Talk:Oil painting

Myths still being perpetuated

Whilst the van Eycks have been commonly believed to invent oil painting, we know for a fact that they didn't and that the process is well documented, at least as early as the beginning of the 12thc century.

As for canvas painting, painting on cloth predates the Van Eyks too, again instructions exist from Cennini.

Re not using egg on shields, this is not true, egg, size and oil were all used on shields and other itemss, it depends on what the use was. Also the use of the word 'tempera' is historically misleading as it is was a generic term for binders, regardless of type, it has now become synonymous with egg. That needs to be made clear for those who might be inclined to research further.

It might be nice if such synopses on oil painting might have a little more fact rather than pandering to modern myths about it.

Quite a lot of misinformation

I only read a little, but I found a lot of incorrect info. I can't take the time to fix it right now. I only got as far as the section on preparing a surface (should be "support") for a painting. Traditional gesso is only for use on rigid supports (panels), not canvas. So-called acrylic gesso is okay for canvas, but it's hard to sand between coats as suggested. It gums up the sandpaper. Golden makes a sandable acrylic "gesso", but it is for use only on panels, and then only over coats of regular acrylic gesso.

Jive Dadson 06:33, 25 February 2006 (UTC) Jive

Oldest comment

Might want to mention some famous oil paintings from antiquity to present times; schools such as impressionism or cubism; etc. --Ed Poor

Slang

Removed (we're not a dictionary of slang):

The term is also used as a mild insult, generally towards a woman who has questioned the looks of another woman: "You're no oil painting yourself", implying that the target is not particularly attractive.

I second: needs links to famous oil paintings and critical discussion

I do not have anything approaching knowledge on this subject, so I can't do this. But adding some links to great oil painters and relevant debates and discussions of art on the topic of oil painting would be easy for someone with some knowledge about this. What about a more detailed history of oil painting? --Upmarket 22:08, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thirded - Examples of quality, famous, classical artworks

The current example is neither of good art - not even for a three year old - nor of what oil paintings are.

That these anecdotes mascarade as arts is a serious deformity of the post-modern world. It's particularly sad since oil painting has to it's phalanx some of the most known artists and incredible talents through centuries and centuries of European art.

Really, couldn't, shouldn't, better examples be provided? *sigh*

Wording

This phrase confused me on first reading:

Surfaces like shields — both those used in tournaments and those hung as decorations — were more durable

Somehow I thought that "shields" meant a protective coating like lacquer over the painting, like glass in a picture frame. You meant a military shield used in combat - like Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, knights in shining armor trying to slice or skewer each other with swords.

Maybe re-casting this sentence from the passive voice? Like:

• Knights decorated their shields with oil painting - instead of tempera - because . . .

--Uncle Ed 12:14, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Changes In Progress?

I know about the history and various techniques of oil painting, I'll try to post something here shortly that everyone can figure out how to add into the main article. I know it won't be in the Wikipedia-standard format, but I can provide sources for the technical development and much more specific how-to's, etc. If anyone else is already working on this, let me know and I'll review the info or references in progress.

New history/technique references: 1.[[1]]http://www.cyberlipid.org/perox/oxid0011.htm

Fine Arts 16:42, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Oil on canvas

There is a redirect from oil on canvas but there is no section on this page describing oil on canvas. Is this a joke ? Bragador 23:42, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Comments

My comments on my edit didn't show up. I removed the part about "canvas not having these any of these problems" (associated with panels). In fact, paintings on panel generally survive much better than those on canvas. True, some panels have split. But it is very common for oil paintings on canvas to crack, due to the flexibilty of the canvas. The canvas itself can also go bad, from rotting, bacterial infection, insects, or whatever. Conservators often have to go through the tedious and risky procedure of removing a painting from its original canvas, and putting it on a new support. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jive Dadson (talk • contribs) 09:08, 24 December 2006 (UTC).

Turpentine and Mineral Spirits

I just added a bit about using mineral spirits instead of turpentine.

The fat over lean bit is true, but doesn't this only apply to fatty paintings? For instance, Rembrandt (I thought) painted lean with mineral spirits exclusively, did he not? I thought it's only when a heavy lean layer is applied to a fatty layer that one begins to get sweating, bubbling, etc. Like in the case my friend had recently when he tried to paint acrylic over oil. Oops!

I'm going to try to work in a bit about modern vehicles such as neo megilp and the toxic (yet once popular) lead megilp later on.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a list of oil company manufacturers: Sennelier, Gamblin, etc.? If someone has time.... ;)

Naomichanart 21:59, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

I am afraid there maybe hundreds of them (I know of Talens, Winsor&Newton, Scheveningen, Lukas, Daler-Rowney, Schminke, Spectrum; which are all stocked by my local supplier). I am not a favourite of lists for lists sake, so what would be the added value, here? (E.g. For List of Towers the listin allows you to compare well known towers on height). Arnoutf 13:07, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

lol.... because I came here looking for a list. :D

Naomichanart 16:54, 21 January 2007 (UTC)