Media Table of Mixed Oil, Resin and Balsam

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MEDIA TABLE OF MIXED OIL, RESIN AND BALSAM
by Don Jusko from my notes.

% Stand Oil	Sun Thicken Linseed Oil	Cold Pressed Linseed Oil	Balsam	Resin	Turpentine	Dorland's or Beeswax	2% Drier, 5 drops per 2.5 oz.	Marks, Comments
1 part Stand Oil	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	Wrinkles and skins, add: turp, raw cold pressed, or mastic.
1 part Stand Oil	.	1/4 part Cold Pressed Linseed Oil	.	.	needs no turpentine.	.	No drier. Three days dry.	A
1 part Stand Oil	1 part Sun Thickened Linseed Oil	.	.	.	.	1/4 part, Dorland's Wax	dry in 24 hours	A+
1 part Stand Oil	3/4 part Sun Thickened Linseed Oil	1/4 part, Raw Cold Pressed Linseed Oil	.	.	1/8 part Turpentine	1/8 part Wax	2% drier	No tack, smooth blend, nice. My current medium until I use it up. A+
1 part Stand Oil	1/2 part, Sun Dried linseed Oil	1/2 part Raw Cold Linseed oil	.	.	.	1/8 part Wax	Add 2% Cobalt Drier to dry in 18 hours or Fifth day light tack.	A+ I used this formula for all my 1995 paintings. Sun dried linseed oil settles strokes.
1 part Stand Oil,	.	1/2 part Raw Cold Pressed Linseed Oil,	1/2 part Venetian Balsam,	.	1/4 part Turpentine,	1/8 part Wax,	2% Drier.	Maybe the best medium. A+
1 part Stand Oil	1/4 part Sun Dried Linseed Oil	1/4 part Cold Pressed Linseed Oil	1/2 part Venetian	.	.	.	.	A beautiful balanced paint and glaze. A+
1 part Stand Oil	.	.	1 part Venetian Balsam	.	The turpentine evaporates quickly and needs constant replenishing,	.	No drier, tacky 8 days. Cobalt Drier 2% dry in 12 hours.	This mix has an edge bleeding problem. A-
1 part Stand Oil	.	.	1/2 part Venetian	.	.	.	.	A little edge bleeding, some pick up. B
1 part Stand Oil	.	.	1/4 part Venetian	.	.	.	.	More pick up, wet 16 hours. C
1 part Stand Oil	.	.	.	1/5 part Dammar	.	1/4 part Wax	.	Stayed thick, doubled paint. A+
.	.	1 part Cold Pressed Linseed Oil	Adding Venetian Balsam makes a great blending glaze.	.	Turpentine isn't needed to thin it out. Nice glaze with turpentine.	.	Three days dry. The drier is always optional.	An all round good medium used by itself. Cold pressed oil adds slippery to Stand Oil. It has no flow out problem. A
.	1 part Sun Dried Linseed Oil	1 part Cold Pressed Oil	1/2 part Venetian	.	1/4 part Turpentine	.	2% Cobalt Drier optional.	A+
.	.	.	.	3/4 part Dammar	.	1/4 part Wax	.	Smooth and shows brush strokes, very painterly. Resolvable with turpentine. Best medium for indoor murals. A+
Alkyd oil, Linseed, Walnut and others It's made of long oil, modified alkyd resin.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	Alkyd oils alone are fast drying and have no solvent action on dried layers. They are very sticky and dry hard, maybe brittle. A+

Turpentine in paint gives the most control but removes body.

Linseed Oil wrinkles and skins by itself, it has no solvent action and no adhesion qualities. It failed my windshield test miserably.
Linseed Oil yellows, layers must be dry between coats or they can chip off.
Half Oil = Stand Oil 50%, Turpentine 50%. A+ medium.
Boiled Oil = 200 degrees C for several hours, no siccatives (an old technique to speed drying) Yellows more than sun dried oil.
Sun Thickened Linseed Oil = 1/8 inch or less deep, three sunny days in a shallow lead pan. Good adhesion, 30 hour dry.

Alkyd Oil Paint
Alkyd is fast drying, has no solvent action on dried layers. It's made of long oil, modified alkyd resin. Alkyd resins are sticky and have no problem adhering to under layers.

Resin Mastic Paint
Oil-less paint. Mastic and turpentine dissolves and redissolves itself so it's joined layers are a compleat film. Mix it with up to 50% bees wax. A+.
Bees wax emulsified with ammonia is called cera colla is water based paint, it doesn't yellow as the Egyptian Grave Paintings show.

When making a big blend of sky and water-
Stand Oil 1 part, Cold Pressed Linseed Oil 2/5 part, Wax 1/5 part, damar 1/10 part, = Stays very wet, very good blending, smooth and workable, no drier 2 1/2 days wet. Work and pickup with Turpentine, glazes well.

