Painting Blues in Oils

[SerjeantWildgoose]

Help!

Having just been re-infected with the painting bug after a few years in remission, I have missed the Acrylic revolution. I still prefer to paint in oils and am up against a problem - well 2 problems.

First, my usual method of 'soaking' the oils on watercolour paper prior to use works well to reduce their sheen for every colour but blues. The finished product still comes out at a high sheen which is difficult to damp down with subsequent layers of matt varnish without losing the shading. Any other oil users out there care to share their method for producing matt blues?

Second, I work the weathering in as I paint the principal colours. Mixing earth colours with blue invariably leads to greens. Am I fighting a losing battle on this one or is there some mystical alchemy that will allow me to blend earth tones in to blues without this effect?

Andy

 

[megroot]

Andy,
I'm also a oil addict, and the only way for me to have the blues matted is as follow.
Just as you i let the oil soaked out on a paper. Then when i have painted the figure i put the figure in a drybox.
The blue is really matt.

Marc

 

[Excatlon]

change the mix

try this

BASE:COBALT BLUE + TITANUM WHITE
LIGHTS:BASE + TITANIUM WHITE
SHADOWS:COBALT BLUE
HEVY SHADOWS:COBLAT BLUE + LAMP BLACK

 

[Kisifer]

Well I usually do my blues with Prussian blue + Titanium white... or Sky blue... but the biggest trick here is not the colors in my opinion. I use the oils straight from the tube... but... the drying box is the secret here. Use it and forget the sheen for ever.

Xenofon

 

[Old Pete]

Hi There,
Here,s my way with dark blue,I leave the paint on a card to soak up the oil and then replace the oil with white spirit not turps as this will only make it shine again.this is the way I paint my ACW Union figures and they always dry matt I have never used a drying box
Regards
George

 

[madeg]

The trick I use is to add a little amount of indigo blue . This way the blue ends always matt.
I always mix the blues I want and at the end I add the indigo . The indigo I use is from Windsor and newton . Other brands are too glossy .

 

[Einion]

...I have missed the Acrylic revolution.

They're overrated anyway

First, my usual method of 'soaking' the oils on watercolour paper prior to use works well to reduce their sheen for every colour but blues. The finished product still comes out at a high sheen which is difficult to damp down with subsequent layers of matt varnish without losing the shading.

Which blues? This is going to be a particular problem with certain blues more than others because of the pigment(s) used - very fine pigments, particularly if the paint they make is naturally high in oil, will tend to make blue oil paint that dries glossy.

As a rule though French Ultramarine should give you the least problems.

But with speed-drying using heat used alongside soaking out the excess oils you should be able to get most oil paints to dry without an excessive sheen, if you're using them thinly enough and over an appropriate primer/undercoat paint.

Mixing earth colours with blue invariably leads to greens.

Use different earths; Burnt Umber for example should nearly never make colours with even a hint of green, often also true of Burnt Sienna, because they are approximately orange in hue. Gold Ochre, Raw Sienna, Yellow Ochre and Raw Umber on the other hand are all basically yellows.

Regardless though, even if you do use one of the latter group you can always tweak the colour of mixture, by adding a touch of Red Oxide for example. There's no rule that says you can't adjust a mixed colour any way you see fit - darker, lighter, redder, bluer or whatever, just add whatever it needs.

Einion