. - TURPENTINE Turpentine is the best thinner for oil paints. The essential oil of turpentine, is a volatile plant oil, steam distilled without pressure. Today's turpentine is very pure, there is no reason to buy double rectified artist's turpentine in the small bottles, they all dry without residue. French turpentine from the maritime pine is best. It dilutes oil colour to create thin quick drying washes in the early stages of painting. Also used to clean brushes. 2.6.1.1. - VENICE TURPENTINE Is a superior turpentine, it's from the larch tree. Strasbourg turpentine is similar and comes from the white fir, we could make this fine medium here in the United States, they do in Canada. They are not really a thin turpentine, but a thicker and undistilled balsam. They are non-yellowing and have an enamel-like effect on the painting. Rubins used it 2:1 in oil, Van Dyck used it 1:1 as an intermediate varnish with egg and oils. Reynolds used it with ammonia and wax. Some painter like it as a painting medium with cold pressed linseed oil and dammar resin, 3:2:1. It paints and glazes beautifully. 2.6.1.2. - STRASSBOURG TURPENTINE It is tapped from the silver fir tree or white fir tree and is used in Europe as the equivalent of Venice turpentine. 2.6.1.3. - BURGUNDY AND JURA TURPENTINE Those turpentines are European varieties. Similar in uses and characteristics as Venice turpentine. 2.6.2. - OLEORESIN The ancient oleoresin, is turpentine in its solid state, pitch or fused colophony, the residue from turpentine is rosin. 2.6.3. - SICCATIVES Are metal salts soluble in oil. They speed the absorption of oxygen by the fatty oils, a two percent addition to paints is all that can safely be used. The addition of dammar is a much safer practice, but that leaves you with two days drying time instead of one. Siccatives have been used for as long as mastic paints have been around, in the B.C. era. The first pigments, iron ore limonite, contained manganese seccatives. Green contained a copper resinate, sugar of lead was an early drier, it's called lead acetate. Today we use a cobalt oxide and limonite mix, to me the deep color purple is objectionable, and I would rather have the clear sugar of lead or the white calcinated stannum oxide, like the Egyptians. Even white lead oxide could be heated and sponificated clear in oil. There were mediums called malbutter and megilp, made of heated oil, wax and lead in the past that worked very well, They added a buttery character to the paint and were very popular. 2.6.4. - THE MAROGER MEDIUMS For the past two hundred years or more, dedicated and informed artists of the western world have recognized the superior oil painting achievements of the European "old masters" of the 15th through 17th centuries. Since Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), painters have lamented the loss of the secrets that made possible the virtuoso brush work, luminous glazes, controlled drying, and permanence of works by Rubens, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Titian, and so many other masters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The marvelous creations of these masters depended not only on talent and rigorous training, but also on a tradition of highly developed craft techniques which were passed from master to apprentice over many generations. Chief among these studio secrets were the oils and mediums mixed with their colors. From ancient times Linseed oil had been rejected as a painting medium because it dried slowly, darkened, and cracked. (Mastic and wax didn't. dj) The much acclaimed oil painting discovered by Jan Van Eyck (1382-1441), and the vastly improved mediums of his successors, were far more sophisticated substances. These superb mediums are available to us because of Jacques Maroger (1884-1962). (pronounced Mar-o-zhay). He kept the medium alive. In 1907 Maroger began studies with Louls Anquetin (1861-1942). Called the French 'Michelangelo' by his Impressionist compatriots, Anquetin sought the painting power of the old masters through a remarkable mastery of drawing, but his skills were stymied by the then current oil painting materials. (The wars degraded art and supplies. dj) By 