Cobalt Drier 2% solution = dipping the palette knife 1/8 inch into the drier and mixing it with 1/4 inch of paint. Or when making a 2 1/2 oz. bottle of medium, add 5 drops drier, dries in 12 to 15 hours. Four drops dries in 20 hours.

Damar and Venice turpentine are both self flowing.
Damar by itself takes 2 days to dry.
Damar dries differently than Oil, the whole paint film dries and dissolves as one, this is called solvent action.
Damar and wax = A+, non-yellowing.
Damar and Wax and turpentine make a juicy soupier medium. Very painterly - smooth easy blend.
This has a big loose technique to change and change again - fast setting to over paint easily - Matt finish. Adds control to solvent action. Fast juicy strokes cover 100%, damar gives wax the smooth slippery soupier stroke and allows the buildup. Wax increases solvency, too much Wax dissolves and lifts under-strokes quickly. Wax will dry-brush without drag. Turpentine keeps the soup flowing - dry in two days. Add Cobalt Drier to dry in 12-15 hours. Damar dries faster without Wax. More damar gives more gloss. A+
Turpentine and Chios resin together are as old as Sandraca "B.C." Wax was added in the early A/D. It's smooth and shows brush strokes in a painterly way. Roman Wax Cakes were made like this. It's easy to pickup when you want to lift an under coat. Best for mural work, permanent and not as yellowing as oil.

Wax and paint, 50/50, strokes just slide along, no grab or bite, dry two days, non yellowing. B

Melt the wax in a double boiler or a pan in the center of a another pan of water. This will keep the wax from getting too hot and smoking or catching fire. Heat turpintine the same way and mix them 50-50. This covered mix will never harden so much that it won't break down farther with oil or damar with turp. This basic mix is used in Morogers, wax and damar and wax and oil media. I made up my basic mix over ten years ago and still have it, 2-5-7.
Wax and turpentine, no drier, dry 4 days.
Wax, turpentine and Cobalt drier, dry in 12 hours.
Wax and damar, no drier, dry in 30 hours without drier. A+
Wax and Venetian turpentine, no drier, too slippery, wet 8 days.

Cold Pressed Linseed oil, dry in 3 days, good alone.
Cold Pressed Linseed Oil and Cobalt Drier, dry in 12 hours.
Cold Pressed Linseed Oil - down to earth good painting medium - slippery - adds slippery to Stand Oil - no flow out - no turpentine needed - nice glaze with turpentine. Three days dry. A
Cold Pressed Linseed Oil 1 part, damar 1 part, adds bite to the oil - adds self flow to oil - needs wax - Three days dry. B+

Sun Dried Linseed Oil and Turpentine, very smooth for a long time, strokes and marks fall out. It breaks down quickly with turpentine and will run. Dry in 2 days, more then 24 hours.
Sun Dried Linseed Oil and Stand Oil paints too slippery.
Sun Dried Linseed Oil 1 part, Cold Pressed Oil 1 part, Venetian 1/2 part, Turpentine 1/4 part, 2% Cobalt Drier. A+

Stand Oil does yellow, less than cold pressed linseed oil.
Stand Oil and Turpentine, no drier, dry in 5 days.
Stand Oil and Cobalt Drier, dry 24 hours, wrinkled skin.
Stand oil by itself dries with wrinkled skin, you must add mastic or cold pressed oil.
Stand oil crawls with cobalt drier.
Stand Oil - too thick to work with, greasy and self flowing - lifts under stroke - four day dry.
Stand Oil and turpentine, dissolve the stand Oil to a consistency thicker than Raw Linseed but thinner than Sun dried. Sets very rapidly, dissolves layers quickly, lifts under layer and it is difficult to maintain painting consistency with just turpentine.
Stand Oil and turpentine, smooth - blendable - strokes flow out by themselves in an uncontrolled manner - Bleed over - needs Linseed Oil - two day dry.
Stand Oil 1 part, Cold Pressed Linseed Oil 1/4 part, needs no turpentine. No drier. Three days dry. A
Stand Oil 1 part, Cold Pressed Linseed Oil 3/8 part, Wax 1/4 part, damar 1/10 part = Stayed thick, doubled paint. A+
Stand Oil 1 part, Venetian 1/2 part, Sun Dried Linseed Oil 1/4 part, Cold Pressed Linseed Oil 1/4 part, A beautiful balanced paint and glaze. A+
Stand Oil 1 part, Sun Dried Linseed Oil 3/4, Cold Pressed Linseed Oil 1/4 part = No tack, smooth blend, nice. A+
Stand Oil 1 part, Sun Dried Linseed Oil 1/2 part, Raw Cold Linseed oil 1/2 part, Wax 1/8 part, Fifth day light tack, add 2% Cobalt Drier to dry in 18 hours. - I used this formula for all my 1995 paintings. Sun Dried Linseed Oil settles strokes. A+
Stand Oil 1 part, Sun Dried Thickened Linseed Oil 1/2 part, Cold Pressed Linseed Oil 1/2 part, Venetian Balsam Turpentine 1/4 part, Turpentine 1/4 part, Wax 1/8 part, drier 2%. Maybe the best oil medium. A+
Stand Oil 1 part, Sun Thickened Linseed Oil 1 part, Dorland's Wax 1/4 part, dry in 24 hours. A+
Stand Oil 1 part, Sun Thickened Linseed Oil 3/4 part, Raw Cold Pressed Linseed Oil 1/4 part, Wax 1/8, Turpentine 1/8, and 2% drier, my current medium until I use it up. A+
Stand Oil 1 part, Venetian Balsam 1 part, plus Turpentine. The turpentine evaporates quickly and needs constant replenishing, this mix has an edge bleeding problem. No drier, tacky 8 days. Cobalt Drier 2% dry in 12 hours. A ... Stand Oil 1 part, Venetian 1/2 part, a little edge bleeding, some pick up. B
Stand Oil 1 part, Venetian 1/4 part, more pick up, wet 16 hours.

