Oil painting problem...?

I am quite confused about preparing mixes for oil painting. Do we have to go on increasing drops of linseed oil (and paint) and reducing turpentine or a substitute while we proceed working in layers? or any link which describes this basic concept will be helpful.


thanksOil painting problem...?
All paint that comes in tubes has linseed oil. You should start with thin washes with terpentine or other paint thinner medium. That will be your wash. Than as you put on more layers you will add more oil or medium to the mixture. Don't try to paint really thick with lot of medium in the beginning and than with terpentine because your thinner layers will crack and not adhere properly to fatter/thicker layers.


Dilute your paint first with turps and as you progress add more linseed oil or other medium.


What I do is start with a paint and turp wash, than I work with paint straight from the tube, mixed on my pallete. In the end I will add more linseed oil and other medium mixtures to finish the painting.Oil painting problem...?
It all depends to what type of painting you are doing. If you are doing layers then simply applying linseed oil to thin it will be good enough to produce semi tranparent layers. I would recommend to play with different mediums get a feeling of them and eventually you will acquire a sense for what is necessary. The ones that i use most often are linseed oil, copal, and poppy as well as certain combinations. You can also use damar as a medium but in order to do so you have to prepare it yourself and apply the layers over a short period.


here are a couple of links to some demonstrations of layering as well as a book on the artist's materials which includes mediums


http://artpapa.net/content/view/27/53/


http://www.tonyryder.com/demo/index.htm


http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2002/鈥?/a>
If you are going to use linseed oil as part of your medium then you want to follow the 'fat over lean' rule. You shouldn't mix linseed oil with your beginning layers. It's just better to use the fat over lean rule otherwise your paint will crack after a couple of years.
The big thing here is also consistency. If you are speaking of glazing, sart with a mix of 80 percent medium and 20 percent paint. Then progessively layer changing the mix until you are using straight paint for the final touches. (60/40, 40/60, 20/80, etc...) As some have said, never use thin layers over fat! Have fun!
I'm not sure about that, but I Just use oil paint out of the tub without adding anything. I like it better that way.