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Extending Paint Potential with Mixing Mediums and Solvents

© Susan A. Wenz-Denise

An effective and generic way to mix your paint before applying it to your painting surface is by blending it with linseed oil and solvents. This combination will always lend a helping hand when looking to achieve a good all around unified painted finish. However, there are many mixing mediums and solvents, and combinations thereof, available for experimentation. In this article I will explain how you can extend your paints’ potential and achieve remarkable effects in accordance with your particular painting needs. You will also find charts provided for your reference.

Drying Oils
Drying oils are combined with paint in the mixing process, usually with a solvent, before paint is applied to the painting surface in order to help maintain the drying consistency of the paint. They are also useful in increasing the fluidity and viscosity of the paint.

The standard drying oil is linseed oil, but there are many variations in order to suit particular needs. For example, refined linseed oil is the most universal type of linseed in that it has an average drying time and viscosity, but it does tend to yellow a bit. If you were planning to paint a landscape in muted Impressionist colors, you may choose bleached linseed instead because it does not tend to yellow and is pale in color, thus making it an oil that works very well with pale colours. Other types of drying oils, other than linseed, include safflower, poppyseed and sunflower, all which have their own unique characteristics like or unlike linseed oil. Poppyseed and sunflower are the most transparent, non-yellowing oils, but they dry slowly. Safflower is also pale and dries quicker, but tends to dry brittle.

Obviously, choosing one oil to work with over the other is hard since all the oils are somewhat the same, but also different in many ways. I recommend trying refined linseed oil first, and then judge for yourself whether you need oil that dries slower, faster, more transparent, etc. The chart I have provided here is good reference to help choose the best drying oil suited for your needs.

Ready Made Mediums
Some mediums are commercially prepared to substitute drying oils in creating certain finishes and effects. Ready made mediums are blends created to use right out of the bottle, without any need to add solvents, although they certainly can be thinned if needed. Gloss mediums give the paint a glossy finish when blended with it, and matt mediums give a matt finish.

Drying Oils

Ready Made

Solvents Table

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