Boiled Linseed Oil paints very smoothly, it's fast drying, but runs and puddles when you add turpentine. It is better than Cold Pressed by itself and smoother than Grumbacher III.

Maroger's, Linseed oil cooked with red lead and added mastic, a great and proven painting medium, very smooth. A

Poppy Oil, nice, like a soft wax, day to day work wet in wet, soaks into ground. Apply a coat of thin shellac or egg white to the ground to prevent this. Three days dry.

Venetian Turpentine flows like Sun-thickened Linseed and Stand Oil, sticky, flows out long after the stroke. Heavy tacky drag, smooth with turpentine.
Venetian Balsam Turpentine, smooth with enough turpentine, fast setting, hard to maintain consistency, lifts under layer, dry in 15 hours.
Venetian Balsam Turpentine and Cobalt Drier, heavy flow, separates and puddles. Dry in 12 hours.
Venetian Balsam Resin Turpentine 1 part, Raw Cold Pressed Linseed Oil 4/5 part, 2% Cobalt Drier, dries hard and glossie, best blending medium. Controllable light wash. = best glaze. A+

Grumbacher Gel - nice wax and oil feeling - no flow out like Venetian - after four days it was still 5% wet, thin with turpentine, dry in 3 days with 2% drier.
Grumbacher Gel stays thick like Zec.
Grumbacher III - Thinner than Cold Pressed Linseed - gives paint a nice bite and feel to the strokes, like Poppy Oil w/o the Wax feel. Good to use as the thinner instead of turpentine. Two days dry. A
Grumbacher Gel and Grumbacher III have thick and thin covered. The gel yellows more than the III.

Archival Lean, fast drying. A
Archival Fat, Liquin properties. B

Liquin reduces the length of your strokes and separates them. Fast drier. B

Walnut oil plus Alkyd oil is slower drying.

Windburg Painting Medium - needs 50% turpentine to flow - slight bite - great control. The best pre-made painterly medium I found. It does yellow slightly, like Maroger's medium Two days dry. A+

Windsor Newton WinGel dries Very fast, One hour. Alkyd and drier medium.

Zec is waxie smooth, a very fast setter, holds all strokes, extends paint 100%, dry in 30 hours.
Zec and Mastic sets too fast, non yellowing, dry in 12 hours.
Zec and Cold Pressed Linseed Oil slows drying. Too much drag. C

Copal with drier drags, it dries in one day by itself. Some copals flow paint too much for location painting, good glazing for portraits, lifts lower layer.
Copal sets up fast, dries glossie, redissolves easily. Garrett Copal is the best I found.
Garrett Copal 50%, Venetian Balsam 25%, Cold Pressed Linseed 25%, painted very well, A.Linseed oil and Stand Oil wrinkle and skin by themselves.

The reason it is said to wait until a painting is dried before adding a finish is because of shrinking. Oil is the tender trap. It does not mix with under layers that are already set and does not really stick well to flat dry oil paint. Each oil painting layer dries on it's own at it's own rate. Because oil is not a sticky medium, this causes cracking. Two similar layers of oil paint, one dry over the other will not crack but can chip because it's not glued well.

Since new oil paint over dried oil paint will stick but oil is not a very sticky medium, a little stand oil, balsam or damar should be added. Glaze balsams like Venetian or Canadian stick well as does stand oil. Now if you applied damar over the undried coat of oil and glaze, the damar would dry first blocking the oxygen from reaching the oil, causing another cracking problem. The dry damar on top will hamper the oil drying underneath. Linseed oil and Stand Oil wrinkle and skin by themselves.

Cold Pressed Linseed Oil - A down to earth good painting medium

Stand Oil and turpentine, dissolve the Stand Oil to a consistency thicker than Raw Linseed but thinner than Sun Dried oil. Sets very rapidly, dissolves under layers quickly, lifts under layers, it is difficult to maintain painting consistency. Smooth - blendable - strokes flow out by themselves in an uncontrolled manner - Bleed over - needs Linseed Oil - two day dry.

