Aug 21 - 22

Aug 22

No work on the painting.  Long day at work sapped all my physical and mental energy.  I figure that I can at least mention the pallet that I'm using as well as my glazing medium formula.  So here is what I'm working with:

Colors

Burnt Umber

Cobalt Blue Light

Titanium White

Yellow Ochre

Paynes Gray

Vermillion Red Deep

Medium

To make my painting medium I buy the raw damar crystals.  It's a bit of a lenghty process to make but I have better working results with it than the stuff that is pre-made in the stores.

To start:

One part damar crystals and one part pure gum terpentine*

*It has to be pure gum turpentine.  Don't use anything else because it's not strong enough to dissolve the crystals (I'm talking to you Turpenoid).

Once the crystals are dissolved and you have a thick yellow syrup, use that syrup to make one part "syrup" to one part turpentine.  You could do one part crystals in the beginning and two parts turp but for the sake of measuring I do it in the second step.

Now what you have is a final picture varnish.  To make a retouch varnish take one part final picture varnish and one part turpentine.

To make a painting medium, this is where you start making it your own, you can go any way you want.  My medium is one part final picture varnish, one part stand oil, one-two drops of cobalt dryer, and 5 parts turpentine.  That give me a thin glazing medium that I prefer to work with because of the transparency and the ability to rub/wipe away color.  I make this in small batches where each part is one tablespoon.  You don't want this stuff hanging around in a bottle forever, it sorta goes bad. Fresh is best.  One old mix is one part turp, one part picture varnish, and one part stand oil.  I find that mixture to be too harsh to work with.

---

Aug 21

I was starting to sleep here...