Water-soluble oil paints, meduim L & medium W

Hello friends, as you may have noticed on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, I am experimenting with oil colors and two oil mediums. I have two sorts of oil paints. First are normal oil paints (Norma von Schmincke) and second are water-soluble oil paints (Berlin by Lukas).

What bothered me about the oil painting so far was the odor of the thinner. Yes, there are also odorless thinner, but I’m just not sure if there is something escapes but we just do not smell.

At first I got the medium W from Schmincke. With this medium you can make normal oil paints water miscible. This makes it extremely easy to clean the brush at the end. But you can also clean the brush without the stuff and only with soap and water. Unfortunately, I have already disposed of my tests with this medium. The paint dries just as slowly (maybe an idea faster) as with without this medium. It is liquid and thus simplifies the application of thick colors.

In addition to the medium W, I also got water-soluble oil paints from Lukas. These can be as the name says dilute with water from the beginning. Here I have a small test painting directly (without primer) on watercolor paper (100% cotton) painted.

Ölgemälde Marienkäfer

You should not mix in too much water, otherwise you will not be able to blur it well, at least on watercolor paper. The drying time was here because the oil drawn into the paper is 1.5 weeks. Personally, that’s too long for me.

On a short holiday trip in my homeland I found the medium L by chance in a craft shop. This is a gelatinous medium which promises faster drying times. At least it does not smell like thinner but it has a slight smell. If you put a little on the palette with the paint knife and work it mechanically, it becomes liquid in connection with the oil paint and it gives off a slight smell. As a precaution I opened the windows. On the safety sheet of Schmincke stands mouth and face protection wear. In various YouTube videos by Schmincke himself no one carres about protection with this medium.

My test painting I did in my sketchbook. I protected the paper with a layer of white gesso (also from Schmincke). It would be better to do two layers of gesso, because in two places, the layer was not thick enough and the oil is bled. I then taped these places from the back with a package tape to not contaminate the following page.

Ölgemälde Marienkäfer Skizzenbuch

How to paint it you can see here:

In the video I say, that I hope it is dry in 2-3 days. And yes, it was actually dry enough to turn the page after 3 days. Wonderful. And the fact that the gesso prevents leakage the great shine stays on top.

My last test (which I regret) is only the water-soluble paints without medium in the sketchbook. I did the test 2 days ago on 2 coats of coarsely painted gesso. It is still wet. I can not use my sketchbook yet. What annoys me a lot, because I would like to continue to fill the sketchbook to finally be able to start my new Leuchtturm1917 sketchbook.

Ölgemälde Meer

It has worked well, even without medium and thus thicker consistency. I enjoy the rough strukture from the gesso. But I hope that I do not have to wait too long till it is dry. Actually, I wanted to paint waves on it, but then it will dry for ages again. Or I mix the medium L into the waves. Time will tell.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Bye

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