Stand Oil is greasy and self flowing and lifts the under strokes. Stand Oil by itself is the slowest drying oil of all, with turpentine to keep it fluid it paints well. Stand oil does not react well with any drier. Stand oil and Venetian Turpentine, 1:1:1 with turpentine makes the best of both world's combining tacky with slick, it still has an edge bleeding problem though, balsam or resin will inhibit stand oil's tendency to wrinkle, and oil mixed in will correct the edge bleeding.

All mastic and balsam resins dry differently than oil. Their film dries as a whole, throughout, without a skin, and can be dissolved with a solvent. Because of this fact, stand, balsam or resin layers can be applied over any stage of drying paint. Oil only, may chip off an under layer if it's not completely dry and it shrinks, as oil is not a good binder by itself but stand oil and alkyd oil mediums are.

Venetian Balsam Turpentine can be redesolve, it imparts a high glaze and is a good binder. It flows like sun thickened linseed oil and stand oil. By itself it has a sticky, heavy tacky drag that lifts the undercoat as you paint, turpentine will make it slick and smooth. Venetian and Stand Oil together melt the paint too much, they need cold pressed raw Linseed Oil to make a medium worth painting with.

Damar and Mastic Varnish will dissolve with turpentine or alcohol and will disintegrate in less than one hundred years. In that sense it is not permanent. When there is damar in your paint layers the paint dries as a whole throughout, not in separate layers as oil does. And it is permanent.

Damar does not absorb dirt and a wax buffing will go a long way by deterring oxygenation. Water is always bad to clean with. Fresh coats of damar can be added anytime. As damar and mastic disintegrate in time they must be re-applied or melted.

Damar, Mastic and wax are the least yellowing painting mediums, less yellowing then stand oil or any other oil or balsam. Venetian also yellows less then stand oil. Raw oil is the worst yellowing, cold pressed is not nearly as bad, it's similar to Venetian. Driers are in a category by themselves, absolutely the worst yellowing.
Here is an oil 5 year yellowing test page link in a new window.

Since new oil paint over dried oil paint will stick but oil is not a very sticky medium, a little stand oil, balsam or damar should be added. Glaze balsams like Venetian or Canadian stick well as does stand oil. Now if you applied damar over the uncured coat of oil and glaze, the damar would dry first blocking the oxygen from reaching the oil, causing another cracking problem. The dry damar on top will hamper the oil drying underneath.

Alla prima is really the way to go in oil paints. Using a slow drying oil like poppy oil is a way to extend alla prima painting time. Damar over dried oil paint works well. Yes, it can be removed completely from an oil only painting, to apply a new coat. Or a new coat can just be applied after you wipe it down with turpentine if the gloss has gone.

If you use damar in your medium (which won't yellow like oil does) you won't have to wait at all to apply the final finish of more damar. You won't have to wait because it will bond to the damar in the painting, wet or dry. Damar varnish does not yellow, it disintegrates, oil varnish does yellow.

Here..

Is when you don't want to wipe and remove an old damar finish because,
it is damar or mastic paint also.

Clean it with bread crumbs or a kneaded eraser. You fuse a disintegrating final varnish and paint with alcohol and copaiva vapor or just rub on a thin vial of copaiva balsam oil and it's as good as new. Alcohol will also dissolve resins and copals. Copaiva balsam with wood alcohol and turpentine are the cleaners, 1:1:0.5 is weak. Adding ammonia in the later stages is done also. Poppy oil is also dissolved by alcohol. Copaiva balsam helps in removing the yellow of oil varnishes as well as fusing resin varnishes.

The new varnish by GamVar by Gamblin is also removable and doesn't seem to yellow at all. But if you don't use it soon after it is mixed, it comes in two parts, it will take a long time to dry, weeks.

All mastics and balsams dry differently than oil. Their film dries as a whole, without a skin, and can redesolve with a solvent. Because of this fact, stand, balsam or resin layers can be applied over any stage of drying paint. Oil only, may chip off an under layer if it's not completely dry, as oil is not a good binder by itself but stand oil and alkyd oil mediums are.

Venetian Balsam Turpentine can be redesolved, it imparts a high glaze and is a good binder. It flows like sun-thickened linseed oil and stand oil. By itself it has a sticky, heavy tacky drag that lifts the undercoat as you paint, turpentine will make it slick and smooth. Venetian and Stand Oil together melt the paint too much, they need cold pressed Linseed Oil to make a medium worth painting with.

