How to Ruin an Oil Painting

There are a few things you need to avoid if you want a successful work of art.

Using Cooking Oils or Baby Oil

Some people recommend cleaning your brushes with a cooking oil, or even incorporating them into your painting. You should avoid doing this because these oils will never dry.

Cooking oils can yellow your oil colors over time.

I’ve heard of people using baby oil to clean their brushes too. They may claim to get all of the baby oil out of their brushes, but I think it’s better not to use baby oil at all.

Using Petroleum Jelly

In the past, I never cleaned my brushes properly. I bought some nice kolinsky sable brushes, and I ruined them. The bristles splayed and lost their shape.

So, it was recommended that I shape them with petroleum jelly. I was able to reshape my brushes.

You would think because petroleum is an oil product that everything would be okay. However, the petroleum jelly will never dry. You would have the danger of mixing the jelly into your paint.

Not Following the Fat Over Lean Rule

It is important to learn the fat over lean rule.

I paint in layers, so I am mindful of the mediums I use in my paints.

The fat over lean rule is about using more and more oil in each layer of your painting. You start with a layer that is mostly solvent, and gradually incorporate more oil as you build up each layer.

The fat over lean rule keeps your top layers from cracking. The top layers allow for the bottom layers to dry before the top layers. The top layers are able to shift as the painting dries.

When making your own mediums, you might mix thirty percent oil to seventy percent solvent. Then, for your next layer, you would have a fifty-fifty mix of oil and solvent. For the top layer you might have seventy percent oil and thirty percent solvent. If you use a glazing technique, you might have one hundred percent oil to get the transparent effect. That is why you save glazing for the top.

I have heard that if you use an alkyd medium like Gamblin Galkyd or Winsor & Newton Liquin Original, are considered fat. However, you need to use just twenty-five percent alkyd to your paint mixture.

Varnishing a Painting Too Early

Oil Paintings can take a long time to dry. Therefore, it is good to wait six months to a year before varnishing.

Varnishing a painting protects it from dust and the sun. A hundred years from now, you can remove the varnish leaving the painting like it was when you finished painting it. Then, a person could apply a new varnish to protect for many more years.

So, oil paintings don’t actually dry. The go through a process of oxidation, and the paint film becomes stronger as the chemical bonds unite with each other.

I use Gamblin Gamvar Gloss. It protects my painintgs and adds a glossy sheen that makes the colors pop. Gamvar comes in a satin and matte finish as well.

Gamblin says you can varnish a painting with Gamvar after the painting is touch dry. You just stick your fingernail in a thick part of your painting, and if it comes out clean, you are good to varnish.

However, I recommend waiting six to twelve months. Better safe than sorry.

Conclusion

If you follow these tips, you will avoid ruining your paintings.