1920 Maroger had turned the search toward the painting materials themselves. His growing expertise led him to a post as professor and Technical Director of Restoration at the Louve. He was elected president of the Society of Restorers of France, and Knight of the Legion of Honor for his researches. In 1948 his discoveries were published in The Secret Formulas and Techniques of the Old Masters. and he continued to enlarge his discoveries until his death. Stephen Kaldor's involvement with Maroger's teaching began at age nine as a drawing student of Anne Didusch Schuler, Maroger's first assistant and a master painter in her own right. 'As pupil of Maroger from 1950 until 1962 I participated in many trials of his reconstructed old master mediums and materials. My notes and experience with Maroger are the basis of the mediums I have been making for myself and my students since the early fifties I guarantee that they are authentic and made of top quality ingredients.' (Stephen Kaldor) 2.6.4.1. - HOW TO USE THE MAROGER MEDIUMS 2.6.4.2. - THE GROUND The ground or surface to be painted, whether the traditional white lead in linseed oil, acrylic gesso, or some other, should be permanent, nonabsorbent, and have sufficient "tooth", i.e. not slippery. A glaze of Maroger Medium and color over a white ground makes a toned surface that is very compatible for painting when dry. 2.6.4.3. - OIL COLORS They are ideally made of dry pigments freshly ground in Black Oil = If TUBE OIL COLORS are used, it is recommended that one part medium be added to each four parts of color. The exception is LEAD (FLAKE) WHITE which may be ground in raw linseed oil. 2.6.4.4. - GLAZES Glazes are mostly medium tinted with a small amount of transparent color. Some medium should be available on the palette, or in the cup, to add to colors for the feel and relative transparency the artist desires. 2.6.4.5. - A (meager) COAT OF MEDIUM Not too slippery, should be swiped on the area to be painted, unless a dry scumble is desired. 2.6.5. - BLACK OIL Is made of purified raw linseed oil cooked with lead. It may be used as a medium, a diluent in the palette cup, to grind colors from dry pigments, and it is the basis of other mediums. 2.6.6. - MASTIC VARNISH Is made of pure gum spirits of turpentine and mastic resin tears. It can be added to Black Oil for an instant Flemish type medium. Diluted slightly with turpentine, it may be used as a final picture varnish, after the oil painting has completely dried, but it will yellow. 2.6.7. - ITALIAN FORMULA MEDIUM Combines black oil with beeswax for a transparent paste which dries to a soft semigloss luster and give an opulent body to impastos. 2.6.8. - FLEMISH FORMULA MEDIUM Combines black oil with mastic tears, pure gum spirits of turpentine, and beeswax for a transparent gel medium. Colors have more intensely and a rich gloss finish. 2.6.9. E'TUDE FORMULA MEDIUM Is a sketching or student medium which is made like the Italian Formula but of less refined oil and is slightly faster drying. All of the formulas have similarly agreeable handling qualities and may be Intermixed wet, but alternate layering is not recommended. |
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| 2.6.10. - DRYING OILS | |||
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Theophilus Presbyter, the monk of Paderborn, [1200 A.D] wrote on oils and pigments, he knew back then that cold pressed linseed oil was good, He said the best linseed oil was from the Baltic Sea area, and freezing oil and snow together for a week was a great purifier, then sun dry the oil in a. container 1/2" high, covered, for long enough for the oil to become thick. Cennini called this the best of all oils. 2.6.10.1. - LINSEED STAND OIL Is linseed oil boiled with carbonic acid, it dries very slowly, doesn't yellow, and is very sticky to paint with. Turpentine must be constantly be added to keep it flowing, linseed oil will keep it from being sticky. It was known of and used early in the 15th century. It can't be used alone with a drier, because it separates the paint and it looks like a sponge print. It reduces the consistancy of oil colour and enhances flow. It is viscous and dries slowly to a tough elastic film. Linseed Stand Oil is faster drying than pure Linseed Oil and it reduces brush marks. 