Windsor & Newton Water
Mixable Oil Colors
perform just like
conventional oil colors,
except you can use
water to clean them up.
And the reason
you can do that is
because it's been
chemically modified
to be able to accept
the water for cleanup.
It's still, in these tubes
of paint, just pigment
and linseed oil,
so you can still
go through all the techniques
that you normally would.
But the great thing
about it is, if you
have some sort of
sensitivity to solvents,
or you just want the
ease of cleanup--
or like myself, I go out and
paint in landscapes sometimes
and I don't want to have
to take solvent with me--
this is a great way to
avoid that and move forward
with your oil painting.
And they also dry by oxidation
just like conventional oil
colors.
That means that the paint needs
to come into contact with air
to lock into place and
form a stable paint film.
So you want to
make sure that you
don't thin out your
paint with too much water
or too much thinner,
because it's
going to separate the
pigment there too far apart,
and you can lead to
cracking and instability.
In the same way, you don't want
to add too much oil to the mix,
either.
Too much oil in your
mediums is going
to cause the paint to bind up,
in what we call alligatoring.
It's also not stable, and it
doesn't look too good, either.
So you want to be
careful with that.
Now, there's 11
mediums in the range.
Two of them I have here, though,
are the more popular ones--
linseed oil and stand oil.
I'm going to use a little
bit of stand oil right now.
Pour some of this
on the palette.
It's got a very
honey-like consistency.
I like stand oil.
It's a little bit more
yellowing than the linseed oil.
Both will provide a gloss
and both will improve flow.
I'm going to take a little
bit of the ultramarine here.
And you want to use
only as much oil
as you need-- only
as much medium
as you need to get
the paint to flow.
Again, you don't
want to use too much.
And look at that, it just
really gets it to flow,
but it's got a nice,
nice feel to it.
The brush strokes level
nicely, so if I want to use it
for glazing, that's wonderful.
And that's one of the things
I always liked about it-- it's
just got a great feel
to it-- you really
need to feel it to
see what's happening.
And I'm going to take
water here, of course,
and clean that up.
Wipe off my paint brush
just a little bit more.
And I can do that.
Now, I also have
thinner here, too.
You might wonder,
well, why would
I need an artisan thinner
or a water mixable thinner
if I've got water-- it
seems to not make any sense.
But there's a good reason for
that-- the water evaporates
more quickly than
the thinner does,
so you'll have a longer
open working time with that.
And also what's going to happen
is, when you introduce water
into the paint film, light
refracts off water differently
than other surfaces.
And what's going
to happen-- it's
going to appear a
little bit lighter
than straight out of the
tube without water in that.
But that's OK, it's
going to evaporate.
The water is going to
evaporate from the paint
film in about a week or two.
And it's going to return
back to its normal color
and its normal sheen, so you
don't have to worry about that.
But it's just something
to be aware of.
And we've also got
varnishes over here,
so you can go through the whole
entire process of painting
through varnishing
with water clean up.
And we've got a matte, a satin,
and a gloss finish over there.
And you'll notice that
the matte and the satin
look a little bit cloudy.
That's because they have
matting agents in them
to knock down the sheen--
knock down the gloss.
So you want to stir them
up before you apply them
to your paint film.
And the reason you don't
want to shake them--
be careful of that-- is because
you can introduce bubbles
to the paint film,
and that's not
good for your varnished layer.
And a really important thing
with varnishing-- you still
need to wait six to 12 months
to varnish the painting.
Again, it's like a
conventional oil,
except you have the ability
to clean up with water.
So again, it's a wonderful
thing to be able to do.
It's easy, works nicely, and
you can avoid the solvents,
if that's something
that you want to do.
And also, brushes-- keep
in mind that if you're
going to use a brush
with this, or when
you use a brush with this, you
want to use a synthetic brush.
Hog hair or natural hair--
when it comes into
contact with water,
it's sort of like
your own hair--
too much humidity
gives you a bad hair
day-- you can have a bad hair
day for your brush, as well.
So when you use a
synthetic, they're
more apt to handle water better
and not lose their shape.
