Why I Stopped Painting With Liquin | Helloartsy.com

I found a painting medium I similar much better and I'll be laying out all my reasons for the recent shift in my painting.

It Was Love At Showtime Stroke

For those of you not familiar with Liquin, it is a paint additive for oil paints fabricated by the Windsor & Newton paint company. Liquin is actually an alkyd resin. Information technology's a thixotropic medium that dramatically decreases the drying time of your oil paints when mixed into the paint.

I first discovered painting mediums in my higher days. We were taught how to brand the classic 3-role medium using dammar varnish, stand oil, and turpentine. It was at this time I was introduced to paint glazes and the notion that yous can adjust your colors and values with translucent layers of paint.

Having access to a painting medium also introduced me to some more controllable means of thinning my oil paints, rather than just relying on turpentine or mineral spirits. This was a very important fourth dimension in my painting career. The quality of my piece of work grew exponentially once I understood how to apply mediums to my paints.

It was around 1996 my painting instructor Stephen Brown introduced me to Liquin. At that place it was! A premade medium similar to the 3-office medium except I didn't take to make it, it dried even faster, and information technology stayed put on my palette (3-role medium is very runny). I was head over heals in beloved with the stuff.

Liquin became a fixture on my palette because information technology:

  • Fabricated my oil paints dry faster
  • Allowed me to coat and perfect colors with several attempts
  • Thinned my paints out nicely for painting fine lines and edges

I was hooked and though over the years I occasionally tried other oil painting mediums I always concluded that I liked Liquin the all-time. Since then Windsor & Newton has spun Liquin'southward commercial success into its own product line of various "Liquins".

I still stuck with Liquin Original as it afterwards became known equally.

Until recently…

In Walks Neo Megilp

I've been a fan of the research Robert Gamblin has been doing on oil painting conservation and then I decided to effort Gamblin's Neo Megilp. Its merits is that it is a modern, safer, version of the famous maroger medium. I went back and forth between the Neo Megilp and the Liquin over the class of most iv paintings trying each one out and trying to pay shut attention to each of their working properties. It didn't take long for me to transition completely into using Neo Megilp.

What I Prefer About Neo Megilp Over Liquin:

  • Neo Megilp dries slightly slower than Liquin allowing me to re-moisture a previous painting session's dry areas and paint into the medium. Liquin was terrible for this (It dries too fast).
  • Pigment leveling is minimal preserving my brushstrokes. Liquin leveled my paint strokes too much.
  • Neo Megilp is slightly less glossy than Liquin. No more painting on top of a shiny, drinking glass-like surface.
  • Neo Megilp stays put on the palette even better than liquin which tends to separate and run particularly as the bottle of Liquin gets older.

Gamblin 16 Oz Neo-Megilp Painting Medium (ANG03516)

  • Medium viscosity and medium dry out.
  • Gives body to pigment and decreases viscosity while suspending and supporting paint in a soft,
  • This product can be used to produce a luminous Turner-like effect.
  • Will not darken or brittle, and allows paint to be workable for hours.
  • Size: sixteen

Prices pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on:

Product prices and availability are accurate every bit of the date/fourth dimension indicated and are subject to change. Whatsoever price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(due south), every bit applicable] at the time of buy will apply to the buy of this product.

Painting With Liquin: You're Not Out of My Life Completely

After about 3 months of using Gamblin's Neo Migilp, Windsor & Newton's Liquin has definitely taken a back seat as a painting medium in my daily painting methods. I still utilise Liquin in ultra small quantities in my toning. Earlier I brainstorm a painting I tone the sheet with a neutral color. I mix up the colour with my oil paints and add together a few drops of odorless mineral spirits (OMS) and a few drops of Liquin. This makes the toned layer of oil pigment very fluid and it dries very fast…precisely what I desire out of a toned ground!

Prices pulled from the Amazon Product Advertizement API on:

Product prices and availability are authentic as of the date/fourth dimension indicated and are field of study to alter. Any cost and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(due south), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this production.

Expert affair I have only been buying small bottles of liquin!

Update (Sep. half dozen, 2016):

yucky-liquin

I decided to mail service two images that depict the two oil painting mediums discussed in this commodity.  The showtime image is an one-time bottle of Liquin.  Anyone who's used the popular painting medium is probably used to this nightmarish bottle.  Check it out below…

Next up is an old bottle of Neo Megilp.  Check it out…

old bottle of neo megilp painting medium

But to be fair the Liquin bottle is near 5 years old and the neo megilp is shut to iii years old.  While this is certainly no legitimate scientific experiment I will add that the Liquin bottle is one of the larger ones and as a result had more air in it.  Fifty-fifty still, Liquin really appears to get nasty with age.

Now the question on every painter's listen, I'thou sure, is will my paintings become all nasty similar that substance in the canteen if I use Liquin in my paints?

One affair you practise have to keep in listen is the thickness of a medium in a bottle.  Pigment is normally much thinner when used in a painting and will have pigments that impart their colors way more than whatsoever painting medium would.  Liquids always expect darker when they are thicker.  But you know what? – I'm still sticking with neo megilp when I want to utilise a rapid drying oil painting medium.

What is Your Favorite Painting Medium?

Go out some comments below!