2.6.10.2. - PURIFIED LINSEED OIL Reduces the consistency of oil colour and slows down drying time. In its raw state, it gives colour a high gloss. Diluted 50/50 with Turpentine or Low Odour Thinners, it creates an excellent medium for most types of painting 2.6.10.3. - COLDPRESSED LINSEED OIL 2.6.10.4. - STEAM-PRESSED LINSEED OIL 2.6.10.5. - SUN-THICKENED LINSEED OIL 2.6.10.6. - WASHED LINSEED OIL 2.6.10.7. - OTHER FORMS OF LINSEED OIL 2.6.10.8. - NUT OIL Was recommended by Heraclius and Theophilus, Leonardo liked it because it didn't yellow as much as linseed oil, Durer and Van Eyck used it in the 1400's. It was used all through the high renaissance in Italy, the greatest artists that ever lived used it and preferred it over all others. (Get it at http://www.kremer-pigmente.de/.) It should be lighter then most linseed oils. Nut oil is pressed from the seeds of ripe but not brown walnuts. It was also recommended by Vasari, Borghini, Lornazzo, Armenini, Bisagno, Volpato, etc., as late as De Mayerne and even later. No doubt nut oil was more popular then, than now. Storage was the problem then, not so today. 2.6.10.9. - WALNUT OIL 2.6.10.10. - POPPY OIL Is a slow drying oil that seldom yellows, it will stay wet for ten days and wrinkles less then linseed oil. Poppy oil is pressed from the seeds of the white poppy, its major use is in the processing of tube oil color's. 2.6.10.11. - PURIFIED POPPY OIL A clear oil medium to mix with and reduce white and lighter colours. Less inclined to yellow than Linseed Oil, but slower drying. Enhances gloss and flow, but too high a proportion retards through-drying of colour. 2.6.10.12. - CASTOR OIL Has its place with lacs and spirit paints, adding 5% to shellac will make it pliable and remove the brittle quality. 2.6.10.13. - LAVENDER OIL Comes from the flowers of the lavender plant, spike oil, from the whole plant. Lavender oil is preferred, both dissolve mastic, sandarac (sandracca), and shellac and were used since ancient times. 2.6.10.14. - LIGHT DRYING OIL Accelerates drying and produces a harder film than Poppy Oil or Linseed Oil. Contains lead oxide driers, liable to darken with age. 2.6.10.15. - OIL OF CLOVES Is the slowest drying oil of all, how about a month and a half. Portrait painters find it useful, the slow one's. 2.6.10.16. - SOYABEAN OIL 2.6.10.17. - TUNG OIL 2.6.10.18. - SAFFLOWER OIL 2.6.11. - SEMIDRYING OILS 2.6.12. - NONDRYING OILS 2.6.13. - COPAIA BALSAM A sticky balsam. It comes from several types of Sout American trees from the genus 'Copaifera'. A slow-drying oleoresin and a poor additive for oil painting mediums, which dry slowly enough. Some oil painting restorers contain it, to increase the refraction index of dryed-out looking old oil paint films and to improve temporarily the appearance of the film. Also oil and resin redissolve the lower layers and really slide the paint around. 2.6.14. - DAMMAR, CHIOS or LAVANTINE, COPALS (Brazilian, Manila, Borneo), SHELLAC, and the Ancient OLEORESIN Are soft resins, dammar (sometimes: dammar) makes the best natural picture varnish for wax and mastic painting, it's the hardest. Resin and balsams keep oils from wrinkling and forming a skin. Any resin or balsam added to oil paints permit painting layers in rapid succession, before the lower coat is dry. Oil paint without resin or balsam must be completely dry before a second coat is applied, or it may chip off. Because the lower level will continue to shrink at a different rate. Linseed oil by itself is a poor binder. 2.6.15. - SUCCINITE AMBER, HARD COPALS Are hard resins. Don't use them as a varnish, they are too hard to remove, they also crack and yellow. 