[Quote]of Don on Wet Canvas, Sept 25, 2003
Stand Oil is greasy and self flowing and lifts the under strokes. Stand Oil by itself is the slowest drying oil of all, with turpentine to keep it fluid it paints well. Stand oil does not react well with any drier, it does not yellow. Stand oil and Venetian Turpentine, 1:1:1 with turpentine makes the best of both world's combining tacky with slick, it still has an edge bleeding problem though, balsam or resin will inhibit stand oil's tendency to wrinkle, and oil mixed in will correct the edge bleeding.[/quote]

[quote]W.C. How about the synthetic varnishes? I read a recent thread on them and they seemed to have advantages to the Damar based ones....A master painter here in Phila. uses something called Soluvar (sp?) and he applies it only a month or so after painting, I have this noted down but no other details.[/quote]

I've used Soluvar, as a medium to paint with and as a varnish. As a varnish it's fine, as a medium.. I think I thought it was too sticky.
I recommended the 2 part GamVar as the best synthetic varnish, it's very glossy and will last as a finish longer then damar. I never tried painting with it...

[quote]I am understanding that the reason that the WN cold pressed linseed oil yellowed so badly is that it was raw. That cold pressed linseed oil that is NOT raw is relatively non-yellowing. Is this correct?[/quote]

Yes. This is what I think happened..
Today I found no catalog references to Raw linseed oil. Today the category is called Refined, and it doesn't say what process is used to extract it, hot and chemically are probably both included. The term Raw Cold pressed was used for awhile, and the was the best oil. Raw was later also used to describe the second pressing using heat, that was refined to remove impurities, chemicals made it lighter but it still darkened too much. The term Raw lost it's high standing because of poor marketing. Cold pressed remained as the term for the high quality first pressing. It's all just a marketing game.

Thanks for asking these questions, it helps me improve my site.

Here are two unpublished collections of tests done in 1994, see the size of the quarter at the top. These test results include Copal, Soluvar, Glazen and Liquin.

Here is the yellowing scale according to these tests.
Excuse the slight sky reflection off the shiny plastic protection.

1994 media table 1
Media Table 2

Here are the results and writings of these 1994 and 2000 tests.
The below list of materials.

Bee's Wax, has no grab or bite and is very smooth blending. (B)
(smoothes the bite of damar, A+)

GamVar, very glossy varnish, synthetic crystals, two part mix. I never painted with it but like it as a varnish.

Weber Soluvar, synthetic varnish, painted well with wax added, (B).

Damar, has too much bite. (B)
(adds bite to cold pressed)
(1 Damar and 1/4 Wax, easy to pick-up an under-stroke, best for murals. A+)

Copal, re-dissolves like Damar while it's wet, has an oil base. (A)

Liquin, has a stringy touch. (B)

Poppy Oil,
(wet in wet work, extends alla prima painting, paints like a soft wax, B)

Venetian Balsam, sticky, tacky drag, flow-out long after the stroke. Second stroke lifts the first. Slick with turpentine. (C)
(1 Venetian and 1 cold pressed works very well as a glaze. A+)
(1/4 part Venetian, 1 part Stand Oil and 1/2 part Sun Dried Linseed Oil, 1/2 part Cold Pressed Linseed Oil, 1/4 part Turpentine, 1/16 part Bee's Wax, my choice of medium, a tough to make mix, but worth it. A++)

Cold Pressed Linseed Oil, No flow-out, too slippery, nice glaze with turpentine.
(good medium by itself, A-)
(Cold Pressed and Sun Dried linseed, A)
(1/4 cold pressed adds slippery to 1 stand oil, A)
(cold pressed and damar, adds flow to oil, B)

Sun Thickened Linseed Oil, Same aged color as Cold Pressed (settles strokes, slippery)

Boiled Linseed Oil, slippery, paints well, used by billboard painters. Reduced by hot blown air.

Stand Oil, Lifts under-strokes, too thick, greasy, self flowing, forms a wrinkled skin, very poor with driers.
(1/2 Stand, 1/4 sun thickened, 1/4 cold pressed, 1/16 wax, is an excellent medium, A+)
(stand and turpentine has some bleed over but is smooth and blendable. A-)
(2 stand, 1/8 of 1 sun, 1/8 of 1 cold pressed, 1/16 of 1 wax. A+)
(1 Stand Oil, 3/4 Sun, 1/3 Cold pressed Linseed, A+)
(Stand Oil, Venetian Balsam, Turpentine, constantly needs turpentine replenishment, slight edge bleed, needs Venetian, A)

Alkyd, Very fast drying. I like painting with it but most people can't handle the speed. It's like painting with laquer in B/C China.

Raw, today's hot extracted or Refined linseed oil. Poor.

[quote]Hi Don, in one of the 'yellowing' test the caption reads....
"That's W/N Raw cold pressed linseed oil on the top left A.
That's pretty scary !"
So, which was it? raw or cold-pressed or both?[/quote]

I think it was refined linseed oil, purchased when the change was being made. I remember I got 6 bottles of it. It was Raw. Now the results match today's results of the 1994 tests where Stand Oil and Alkyd were the worst yellow offenders.

