I am reposting my latest question since I now have a new issue, previously discussed under the thread about white-looking filmy rings of presumed impurities that were brought up by cleaning an in-progress painting with artist’s rectified turpentine then wiping again with OMS to remove any turps residue. I have another strange issue with the same painting that I think must have also been caused by cleaning it with turps.
This happened as I painted a passage two weeks ago in the area I had previously wiped-down (long evaporated), which to recap was a mechanically-thin underpainting on acrylic dispersion primer. I’m using professional grade oils suspended in walnut oil, with a walnut oil/alkyd medium. The underpainting was done several years ago using a different brand of solvent-based alkyd medium, mixed 50/50 with OMS. In my second, current layer on this underpainting, I’m using a 60/40 fatter ratio, and in both layers, the paint is adulterated 20% with my medium mixtures. The substrate is high quality, stretched linen canvas, and if it makes a difference, my studio relative humidity percentage was really low when I last painted (in the mid to high 20s) with a temperature of 72F.
I’ve been working on this piece for several months with no issues until I wiped the lower part of the painting with the turpentine as I mentioned previously. It’s a huge canvas, so I have to paint one manageable area at a time. What happened recently is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this happen in the several decades that I’ve been painting in oil paints. I noticed after I had completed this particular passage that the walnut oil was leaching out in a thin ring around the edges, as one might see had it been placed on paper or a paper palette. It happened both onto the adjoining underpainting and the adjoining long-dry area with a second layer at 60/40 (the green grass in the attached photo). I knew it would be bad to leave a “bare” unpigmented oil edge like that, so the only thing I could think of to do was to wipe that oily edge off with my lint-free rag with OMS, then retouch the edges of the areas so they weren’t inadvertently too lean. I kept having to work back and forth until it wasn’t leaching out anymore. There were a couple of places where I was never able to reapply paint on the edge without it continuing to leach, but I was wiping very carefully, so I don’t expect it to be too lean at the edge.
Unfortunately, when I returned to the studio this week, I discovered that the leaching may have continued in a few spots. It’s hard to tell, since I do see a darker outline, but it doesn’t look as shiny as the main passage. I know if I overpaint unpigmented oil that it could cause adhesion issues, but it I leave the areas that they can discolor over time, so I wondered about carefully sanding these edges? It’s the only thing I can think of, so I welcome your expertise.
When I was painting this passage, I recall feeling that when the brushes went down, the surface had a different “drag” to it, an almost “squeaky” feeling, so I suspect that somehow, by using the turps, I disrupted the oil layer of the underpainting, though it is definitely not underbound. Would oiling out the next area before painting each new passage take care of this? I don’t usually oil out as I work, and I know you have to paint over it lest it turn brown eventually if left bare. If this is the solution, I’m also wondering if this would be enough oil to affect my fat-over-lean ratio. Since it is difficult to always predict what organic shapes my textures will take in each segment of working on this huge canvas, I’m a little concerned about oiling out, unless it isn’t as difficult to manage properly as I am thinking.
I don’t yet know if the grass areas with the previously discussed subtle white filmy rings of impurities that also resulted from this turps application will behave in this same way. I really hope not! And just to dot the I and cross the T, did you think that I’d be able to overpaint those affected areas with highlights and shadows without those presumed impurities coming up to haunt me later?
So my three questions are: 1) how to continue painting the areas near the passage that leached oil to keep the leaching from happening again, 2) how to handle the now-dry areas of presumed oil outlines that look like they continued to leach from this passage after I left the studio, and 3) if I can overpaint the areas where white filmy impurities were brought up by turps.
I’m attaching a few photos of this oil leaching situation that were taken prior to my efforts to correct the situation. It looks like a darker gray pencil line of sorts. I haven’t been able to find anything about this phenomenon, so I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help. This is a very large work for which I have received grants and have a deadline, so for both financial and time reasons, starting over isn’t an option.