2.6.16. - COPAL One of the best Copal resin you can get is made by Garrett. Ron Garrett, copal@3lefties.com. 2.6.17. - AMBER Resin is very hard fossil resin, it can cause cracks over some soft paints and darkens in time, Don't bother with it. 2.6.18. - WAX MEDIUMS There are two kinds of wax, those from the animal itself are called tallow's, we don't use them in the art's. The second type is from the insect's nest, this is very valuable to us and has been used in turpentine based paints, water based paints and by itself since ancient times. Ancient Greece had a mountain 3370' high that was famous for honey and beeswax, it was called Hymettus. Etrusca used wax and mastic paints in 500 B.C., the Minoan's in 700 B.C. and the Egyptians even earlier. It was their easel and wall media beside buon and secco fresco, they mixed ammonia with it or turpentine, or turpentine and mastic. Old brown wax can be whitened by just leaving thin strips in the sun, or by melting and cooling it in alum water. The second nest wax comes from the Indian lac producing insect, the laccifer lacca. It's softer and not as useful in painting, but very good in batik tapestry, they did a lot of dying in India. The third nest wax is from a Chinese insect and it meltshotter then beeswax, so it's a good substitute. This insect is cultivated on two different trees with human assistance. Wax dissolves in turpentine, mastic, balsam and oils, but not water or alcohol. It's non-yellowing and forms an emulsion in lyes. The Greeks and Romans stored their pigments in small covered containers and called them "waxes", pigments in wax and mastic. Add a little turpentine with your brush and paint away! These ancients were pretty clever also. They painted with pure melted encaustic wax and pigment too, this was probably the wax Pliny talked about, the punic or eleodoric wax. Three times melted and cured in salt water, when this wax was applied on stone for decoration, it was called "ganosis". Traces of this wax are found on Egyptian sculptures and tombs as far back as 2500 B.C. The early Greeks, before the "Dark Ages", around 500 B.C., were fond of decorating their statues and the friezes of buildings, and probably a lot more places that were not so protected from twenty five hundred years of weather. Traces of wax were found on the Trojan Column in Rome. --------all the waxes here 2.6.18.2. - AMMONIA AND WAX Ammonia, NH3, is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, a water soluble gas. Ammoniac, a salt and gum found in the Qattara Depression 200 miles East of Memphis, Egypt. Ammoniac is the remains of a long extinct insect that lived in the area. Ammonium, is the Egyptian city founded about 500 B.C., as a shrine to their god Ammon. Ammonium is also NH4, a radical that plays the part of a metal in the compound formed when ammonia reacts with acids, ammonium salts are alkali. Ammonium hydroxide, basic NH4OH is a weak alkali. Carbonate, a salt of carbonic acid, as calcium carbonate or ammonium carbonate, made by mixing the ammonium alkali with carbonic acid. H2C03 is formed when carbon dioxide dissolves in water. Ammonium carbonate or ammonium hydroxide (common ammonia water), can be mixed with white beeswax 1:2 and boiled until the effervescence stops, stir the mix until it's cool. This will be a water soluble wax soap emulsion that will mix with casein, gum, glue, egg, gelatin, turpentine, resin, balsam, shellac or oil. The volatile ammonia alkali dissipates and the soap dries insoluble to water, like it was before you started. Put a cap on the container and it will store for a very long time. Grind your store bought dry pigments into it as you need them. Giotto added a little cherry gum to the mix and the Byzantine's added a little "milk of fig". This is the ancient "cera colla' paint of the Dark Ages. One attributed the discovery of cera colla to Egypt and their god Ammon not to Byzantium. Potassium carbonate or caustic lye soda, is obtained in the impure form from wood ashes, potash (+IUM), are all the same alkali. It will emulsify wax, but will remain soluble in water, or hygroscopic. 2.6.18. - ACRYLIC RESIN Can be made hard or soft, the artist gets the soft, the furniture industry makes a hard varnish that is water soluble. |
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| 2.7. CASEIN TEMPERA EMULSION | |||
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There are two types of casein tempera paints, both very strong glues,
casein with lime is so strong that if it's not diluted very thin with 5
parts water, it could pull an old thin coat of plaster off a lower coat.