[quote]And, I take it that you are recommending the cold-pressed as a good all around medium for alla prima? thanks
Mario[/quote]

Yes, it's good, but not by itself or mixed with turpentine. And if you are going make a medium with more then one ingredient... three is better. Add Stand Oil and Sun Dried Linseed Oil.

Permalba White stays the whitest over pure lead or zinc white, MG fast drying white turned the yellowest.

MEDIUMS, TURPENTINE & OIL

Turpentine is the best thinner for oil paints, I don't agree with Mayer's Handbook saying that petroleum distilled paint thinner works for fine artwork, unless you are talking about alkyds. Mineral sprits work well with them.

Doerner explained in his 1934 book, The Materials of the Artist, how they are unnatural with paints that absorb oxygen while drying, being refined from a nondrying petroleum oil, they only evaporate, without absorbing oxygen. Petroleum thinners are good only for cleaning brushes of the house painting trade, not the expensive brushes we use as artists. They should be cleaned in brush oil. Petroleum thinner will not dissolve the valuable damar varnish either, as turpentine does so well. This is behind the dissing I've heard about damar.

Only time will tell which will yellow first, damar or alkyd oil. Two years later damar won, pure alkyd dried brown in the bottle. The current manufactures of art supplies are betting on alkyds for the artist. Here is a five year Oil Yellow test. Including the 1994 test results.

The essential oil of turpentine, is a volatile plant oil, steam distilled without pressure. Today's turpentine is very pure. The only reason to buy double rectified artist's turpentine in the small bottles is to guard against impurities. French turpentine from the maritime pine is best.

The ancient oleoresin, is turpentine in its solid state, pitch or fused colophony, the residue from turpentine is rosin. Pine sap with water removed is pine pitch; more water removed is rosin, cured under pressure is amber.

Siccatives "used by Bouguereau" 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, and even that will noticeably yellow. The addition of damar 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 paints have been around, in the B/C era. The first pigments, iron ore limonite, contained manganese siccatives. 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 it yellows badly. I would rather have the clear sugar of lead or the white calcinated stannum oxide, like the Egyptians used.
Even white lead oxide could be heated and saponifies clear in oil. Here is a very good online link about megilp and Marogers mediams. These mediums called malbutter and megilp, were made of heated oil, wax and lead made in the past worked very well; they added a buttery character to the paint and a harder finish. Many masters from the North (1550) used Stand Oil, Sun Dried Linseed (dried in lead pans) and balsam. The lead acts as the metal in the drier if the oil was heated to sponificate the lead. Today I still consider it the best oil medium, I like a little wax added also.

MAROGER listed how to make mediums of his past.
Here is a good recipe for Maroger Black Oil.

In this case example, raw is referred to as raw cold pressed, purified linseed oil.
"BLACK OIL is made of purified raw linseed oil cooked with red lead and adding mastic. "

Cold pressed raw Linseed Oil - 96gr, Mastic - 30gr to 50gr, Pbo - 4gr to 5gr, (It doesn't take much lead to speed along the drying), turpentine 50gr.
This comes out to visually about 1/2 cup oil, (1/3 cup of turp - added last, it's not cooked with the oil, it would evaporate too fast.) a handful, 1/4 cup of Chios resin crystals, and about a 1/4 tsp of PbO. You have the skill to make this medium. Mix the oil and the PbO together. It will look exactly like orange juice. Now, using a Corning ware or some other such porcelain container and slowly heat the mixture.
If it gets too hot, just remove it, whatever you do, do not let it smoke or boil.

As it heats up the transformation will start taking place, turning the mixture from orange to the color of black coffee. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon or porcelain - NOT A METAL ONE. This is crucial. After the coffee color is reached, let it cook for a half hour to make sure the change is complete.
The PbO does not go into the air, there are no poisonous fumes, so don't worry about that.

At this point I like to let the temperature down a bit, before I slowly add the mastic crystals, stirring them in. You could pre make the mastic medium but you better know the mastic/turp ratio before adding it to the oil. Now it looks like cappuccino for a while.

There is a variation that skips the mastic and goes for 10g of beeswax, but I have never bothered to try it as I want the brilliance the mastic gives - besides you can always make a paste of wax and resin and add it later (I recommend adding some carnauba wax, it is harder than ordinary beeswax). Okay. Now that everything is cooked, you have Black Oil.
I shot these photos as I was making the maroger media. I forgot to shoot it in the "orange juice" stage. This is the cooked black oil media and the porcelain spoon. And the empty tubes in a jar on top of the Chios crystals.

Just forget about this for now, you are not there yet, I don't know why anyone would want to paint with this as it is. Now fill your jar with the turpentine, which should be 40-45% of the volume if oil. This is very crucial - if it is exactly half, the transformation will not take place. Mix the two then fill the empty tubes that are standing up in a jar with your mixture, seal it tightly, and put it in the refrigerator overnight.
Tell yourself what an alchemical magician you are (I'm only half kidding) as it will transform into the Jelly. And here you are.

