Pastoral

Up until recently I used Liquin as my oil painting medium. It had many advantages, like quick drying, but what I liked most was the lack of the ‘greasy’ effect caused by the oils like Linseed.  As a result, any reference to Liquin in the forums I visit, always grabs my attention. I still have suspicions that its not the miracle medium to solve all my oil painting problems. I have come to the conclusion that only time will tell if it is a safe replacement for the standard oils.

The time honoured rule of ‘fat over lean’ works well with standard oils. This translates as the final layers of paint having a higher oil content and therefore are more flexible sitting on the less flexible foundation. Also, the under layers dry quicker so you don’t end up with a skin of dry paint over a wet under layer.

Introduce Liquin and the old rules no longer apply especially if some paint layers have Liquin and others oil. Liquin as an under layer dries quickly like the ‘lean’ but in its dry state is more flexible than the equivalent oil. Used in final layers it will eventually be more flexible than oil based under layers but will dry so quickly it will seal off any oil layers underneath and restrict its drying. I can see why Windsor & Newton recommend not using the different mediums in a painting.

For a long time I put a few drops of Liquin into Linseed Oil and mixed them well together. This would seem to be a safe way of using Liquin and oils in the same painting as the effect of the Liquin is applied uniformly.

My current working method does not have any of these issues. Firstly, I don’t use any medium at all, and secondly, I paint in a single layer, or alls prima, as its called. Be careful if you paint in distinct layers. If Liquin is used with other mediums I would make up a batch of the mix, enough for the entire painting, and use it from first layer to last, applying the ‘fat over lean’ rule. Also, if the paint is required to flow, use solvent not medium to thin it.

Here is the video of the painting process. See you soon.