Casein sets quickly, mat, and transparent, all of the pigment is
exposed, making a very luminous surface. Use only pigments that can
stand up to lye, vegetable dyes will bleach out. Casein should be
prepared fresh daily, in small quantities instead of depending on
preservatives which effect there painting qualities. Lime combines with
casein to make a weatherproof mural paint. Start with fresh skim milk curd and add four times as much slaked lime to make a paste. This is the glue the wood workers use on furniture. This is also the casein lime medium, mix the pigments in some thin paste to paint with. Casein medium will emulsify egg, mastic, balsam and wax soap. Oil will emulsify also but will quickly turn yellow, stand oil is better suited. Casein powder is available in two types, pure dried curd, which is insoluble in water but is soluble in ammonia and mono ammonium caseinate, which will dissolve in water. If it chunks up because it's old, add some ammonia. It doesn't take much ammonia water to dissolve either fresh curd or the powdered pure curd, soak the pure powdered curd for a few hours before adding the ammonia, 1/5 its volume over moderate heat will cause the effervescent reaction. When the reaction resides the casein will be in a colloidal state, stir it until it's cool. Casein is still strong when it's water thin. Thin a shellac size to apply an intermediate sealing coat to a casein painting or it will soak up an oil glaze like a blotter. Casein and lead mix well together, combining this white with an oil white makes a fast drying white for water or oil, whichever has the higher concentration. Copper colors turn blue in ammonia. |
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| 2.8. MEDIUMS: ALCOHOL BASED | |||
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2.8.1. SANDARAC or SANDRACCA Sandarac (sandracca) is a coniferous resin from the Alerce Tree of Morocco, it was probably the first permanent paint, it's a hard resin. "Sandracca" as it was called in ancient times, was the term used for paint itself. It's soluble in alcohol and oil of spike, and can be made fluid with castor oil. Sandracca was used as the intermediate and final varnish over tempera paintings at the time of Giotto, and as a medium by itself. Because it was harder, it was actually a superior paint than the softer mastic's or oil's, but the people liked all the combinations possible with a turpentine based paint better. Sandracca does not mix or adhere to oil, so it lost the final battle in the paint wars during the Dark Ages. It did have some early victories though, a major one was back before 1000 B.C. The Phoenician's painted their ships of commerce with sandracca (sandarac), castor oil and red lead, all available on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules, or Strait of Gibraltar. Just across from their city-state of Gades, in Iberia, or Farther Spain, as it was later called. Phoenicia at that time was the third largest land holding state in the Mediterranean. It was really part of the second largest, the Assyrian Empire, that included Egypt and the whole Tigris-Euphrates Valley down to the Persian gulf. This was a nation of sea travelers that covered the known world. They brought tin down from England because Egypt was mined out, indigo from India was a world seller. China showed England what could be done with porcelain, and how black a textile dye could be. Castor oil was another great battle won by sandracca (sandarac). Here's the story as Homer told it back in 1000 B.C. The mighty Zeus had taken the shape of a swan and had a blue egg with his daughter Leda, a very beautiful goddess. Out of this blue egg were born Pollux and Helen, the most beautiful goddess in the world, she had a mighty fighter for a brother. Leda had another egg with another man, King Tyndereus, and had another set of twins, Castor and Clytemnestra, who were both mortals. Well Castor and Pollux had great times together fighting this war and that, till they both got killed one day. Zeus allowed Pollux to share his immortal being with his brother, spending half their time on Olympus and half the time in Hade's realm. Now there are two bright stars in the heavens to remind us that Sandracca (sandarac) was once "King of Paint". 