During the first decade of the 20th century a startling phenomenon was witnessed in exhibitions of oil paintings throughout France: “at retrospective exhibitions of art, many modern pictures which on their first appearance were greatly admired for their brilliance and freshness, seemed so darkened and tarnished as to be hardly recognizable.” The reason for this phenomenon is linked by the author to the practice of oiling out and the application of retouch varnish. In his first part article of a five part series, James Robinson, exposes this faulty practice and shows how it developed as a remediation of sinking in from the 18th century to the present.

Making stack process flake white (or lead white made according to the "old Dutch method") is time consuming and prone to variations in the resulting pigment. These variations are not surprising and were well known from literature and historical documents of the process by manufacturers of lead white. It was a major issue of the process that manufacturers dealt with in various ways. In this article we describe reasons for the variations and how these may be useful to artists.

In recent years, we have witnessed an increased interest among artists about historical painting techniques and materials. Why this trend is occurring is subject to much speculation, but some may say it is due to the revival in figurative art. I would prefer to say that interest in figurative art never really died out, but rather it has survived abstract art. An important part of this interest in materials is a concern for the longevity of the paintings created by contemporary artists, a care observed by the old masters in their work.

Lead sulfate (British spelling, sulphate), formed the basis of a number of white pigments that were made on a large scale in the 19th and 20th centuries and sold under a variety of names, such as "Patent White Lead," "Non-poisonous White Lead," "Sublimed White Lead," etc. Some of these pigments did not consist entirely of lead sulfate but contained other minerals, such as zinc oxide, barite (barium sulfate), magnesia (magnesium carbonate), etc., in varying quantities.

It’s not possible to physically blend egg tempera paint once it’s been applied because reworking fresh paint dissolves and lifts underlying layers. Thus whatever tool is used to apply egg tempera leaves behind its mark: A brushstroke stays visibly a brushstroke, sponged on paint carries the imprint of the sponge. This “mark making” tendency means egg tempera is ideal for rendering fine details, crisp textural effects, and other linear elements. The challenge in tempera is to create smooth, mark-free transitions.

Teresa Oaxaca has been making use of transparent pigments for about a year and a half now and a blog post of this nature has been on her to do list ever since. Seldom very popular (unless the paint tube is labeled the ever famous "transparent oxide yellow"), little known and less understood, most people question why someone would want to go to the trouble of producing let alone painting with a weak pigment. In the age of cadmiums and and other bright hi-keyed pigments, earth colors have at turns come into question. Why not mix down? Why settle for a lower chroma?

It is an old saying that rules are meant to be broken. No one did this more successfully than Rembrandt. For instance, the rich red in the table cloth in the Syndics is obtained by glazing a translucent red over brown, instead of over a brighter red. Rules are meant to be broken, but it is necessary to know first what the rules are. Read more about these painting rules.

This rule appears to confuse so many artists or ignored completely by others. Perhaps a better way to express the rule "always paint fat on lean" is always paint a slower drying paint film over a faster drying film. Think in terms of the last applied paint film being more flexible than the paint film underneath. Another way to clarify this rule is to think of adding a little more oil in the last application of paint than was included in the paint layer just covered, or not to dilute with solvent the last applied layer anymore than the previous one was thinned.

A whitish surface appearance on oil paintings is a phenomenon of modern oil paintings. While such hazes have traditionally been described by painters as blooming or blanching, nomenclature has not yet caught up with the different causes. Other terms currently used are: efflorescence, exudation, fatty acid deposit or migration, saponification, crystallization, chalking, mold, and ghost images.

It is no coincidence that the palette in the self-portrait by Michael Sweerts is practically identical to the palette described in detail by Roger de Piles in his 1684 book, Les Premiers Elémens de Peinture Pratique. Sweerts was a contemporary of de Piles, and it appears that his palette was laid out in the manner practiced throughout western Europe in the 17th century.