When using this, just a little maybe about a third added to your tube paint should do the trick - if it is slick, you are adding too much. Not only will your paint look incredible, you will be able to blend like you've never done before, add beautiful thin layers, put in detail that will stay, not drip or run, and any layer you make will dry within 24 hours!
I also recommend using Titanium and Zinc mix as the white paint, you don't need more lead.

empty tubes and crystals coffie color

Litharge Yellow and Red, PbO, (Parks 1961)

Maroger uses the term litharge for oxide of lead.

The painters lead yellow pigment is also called litharge. That would be white lead roasted to yellow. In this form it is of the orthorhombic crystal system. Yellow PbO is an orthorhombic crystal. The natural mineral litharge is red lead PbO, a tetragonal system crystal. Produced red lead is tetroxide Pb3 O4 the same as the natural mineral minium, only better.

Red lead is the heated litharge transformation ingredient made from the heating process of white lead. The yellow and red lead are lower in tinting strength the white lead without litharge. Sponifacation turns the white lead transparent in oil and even more so the yellow-orange called red. Black oil adds no color of it's own to pigments but all oil yellows.

Adding heat to lead white forms yellow litharge pigment early on the heat process. Lead Litharge has a early temperature of yellow. Maroger's medium uses the the lead color orange, called red lead. There is a lead heat transformation heating red lead rapidly at a high temperature. This decomposes the red lead and turns it into litharge. Cooking this litharge and oil mix makes it a transparent brown gel called black oil.

Lead heated in a fire will cause white lead oxide to form. Acid gas does a better job making more white oxides. Roast the white to make the colors from yellow to orange, red and brown. Lead white carbonate heats to yellow, orange, red (lead tetroxide, Pbsub3 Osub4, called minium and/or orange lead. It has low tinting strength and good body). Orange lead, called red lead, is higher in litharge oxide which is more transparent.

Artists Pigments, Feller, pg 118. When heated strongly red lead decomposes to form litharge. When heated gently it turns to reddish brown then purple. That would be cuput mortum.

My color wheel uses the same line of darkening as this lead oxide crystal. The colors yellow to orange and red use the same brown as their color's hue darker hue, Burnt Umber.

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.

ITALIAN FORMULA MEDIUM combines white leaded oil with beeswax for a transparent paste which dries to a soft semi gloss luster and give an opulent body to impastos. Beeswax also adds flexibility which prevents cracking.

FLEMISH FORMULA MEDIUM combines 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.

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 drying the oil in a shallow lead container 1/2" high, covered, for long enough for the oil to become thick. Cennini called this the best of all oils.

Stand oil is linseed oil boiled with carbonic acid and without oxygen, it dries very slowly, 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 makes the paint stick to itself and not what you painted it on! The separated paint looks like a sponge print instead of a layer of paint. It would rather stick to itself then to any surface.

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/
or, http://www.artpurveyors.com/Mainindex.html
It should be lighter than 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.

Poppy oil is a slow drying oil that seldom yellows, stays wet for ten days and wrinkles less than linseed oil. Poppy oil is pressed from the seeds of the white poppy, its major use is in the processing of tube oil colors.

Castor oil has its place with lacs and spirit paints, adding 5% to shellac will make it pliable and remove the brittle quality.

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.

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. :)

Copaiva balsam oil and copal resin both dissolve the lower layer and really slide the paint around... I never liked the brands I tried until I tried Ron Garrette's Copal [copal@3lefties.com] there wasn't enough control. His brand painted beautifully.

Venice turpentine is a superior turpentine, balsam, 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, but I don't think we do, Canada makes a good balsam. They're not really a thin turpentine, but a thicker and undistilled balsam, they are basically 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. I like it as a painting medium with 3 cold pressed linseed oil, 2 damar resin, 1 Venetian, 3:2:1. It paints and glazes beautifully.

Damar, Chios or Lavantine mastic, some Copals (Brazilian, Manila, Borneo), Shellac, and the ancient oleoresin are soft resins, damar makes the best natural picture varnish for wax and mastic painting, it's the hardest. Resins and balsams keep oils from wrinkling and forming a skin. Any resin or balsam or copal added to oil paints permit painting layers in rapid succession. Oil paint without resin, balsam or copal (all of which redisssolve, unlike oil) 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 than the new upper level. Cold Pressed Linseed oil by itself is a poor binder and allows moisture to enter.

The hardest resins are succinite amber and hard copals. Don't use them as a varnish... they are too hard to remove and they also crack.

Amber resin is very hard fossil resin, it can cause cracks over some soft paints and darken in time, Don't bother with it.

Acrylic Polyurethane resin can be made hard or soft, the furniture industry makes a hard varnish that is water soluble, I've been using it on my acrylics as a final finish for twenty two years with perfect results, they are as clear as the day I put them on. Deft is one of several good brands you can get at ant hardware store.