2.8.2. STICK-LAC Stick-lac, shellac or lac as it is sometimes called, is another alcohol based paint that got shot out of the saddle. It was India's favorite son. Gathered with care from the branches of a tree that housed their lacquer secreting insect, the Laccifer Lacca. They traded their wool and dyes in Tibet for borax and mixed it with water and stick-lac to make what we call today, water varnish. Yesterday I mixed it with ammonia and made a water paint that dried insoluble to water. India had some great lacquer colors also, ruby red "dragon's blood" was the sap of a tree from Singapore, dammar varnish comes from there also. Dammar means "torch" in Malaysian. Another sap, alcohol based paint was "Gamboge" from Thailand and "Karmes". 2.8.3. LACQUER Japan has a lacquer tree called the Rhus Verniciflua, it was used to produced the famous Chinese "Ning-Po Lacquered Boxes" that the French loved so well, they traded their lavender perfumes and called the boxes "cloisonne". 2.8.4. LAC AND DYES Indian Stick-lac could also be made from the secretion of the "coccus laccae" insect that lives in the bark of the Ficus tree, it's often called shellac, it can be made water soluble by adding an alkali, than its called water-shellac. 2.8.5. RED SHELLAC Is from East India, the red is the dye, removed by boiling in water. White shellac is made by adding potash lye or borax, as a red pigment the dye is precipitated on a clay base. It will work on dry lime, not wet, and in all other mediums. The mordant, fixes the coloring matter, alum is the most common. Tin oxides lighten the color toward yellow, as on the English Army coats of the 16th century. Cochineal and tin made vermilion, alum would have made a more crimson color. Iron is a mordant used for dark brown and black, zinc works for yellow. |
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| 3. VARNISHES | |||
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3.1. - RETOUCHING VARNISH This versatile varnish is used to bring back the original paint quality of dry or dull oil. Retouching Varnish is reduced with solvents and is much thinner than final top coat varnish. It can be used however, as a preliminary varnish as soon as the oil paint is touch dry, since oil paint can continue to dry out through the film. This may be useful for varnishing before an exhibition. Retouching Varnish can be removed with Turpentine or White Spirit prior to final varnishing, or it can be left underneath. 3.2. - CLEAR PICTURE VARNISH A removable picture varnish for a clear even gloss, which will not yellow or bloom. When applied lightly by aerosol it makes an excellent Retouching Varnish. May be used on both oil and acrylic paintings. 3.3. - MATT VARNISH A removable varnish that dries to a matt finish. It can be mixed with clear Picture Varnish to give a range of semi-gloss surfaces. It is non-yellowing. Removable with Turpentine or White Spirit, and can be used to varnish oils, acrylics or alkyd paintings. 3.4. - DAMAR VARNISH A removable picture varnish. When applied thinly will give a low gloss. Damar dries hard and clear within a few hours. Removable with Turpentine or White Spirit. |
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| 4. MAKING YOUR OWN OIL MEDIUMS | |||
| ( at the moment under construction ) | |||
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| 5. TRANSPARENT COLORS | |||
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• YELLOW. Imperial yellow is from the flowers of the "sophora japonica", it contains flavonal quercetin, similar to the famous Indian Yellow, both had staying power and were a golden-yellow color when used full strength. Yellow wood sap from the sumac tree, "rhus cotinus" works, flavone also occurs in vines of weld, from Northern India. Four other sources of transparent yellow are; safflower and saffron, the root of the "curcuma tinclora" and the husks of pomegranate with carbonate of zinc. • ORANGE. Henna "lawsona alba". • RED. Cochineal, ground female "coccus cacti" insect, originally from Central America, imported to Morocco. Soluble in ammonia. The coloring matter is carminic acid, an anthraquinone derivative. Today nobody makes this hue, or Indian Yellow Transparent. Karmes Scarlet is the oldest Magenta color, made from an insect found on the oak tree, it secrets an alcohol based