Thursday, February 18, 2010

How can I understand if an oil paint color transparent or not ?

What kind of yellow is transparent ? Should I never use any transparent color for the first layers ?How can I understand if an oil paint color transparent or not ?
I don't know about oils, but if an acrylic yellow is transparent - it will say so on the label. I use the transparent when I don't want the color so saturated. So, if I want it to be just a light wash then I use a transparent color.How can I understand if an oil paint color transparent or not ?
The transparent oil paints have a kind of inner glow, like precious stones, whereas the opaque ones look solid, like river stones. My favorite transparent colors are: viridian, ultramarine blue, and alizarin crimson; and my favorite opaque colors are cadmium red, cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, and titanium white. Ivory black, burnt sienna, raw umber are semi-transparent and I use them as transparent.





The only transparent yellow I know of is indian yellow, but I don't really like it. For transparent yellow I use Georgian burnt sienna (more golden than others), mixed with cadmium yellow, or even just the cadmium yellow by itself, mixed with a nice medium.





For the first layers you can use what you went to, but her transparent colors look their best when used first, with the glowing white priming showing through.
You can get a list of the colours from your paint supplier, e.g. Rembrandt, or Windsor etc. The list will contain various information about the colours, toxicity, pigment etc, as well as a handy colour chart to give an idea about the colours (but not always accurate because of printing), it will also tell you which colours are transparent.





You may be able to download this from the manufacturers web site or get one from your supplier. If no an email request will do it, it's in their best interest to keep you buying their paints after all.





Good hunting.

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