Matting down oils ?

[Old Pete]

If you try the wax do not use heat I did this once and the wax melted and the paint ran off and ruined what was I thought a rather nice finnish.

 

[tonydawe]

Hi Steve

The glossiness in oil paints typically comes from the carrier oils in the tube not from the paint pigments.

Allowing the carrier oils to be absorbed by a card will remove most of the glossiness. Heating the paint will allow the remaining oil to cook off.

If you still have gloss after that, you can use Dullcote. Good luck

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

Some interesting solutions here , I have a problem with draining off the carrier oil as it can make the paint drag especially over a very matt absorbent under coat such as humbrols , maybe not so bad if you under coat with acrylics though .
My method is to apply an under coat with Tamiya deck tan ; a very neutral tint which you can apply oils over without the need of a matching base colour
then oil wet on wet with no additives . When all is dry you can go back over adding tones with a little thinned paint ; esp if you done the Fanny Cradock method which tends to blast out all the subtle shading and highlighting .

But less certainly is more Adrian , filbert brushes are great for the lift off process , the aim is for only the finest slick of oil paint on the figure ; it is repeat repeat repeat and repeat more , and there will be no brush marks .

As a less serious footnote ; some Rons use make up brushes but this one doesn't

 

[Eludia]

I'm not a Ron but I do use make-up brushes, sometimes even for painting

 

[1969]

For the next part of the figure, the black jeans, I left the oils for about 20 minutes on some card board first to allow the carrier to leach out, this has definitely helped as I have a nice flat finish to the jeans once painted and dried naturally.
Hope to post some photos soon
Steve

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

I'm not a Ron but I do use make-up brushes, sometimes even for painting

What an ex tail gunner from ferguslie using make-up brushes

 

[Helm]

Some interesting solutions here , I have a problem with draining off the carrier oil as it can make the paint drag especially over a very matt absorbent under coat such as humbrols , maybe not so bad if you under coat with acrylics though .
My method is to apply an under coat with Tamiya deck tan ; a very neutral tint which you can apply oils over without the need of a matching base colour
then oil wet on wet with no additives . When all is dry you can go back over adding tones with a little thinned paint ; esp if you done the Fanny Cradock method which tends to blast out all the subtle shading and highlighting .

But less certainly is more Adrian , filbert brushes are great for the lift off process , the aim is for only the finest slick of oil paint on the figure ; it is repeat repeat repeat and repeat more , and there will be no brush marks .

As a less serious footnote ; some Rons use make up brushes but this one doesn't

It shows Ron

 

[Old Pete]

My method such as it is ,apply a very very thin coat of oil rather than wipe it off (as a Paisley man I hate waste) over a suitable coloured under coat. I have never used a matt varnish and the only oil I put on card are blue and green and use white spirit to thin the paint and so far Touch wood I have managed to get a matt finish and I do a lot of ACW figures involving a lot of blue

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

It shows Ron

Is that a selfie Steve

 

[Kevin D.]

Steve, just adding my two cents... I use oils and the way I cut the glossy by mixing baby powder to the oils as I paint. The trick is to mix the powder and thin the oils at the same time. One of the benefits of working this way is the oils will dry to touch over night. Good luck Mate..



Tony, Do you use a regular store bought powder or a finer quality baby powder? Do you remember what your approx. mix of paint and powder was? Thanks!

I've used Dorland's wax with some success but blues still defeat me.

Heat helps!

Kevin

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

Steve, just adding my two cents... I use oils and the way I cut the glossy by mixing baby powder to the oils as I paint. The trick is to mix the powder and thin the oils at the same time. One of the benefits of working this way is the oils will dry to touch over night. Good luck Mate..



Tony, Do you use a regular store bought powder or a finer quality baby powder? Do you remember what your approx. mix of paint and powder was? Thanks!

I've used Dorland's wax with some success but blues still defeat me.

Heat helps!

Kevin

Which blue are you using as your base colour Kevin?

 

[theBaron]

I suspect you don't want to heat oils with wax cut into them.

I still use a 60w lamp as a warmer to speed up the drying time, and I haven't noticed any ill effects to the finish. The wax medium gets mixed pretty consistently, I think. Remember, the same solvents that we use to thin the oil paint by itself, dissolve the wax pretty well. I use a palette knife to blend the paint and wax medium, too. Well, it's really an old plastic butter knife, with the teeth sanded off

Prost!
Brad

 

[Kevin D.]

Which blue are you using as your base colour Kevin?

Ron, I've used flat black, Prussian Blue and Dark Prussian Blue on different occasions, each with similar results.

Kevin

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

Ron, I've used flat black, Prussian Blue and Dark Prussian Blue on different occasions, each with similar results.

Kevin

Kevin the best thing you can do is throw the prussian blue in the trash ; it is totally useless for painting figures , far to heavy a pigment which will always dry with a bright sheen , it can also bleed into other colours after it appears to be dry .

Better to use Colbat and indigo mixed , much less aggressive and with a little encouragement via the heat lamp will matt out .
A good black to add is mars black which will matt nicely also .

 

[Carlos Figure Art]

Hi mate,

Lots of good advice already given, my method of a flat finish is Dullcoat mixed with lacquer thinner dusted on with the A/Brush, it's the only flat coat I have ever tried that is 100% reliable. I also force dry, but due to me adding more linseed to my oil mixes I still need to dullcoat.

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

Carlos do you not find that dullcoat knocks the life out of the paint , works well for WWII stuff but can kill a nice oil paint job stone dead re nap stuff

 

[Carlos Figure Art]

Hi Ron,

I never really had this problem, maybe because I paint quite high contrast anyway and use more vibrant tones, I've used this on Blues and Reds also in the past with no real major problems. I do know what you mean, sometimes I have to go back over my shadow areas and re touch in certain areas and occasionally the highlights. It can kill the depth a little on a subtle paint job, more so on the subjects/colours you mention, but if you keep this in mind when painting you can overcome this issue, with maybe only slight touch ups afterwards. It's that Flat once done, that any remedial work in oils afterwards usually dries just as flat, as it sucks up the oils.

 

[Kevin D.]

Kevin the best thing you can do is throw the prussian blue in the trash ; it is totally useless for painting figures , far to heavy a pigment which will always dry with a bright sheen , it can also bleed into other colours after it appears to be dry .

Better to use Colbat and indigo mixed , much less aggressive and with a little encouragement via the heat lamp will matt out .
A good black to add is mars black which will matt nicely also .

Thanks Ron, Quite interesting information! This has been a GREAT thread Steve!

 

[theBaron]

...throw the prussian blue in the trash ; it is totally useless for painting figures , far to heavy a pigment which will always dry with a bright sheen , it can also bleed into other colours after it appears to be dry...

Thanks for that info, Ron! That is precisely the experience I had when I tried using it on a figure. I have Mussini-Schminke colors, and I cut it with the wax, but it still dried with a bit of a gloss.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

Thanks for that info, Ron! That is precisely the experience I had when I tried using it on a figure. I have Mussini-Schminke colors, and I cut it with the wax, but it still dried with a bit of a gloss.

Prost!
Brad

Pruss blue and also Flake white are an absolute no no Brad