lac and is found all over Europe. Madder root from the "rubia tinctoria" red to brown found from Anatolia to Persia. India and China use the "rubia cordifolia", which is a cooler magenta color. India exported madder, indigo, weld and Indian Yellow. Brazilwood, named the country, it's clear in wood and boiling it makes a magenta dye. To change the dye to red, you use a tin mordant, Brazilwood dye comes from the local "caesalpinia" tree. Logwood, from the "haematoxylon" tree makes hematin, boiled, it turns violet to blue-black. • BLUE. Grown in India, the "Indiagofera tinctoria" thrives in the tropical climate, the active ingredient is found in the leaves, an indol derivative is fermented from a sugar, this precipitation is insoluble in water. Alkalis dissolve it and form the sodium salt indigo white, which oxidizes into many shades of blue. Aniline blue has the same chemical composition and replaced it in 1870. This blue was the most important color in Chinese rugs. |
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| 6. COLOR FOR CARPET MATERIALS | |||
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• JUTE. Is the cheapest and most used vegetable fiber. Hemp is next. • FLAX LINEN. Was an Egyptian crop, so it was not used much in carpets. • COTTON. Was grown in Egypt, India and China. Wool and fur were Tibetan, the best from Kansu. • SILK. Started in China about 2640 B.C., then Japan and India. Silk has an affinity toward metallic salts as mordants, tin phosphate and tin silicate are the most common. Black silk uses an iron mordant. |
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| 7. COLOR OF CALCINED ELEMENTS IN GLAZES: | |||
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1. |
Antimony = Naples Yellow | ||
| 2. | Cadmium = Yellow, Orange, Red | ||
| 3. |
Chrome Green = Green Chrome + Alumina = Transparent Corumdum Red Chrome + Cobalt = Blue/Green Chrome + Tin = Pink (light Magenta) Chrome + Tin + Silica = Red Chrome + Tin + Calcium = Red, Magenta, Violet Chrome = Tin +Tin + Cobalt = Ultramarine Blue, Purple, Violet |
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| 4. |
Chromium
= Green Opaque Chromium + Iron + Manganese = Black Chromium Trivalent = Green Chromium Hexavalent = Yellow |
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| 5. |
Cobalt
= Azure Blue Cobalt = Uranium = Green Cobalt + Zinc = Ultramarine Blue Cobalt + Chromium + Manganese = Black |
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| 6. |
Copper
= Green, Turquoise, Red, Ruby Red Violet Copper Oxide = Green Copper Oxide + Zinc = Brilliant Green |
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| 7. |
Ferric
Oxide Lead Silicate = Yellow Iron = Green, Yellow, Orange, Red, Brown, Black, Cyan, Ultramarine Blue Iron Oxide = Opaque Red |
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| 8. | Gold = Magenta | ||
| 9. |
Lead =
Yellow Lead + Chromate = Red Litharge = Red Minium (Roman) |
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| 10. |
Divalent
Manganese = Yellow to Brown Manganese = Brown, Red, Magenta, Violet, Purple |
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| 11. | Magnetite = Black | ||
| 12. | Molybdenum = Smokey Gray to Blue | ||
| 13. |
Nickle
= Gray, Blue, Purple, Green , Yellow, Brown Nickle Oxide = Slate Blue Gray |
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| 14. | Potassium Oxide = Yellow Green | ||
| 15. | Platinum = Silver | ||
| 16. |
Silver
= Dull Silver Silver Chloride = Yellow Side Silver |
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| 17. |
Selenium
+ Cadmium + Sulphur = Red Selenium + Cadmium = Orange Selenium + Sulphur = Yellow |
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| 18. | Salt fires Glossie | ||
| 19. |
Tin
= White Tin + Chrome = Crimson Tin + Vanadium = Yellow |
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| 20. | Titanium = Opaques | ||
| 21. | Uranium = Red, Black | ||
| 22. | Vanadium = Emerald Green, Yellow Green, Yellow, Orange, Red, Brown | ||
| 23. |
Zirconia
= Pink, Magenta Zirconium + Vanadium = Cyan, Turquoise |
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| 24. | Clay = Glossie Red Oxide (Terra Sigillata, Roman) | ||
| 25. |
Clay
= Black (Terra Nigra, Roman) |
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