Hello all,
I am currently involved in a painting project consisting of 12 identically sized HDF panels (approximately 5″ x 8″) each of which have been prepared with slight textural differences (linen, cotton, or a collage of linen fabric all attached to the sized substrate with rabbit skin glue) or in a few cases, acrylic sculpting gel applied to the substrate over a few light coats of acrylic gesso. All these individaul treatments – each of which follow a preconceived design – preceded the two “final” coats of white lead primer (I used Old Holland “Cremser White” from a tin, which I understand is industrial lead carbonate ground with cold-pressed linseed oil. I thinned it to flowable consistency with five parts turpentine and one part stand oil). This primer was applied and cured for one year. (Not my plan to wait that long, it’s just what happened)
Now I am beginning the painting process. To reiterate, the central idea for these panels is/was to paint in oils over a traditional white lead oil ground – with this variety of textural interventions – and see what kinds of effects occur. So, I’m entirely open to fortuitous visual accidents, but at the same time I do not want my experiments to result in lack of adhesion or longevity.
Thus, my question/conundrum: the ground does not appear to be as absorbent as I might expect. Is this normal? This week I’ve done a very light, thinned imprimatura in yellow ochre over all twelve and let it dry three or four days. Then I transferred my design with charcoal and reinforced it in mars black (tube oil paint) heavily diluted with turpentine. I let these underdrawings dry two or three days. They look very good, but when I used a kneaded eraser to lightly remove the charcoal lines from my transfer I can see both yellow and black on my eraser. Not good, I think. Should I have waited longer for both of these underlayers to dry? They were certainly dry to the touch. Or did I make a mistake at the get go? Should I have thinned my lead primer with more turpentine and eliminated the stand oil?
I’d appreciate your thoughts or suggestions. Of course, if I need to, I can start over; recreate some of my textures, paint in oils over an acrylic gesso ground and chalk this one up to experience, however I am curious about the benefits of painting in oils over an oil based ground.
Thanks in advance for your insights.
Yours,
Ellen Trezevant
Thank you Brian. You confirmed my suspicions. Previous to this project my experience with grounds has been almost exclusively with traditional chalk gesso – thus my interest to experiment. But (unfortunately) when I began this project last year, I did not know about this MITRA forum. I found a recipe for dilution of lead white primer from a painter on wetcanvas.com. Lesson learned.
Two more questions then, since I want to prepare a new batch of panels, how much turpentine should I use to dilute the 120 ml tin of Old Holland Cremser White (industrial lead carbonate ground with cold-pressed linseed oil) that I bought from my art supply store? And secondly, how long should I wait until commencing painting on my primed surface? Some sources saw two weeks is sufficient drying time, other sources say it should cure for six months. Thanks again for your time.
Thanks Brian. I’ll try out these suggestions.
I would never add additional oil to ground layers, especially if you are going to use diluted oil paints as subsequent layers or as an imprimatura (these additional layers will have less binder than the ground, the opposite of what you want.). Honestly, most modern oil grounds are fatter than the Dutch Boy Lead White paste that was standard in the somewhat recent past. I do not know that this is the problem here (there are so many possible factors), but since the failure is between the ground and subsequent layers, I would guess that the issue is that the lead white ground is too slick for the thin subsequent applications of oil layers.
Ralph Mayer suggested to use 3 fluid ounces of solvent to dilute 1 pound of still white lead paste. This would be easier to use if volume to volume was indicated. I have generally used just enough solvent to allow the application of the ground. Sorry, this is rather vague. A similar situation is in place for dry time, 6 months was the gold standard but dry enough to withstand the fingernail test is PROBABLY sufficient.
Perhaps some of the problem you are encountering is not just that the ground is too fat but that your imprimatura are too lean. I would experiment with adding a touch of oil to the toning layers and not the ground. You are probably thinning these layers far more tha you are the ground which already has an addition of oil.
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