Page 21 - Artist Materials Advisor

There are many misconceptions about historical pigments and their relative toxicity, compatibility, lightfastness, and consistency in oil paint. At Natural Pigments, we try to clarify the issues and educate artists as to the facts about historical pigments through the extensive product information found on the Natural Pigments website...

This traditional method of preparing canvas supports for oil painting uses rabbit skin size (animal collagen glue) and oil ground. Herein briefly is the process of preparing a picture canvas for oil painting...

To prepare grounds for metalpoint or silverpoint drawing technique, you will need a rigid support. Select a heavy, smooth-surfaced paper, paperboard, parchment, or wood panels, such as plywood or hardboard. Paper with a rough texture or smooth glossy surface is undesirable for silverpoint and metalpoint drawing...

Many vegetable drying oils have been available to the coatings industry for nearly a century. Still, they have not been made available to artists working on oil painting or, in many cases, are mainly unknown to artists today. This may be due to the lack of information published about these oils in artists' manuals and not taught in art schools. This article introduces the many different drying oils (in this case, these are all derived from flaxseed) available to the industry and now to artists through Natural Pigments...

Here are some gilding tips and tricks that save you lots of time and trouble. Most of these tips apply to gilding on parchment, but many readily apply to gilding on paintings...

Richard Symonds (1617–1660) was an English royalist, antiquary, and amateur artist who is now remembered for his eyewitness diary of events of the First English Civil War. His Italian notebooks are an important resource for painting techniques of the 17th century...

Why hand mull pigments into paint? Two primary reasons for doing so are to break down agglomerates of pigment particles and disperse pigments into the paint evenly. Most artists know the need to mix pigment with a binding medium smoothly. Still, few know how breaking agglomerations of pigment particles can also improve the saturation of the paint color. Fewer still know about the possibilities that grinding pigments afford for altering the visual appearance of pigment in paint...

Silverpoint is rarely used today except by a few persons who take an interest in traditional artists' materials, yet it was a favorite technique of the old masters. The disuse of silverpoint, after graphite sticks came into use during the 17th century, is one of the most curious details of technical art history. It is peculiar that an instrument once used by the most famous artists who ever drew on paper should have come to be neglected and despised by their successors...

The reverse side of the wood and stretched fabric (canvas) supports need protection from moisture and changes in relative humidity. A method described in a Canadian Conservation Institute Note and other conservation articles describes materials that artists can employ to protect their own work...

At least one artists' materials manufacturer uses 'nanospheres' as an ingredient in some of their oil paint. What are these scrumptious-sounding little globes, and what do they do to the paint? The term 'nanospheres' is not typically used in the industry to designate fumed silica but appears to be a term coined by some companies to obscure the actual ingredients. Indeed, the term sounds more enticing than fumed silica and plays well with the idea of the optical properties of paint...