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Special topics in art history
Course: Special topics in art history > Unit 2
Lesson 7: Painting terms in action- Art Terms in Action: Turpentine Burn
- Art Terms in Action: Palette Knife
- Art Terms in Action: Stain
- Art Terms in Action: Emulsion
- Art Terms in Action: Enamel
- Art Terms in Action: Paint
- Art Terms in Action: Tint, Shade, and Tone
- Art Terms in Action: Viscosity
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Art Terms in Action: Viscosity
To experiment on your own, take our online studio course Materials and Techniques of Postwar Abstract Painting. Created by The Museum of Modern Art.
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When would one use turpentine versus linseed oil? Is this for thinning different kinds of paint (e.g., oil, tempera, etc.), or for a different effect (and if for effect, what sort would each produce)?(16 votes)
You'd use it in lower layers of your painting as turpentine dries faster than oil. A general rule in oil painting says "fat over lean" (more over less oil).
It also makes a less glossy, matte surface.(8 votes)
How and when was this method discovered?(7 votes)
If you watch the video a few before this one called "Paint," he shows how paint is a mixture of some kind of pigment, with some kind of bonding agent, like linseed oil. So the very invention of paint itself coincided with paint viscosity being discovered: by adding oil to the pigment, the artist was creating paint, but also making the paint more viscous.(13 votes)
Can we please get a video on color mixing. Each time he is using multiple colors to create other colors can we learn that here on KhanAcademy as well please? I bought watercolor paint and am starting to try it. I would love to know about mixing colors!(5 votes)
You should request this as a feature! Here's the link: https://khanacademy.zendesk.com/hc/communities/public/topics/200136634-Feature-Requests 'Cause yeah, I'd want to see that too. ;)(4 votes)
The enamel paint looked like it came in cans like wall paint or furniture stain does. Is that the same? I've never heard of wall paint being used for art pieces before.(2 votes)- Quite a few artists used regular household paint: Jackson Pollock is a good example, he used paint intended for household interior decorating in his drip paintings.(6 votes)
What's the difference between a high viscosity paint and a low viscosity paint when painting? Do they just provide a different texture?(2 votes)
They do, but not only that. High viscosity paints can be built up in thick layers and are generally opaque (as they contain so much pigment relative to binder). You can achieve very strong and vivid colours, and build up very textured works with this. Here's an example of Jon Bramblitt, a modern blind painter who has braille labels on the colour tubes to read and paints mainly by touch, so texture is very important here:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/-hfcp0dzaNCg/VRgP3ci1NyI/AAAAAAABAr4/EHSK7BVWCL8/john-bramblitt-3%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800
Low viscosity paint is made usually by adding more and more binder, so it becomes more translucent as well. You can use this to paint with washes and glazes instead of areas of block colour, and give the paintings a more luminescent feeling and depth. Here's an example of this type of painting, by Thomas Kinkade. Notice no one colour seems like a complete block, they seem to blend into each other and have a light almost shining out of the painting, which is the white of the canvas shining through the translucency of the paint:
http://img.alibaba.com/img/pb/181/873/540/540873181_238.jpg
You can also buy low viscosity paint as enamels or inks, where they are still very opaque and rich colours but very fluid. This lets you have a different control over the paint than you would with paste, where you can now use this to drip the paint and splatter it. Here's a Jackson Pollock that has very beautiful movement to it:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/pollock.number-8.jpg(4 votes)
- Viscosity is the thickness or transparency of the paint, right?(3 votes)
What is the science behind this? What if we add water to it?(1 vote)
It depends on the binding medium of a given type of paint. If, as in this example, the paint is oil-based, water would not work well to lower the viscosity.(2 votes)
At the beginning, how did the white and black turn red?(1 vote)
He had a little bit of red colour on the palette knife when mixing. (0:22)(2 votes)
- what is application of viscosity(1 vote)
Do the same techniques apply to thinning other paints like acrylic, or do other materials have to be used?(1 vote)
0:22
Video transcript
Viscosity is the thickness of any fluid and in paint, high
viscosity or viscos paint, comes straight out of the tube. In fact, it has the consistency
of toothpaste as you can see. One way to decrease the viscosity of paint is to add linseed oil to it. Another way to decrease the
viscosity of oil paint is to add solvent and in
this case, turpentine. And another way to use
low viscosity paint, is to simply paint with an enamel paint, which in the can is already prepared with a very low viscosity.