Many thanks!
oil leaching example 1.jpg
oil leaching example 2.jpg
oil leaching example 3.jpg
First, why wipe an acrylic dispersion underpainting down with Turp or OMS? Any residual components that you may want to remove would not be soluble in those solvents as they tend to be aqueous soluble. Second, why are you “wiping”? Unless the painting (acrylic or oil) has been left dormant for some time, I do not understand the reasoning for this. If the paint is still sensitive to solvents (young oil paint and read above about acrylic dispersion paints) you are disturbing the paint film, not making it more receptive to additional layers. Third, I think that you are worrying too much about fat over lean and are overcompensating. It is not essential that every layer be EXACTLY at the precise level of fatness.
There is essentially no way to practically do this anyway. As long as a slightly less bound layer of paint is going to be covered with a more appropriately bound or even slightly more substantially bound layer of paint, do not oil out. Please read through the threads about pigment vehicle concentration (PVC) here and on other useful sites like Golden Artists Colors and Natural Pigments.
I have no idea what “oil was leaching out in a ring” could possibly mean. Do you mean that there is absorption into the canvas? I would think not considering the amount of medium you add. Do you mean that there is a sort of crawling ring that radiates from the area? I find phenomena like that occur when the preceeding layer of paint is way too fat.
As above, try to avoid the practice of oiling out so much. Please read our sections on oiling out in our “resources section”. Here is the truth of the matter, painters who just paint and do not micro-manage/obsess about tiny differences of “fat over lean” AND who do not add large amounts of fatty mediums to their paint are less likely to have these issues. This is not to say that it is not appropriate to logically think about layering. It is just that it appears that many painters (especially those that poured over R. Mayer’s tomes) seem to think that they need to add an over abundance of fatty media to each layer.
As to your pictures. I cannot really get a visual sense of what you are describing in prose. What I see are regions of very glossy paint layers sitting next to passages that are far less glossy/more lean. I cannot tell exactly from the images, but PERHAPS there is a transition where the oil from the fat paint saturates the perimeter of the more lean paint, saturating the color. This may not be true, I am stretching here.
As to how to proceed. I am unfortunately unable to completely identify either the problem, nor come up with a definable mechanism for the defect. This is really not something that is well suited to diagnose via photos. MITRA was not really intended as a place to send photos of painting defects where we could give simple remedial answers. It is not that we refuse such posts, it I just that this is difficult to do from a distance.
As to finishing the work, If you had been painting with paint neat from the tube and adding no or only tiny portions of additional media to subsequent layers, it would be simple to either just paint over with neat paint or add a tiny bit of addition medium for completion. This is, of course, overly simplistic, paintings are very often much more complicated than this. The issue that you are dealing with is that you have dealt with various areas of the work in such very different manners, and various sections have such different levels of gloss and absorption that you have set yourself up for complications.
However, this is not surmountable. First, stop wiping, this does nothing good. Second, finish the works in a relatively simple manner. If you need to fatten a paint layer add an amount of alkyd medium in the appropriate amount but without too much additional solvent AND do the manipulation using the brush and not the spreading effects of solvents. Because you are not adding solvents or only minimally you can use far less medium and there is less of a chance for any spreading.
I have to admit that I have only a basic understanding of the issue that you describe since your images were not sufficient to show me the exact problem. It is, therefore, possible that my interpretation is not on point.
Best
Thanks for the clarification. I hate to write this but I am just not sure that I can help explain the phenomenon via a screen. You are probably doing what you can be wiping away and superfluous oil before it sets. Beyond that I am not sure what I can write. It does sound anomalous given what you write and the fact that you have not encountered this before despite having used the same technique. Is there any chance that acrylic dispersion ground is of a poor quality and is repelling the paint/oil? This seems a stretch, but there are very poor quality pre-primed canvases that are inimical to paint application. It is also super unlikely because such cheap grounds would be very unlikely to have been applied to a linen canvas. Sort of plating over gold with copper. I am stretching but I cannot think of anything else given what you have told us and viewing the images.