What is Oil Paint?

We buy a tube of oil paint, untwist the cap and put a small pile of it on our palettes without a second thought as to what goes into it. But it wasn't always this easy.

In Southern Europe, early man mixed animal fats with earth and stain to form the very first oil paints and applied them to grotto walls. During the 15th century, Belgian painter Jan van Eyck, mixed linseed oil and oil from nuts with diverse colors.

Later, artists would purchase the dry lumps of color, much of it in rock form, and grind it into powder before adding oil. Soon after, vendors sold the powdered pigments and oils so the artist was able to mix their own. In the late 1800s, paint became available in tubes, a convenience for artists who painted en plein air.

Today, oil paint is composed of dry oil pigments ground in a natural drying oil such as linseed. They usually include additives such as plasticizers, driers and wax to improve flexibility and make them consistent in texture and drying speed. Some brands of paint are allowed to age and then additional pigments are added to achieve consistency.

Grades of Paint

There are two grades of paint:

• Professional Artist Quality
• Student Grade

Professional or Artist Grade offers larger range of colors and have the best color strength: Have high concentration of pigment that is finely ground with the best quality oils. As a result, the colors are brighter and have more covering strength on the canvas. They are also the most expensive of the oil paint choices.

They are commonly cataloged into six series by rarity and value, Series 1 (or A) being the most plentiful and least expensive, and Series 6 (or F) being the rarest and most expensive. Professional grade paint brands include:

• Rembrandt
• Schmincke Mussini Oils
• Holbein
• Blockx
• Old Holland
• Sennelier
• Williamsburg
• Daniel Smith
• Grumbacher Pre-tested
• Michael Harding
• Utrecht
• M. Graham

Student Grade oil paint has limited colors and is made in large batches.

Student Grade oil paint tends to use more inert fillers such as chalk and less pure pigment. The result is less vivid colors, less tinting strength and less colorful effect overall. Student grade cadmium colors are sometimes called “hues.” Student grade paint brands include:

• Winton
• Grumbacher Academy
• Bob Ross
• Daler Rowney Georgian
• Windsor Newton Artist’s Oil Color (Pro/Student)
• Gamblin 1980
• Van Gogh
• Blick Studio

Drying time

The time it takes for a color to dry depends on the amount and type of oil added to the pigment and the color. Generally, earth colors dry the fastest. Cadmium colors, alizarin crimson, blacks and white dry the slowest.

Brands

Colors of the same name from different manufacturers will vary in color, cost, consistency, permanence, and drying rates.