Oil Medium

Oil Painting Mediums

Oil mediums do two jobs: they change how the paint handles now, and they change how the film behaves in fifty years. That second job is why the choice matters more here than in any other medium.

Which one you need

Refined linseed oil is the standard binder, cheap and strong, though it yellows slightly. Stand oil is linseed heat-polymerised into a thick, slow, self-levelling oil that all but removes brush marks. Walnut and safflower yellow less and suit whites and pale blues. Alkyd mediums such as Liquin speed drying to touch-dry overnight and add a little transparency, which is what most people want for glazing. Solvents thin without adding binder.

The rule that keeps paintings intact is fat over lean: each layer needs more oil than the one beneath it. Reverse that and the upper layer dries first, then cracks as the layer under it moves.

See oil colours, canvas and the wider mediums range. Stationerie, Kolkata, shipped across India.