A good choice for acrylics, oil billboards or oil paintings without added wax is this coating by, Triangle Coating.
Clear Flex UV. Clear Satin or Gloss, non yellowing ultraviolet inhibiting, flexible, Water based, Acrylic Urethane coating. 1930 Fairway Drive, San Leandro, CA., 94577-5631

PIGMENTS IN OIL AND ACRYLIC PAINT

Pigments are transparent, translucent or opaque, some need added bulk and are precipitated on transparent, translucent or opaque bases.

BARYTA WHITE- This is a heavy spar with very little coloring power, usually it's a pigment additive. Barite is crystal of barium sulfate, called heavy spar. Barite is a non-metallic mineral crystal mined in England, filling the cavities in limestone. As barium it's an opaque extender co-precipitated on for cadmium colors.

HYDRATE OF ALUMINA, alumina, the oxide of aluminum present in clay, transparent to translucent.

ACRYLIC POLYMER EMULSION transparent.

Here are some permanent chemical pigments used in oil and acrylic paints today.

TRANSPARENT YELLOWS

PY153 dioxine nickel complex + PR 260 isoindolin = Indian Yellow Golden.
PY3 stable di-arylide = Yellow Lemon on barium sulfate, Gamboge, Hansa Yellow
PY153, PY3 gamboge = organic gamboge pigment
PY83 stable di-arylide = Yellow Deep, Madder Lake, Alizarin Crimson, Italian Brown Pink Lake.
PY83 stable di-arylide:hr used in = Indian Yellow
PY153 dioxine nickel complex, used in = Indian Yellow Golden, Brown, Gamboge, Indian Redgold.
PO69 isiondolin = Yellow, Orange
PY129 methin copper complex = Golden Green
PY129 methin copper complex = Golden Green, Indian Yellow Green with PY153
PR101 synthetic iron oxide = Translucent Yellow-Brown

YELLOW PIGMENT COMPOUNDS THAT WORK WITH TRANSPARENT TRIADS FOR FULL COLOR NEUTRAL DARK OPPOSITION PAINTING

Transparent colors are precipitated on alumina, the oxide of aluminum present in clay. Another transparent base for these colors could be cyclohexanone, wax, or an acrylic polymer emulsion.

PY153 dioxine nickel complex + PR260 isoindolin = Indian Yellow Golden.
PY153 dioxine nickel complex + PY42 synthetic iron oxide = Indian Yellow Brown.
PY153 dioxine nickel complex + PY3 stable di-arylide = Gamboge.
PY83 stable di-arylide + PR101 synthetic iron oxide = Italian Brown Pink Lake.

I would love to try PY153 dioxine nickel complex + PY83 stable di-arylide.
But the first acrylic color should be PY153 dioxine nickel complex + PY3 stable di-arylide on alumina, = Gamboge Synthetic. Or, Genuine Gamboge Organic.

TODAY'S TRANSPARENT CHEMICAL PALETTE PIGMENTS

PY153 dioxine nickel complex + PR 260 isoindolin = Indian Yellow Golden.
PY153 dioxine nickel complex + PY3 stable di-arylide = Gamboge
PR 170:F5rk naphthol carbamide = Scarlet Pink
PV19 quinacridone = Rose
PR122 quinacridone = Magenta
PV23:1r carbazole dioxine = Purple
PB60 anthraquinone = Blue Deep to Turquoise
PB15 copper phthalocyanine = Cyan (Thalo Blue) to Green Y/S
PB7 Chlorinated copper phthalocyanine = Turquoise to Green
PY83 stable di-arylide + PG7 chlorinated copper phthalocyanine = Sap Green Y/S
PY83 stable di-arylide HR + PG7 chlorinated copper phthalocyanine + PO43 perinone orange = Sap Green O/S
PY129 methin copper complex = Green Gold
PY129 azomethine = Genuine Green Gold

TODAY'S TRANSLUCENT TO OPAQUE PALETTE PIGMENTS
Needed for their opaqueness and brilliance.

PY 40 cobalt nitrite + potassium = Transparent Yellow
PY34 chromate of lead = Lemon Yellow
PY35 cadmium zinc sulfide = Cadmium Yellow Lemon
PY35:1 cadmium zinc sulfide = Yellow Pale
PY37 cadmium sulfide = Cadmium Yellow Light, Medium
PO20 cadmium sulfo-selenide = Cadmium Orange
PR101 cadmium sulfo-selenide = Cadmium Red Light, Medium, Dark
PR101 synthetic red iron oxide = Red Oxide
PY42 synthetic yellow iron oxide = Yellow Oxide
PB7 natural iron oxide, raw and calcined = Sienna and Umber
PB29 silica, aluminum, sulphur complex = Ultramarine Blue
PB28 oxides of cobalt and aluminum = Cobalt Blue
PG17 anhydrous chromium senquioxide = Chromium oxide Green