How to get the proper medium for oil painting?

I don't know if I have crappy paints or I am not using the right mixture. I use linseed oil and turpenoid. Or sometimes ';stand'; oil and turpenoid. It never comes out how I am looking for. It is either too transparent, when I use a lot of turpenoid, its like watercolor or it is just way too broken down. I am looking for a medium I could use for realism: something opeque but not straight paint and not too transparent.





Does anyone have any mixture that work well for them?





Any suggestions would be great.





ThanksHow to get the proper medium for oil painting?
medium is not FOR opacity. It is by definition a vehicle by which fluidity is increased, opacity is decreased and transparency and translucency, highly useful and desirable qualities in realism, are increased. To increase opacity use direct paint, mix white or umbers to increase the opacity of thinned colors (this, however makes colors chalky and dull) or paint with only a small amount of solvent to increase liquidity.


My recipe is similar, but a 3,2,1 recipe using refined linseed since I find stand oil tends to yellow and is too syrupy for my effects.


3 parts Eng turp


2 parts linseed oil


1 part damar varnish


(the varnish is necessary to increase and balance the elasticity and flexibility of the paint film)





(Turpenoid is not recommended for medium as its interaction with the varnish and linseed oil is unstable compared to English turpentine.)How to get the proper medium for oil painting?
ok my favorite recipe for the perfect oil painting medium is........





5 parts english distilled turpentine


1 part stand oil


1 part damar varnish





you only need a few drops per pile of paint that you mix. if you add too much you will thin the paint to much, which is bad unless you want it that thin. This medium has a nice sheen without being tooo glossy, dries fairly quickly and really holds paint to the surface so that if your painting gets bumped during transport, you wont scrape off the picture so easily.


I would just get a little squeeze bottle that you can close and mark it off in 7 equal sections with numbers and fill up the first 2 sections with the damar varnish and stand oil then fill up the rest with the english distilled turpentine, that way you always have it ready to go when you need it. Dont use turpenoid as a medium, its great for cleaning brushes, but its crap as a medium. The kind of turpentine is important, make sure it is specifically english distilled. It comes in a little glass bottle and it is a little expensive, but well worth it.