Oil paints are made basically by mixing cold-pressed Linsed oil with pigment or color until a smooth buttery paint is produced. When the oil paint is used and applied to a surface the oil oxidizes or absorbs air and then forms a solid film that binds the pigment to the surface of the painting.

The industrial manufacture of oil paint is a complex process. Industrial manufacturers have expensive machinery to make subtle changes in the range of painting colors and consistency. In fact it is relatively complex process to make your own oil paints. Why then would one want to produce one’s own oil paint?

Reasons for making your own oil paint.

There are a number of reasons for an artist to grind their own oil paints. The first is that it is far more economical. For a relatively small outlay, and a few hours of labor, one can make amounts of oil paint that will be much cheaper than buying tubes of paint from the manufacturer. However, the most important reason for making your own paint is the knowledge that you will acquire through this process. By grinding pigment and mixing it with oil, you will develop an intimate knowledge of the materials and the way they react under different conditions. By developing this knowledge, the artist will also be able to modify the paint according to personal need. For example, you could develop a color which is faster drying, or which has other ingredients, such as wax, added to it.

What do you need?

The following equipment is required to start the process.

A professional spatula, a scraper, palette knife, a pair of pliers, preferably artist’s canvas-stretching pliers or upholsterers pliers and a grinding muller made of glass and a grinding slab. The grinding slab must be made of glass and should be about a quarter of an inch thick.

Material needed for the actual color making include:
Dry pigments- preferably artist’s quality pigments.
Thinner- turpentine or pure gum spirits.
Wax- pure white beeswax
Oil- pure cold-pressed Linseed oil.
Stabilizer- a stabilizer can be made using linseed oil and wax. (This is optional at the beginning stages and will not be dealt with in this article.)

The process

Preparation of the glass slab.
Attach the glass slab to a table by nailing wood strips around its edges so that it cannot move about on the table while grinding. It is important to put a sheet of fairly heavy cardboard between the glass slab and the table. This is to prevent any cracking of the glass.

Firstly, add carborundum grit to the slab- about a half a teaspoon. Then add some water to make a paste. You then use the glass muller to grind the paste in a circular motion so that the carborundum roughens the surface of the glass. When this has been done, rinse both the glass muller and slab with water and dry. The reason for this process is to provide sufficient ” tooth” so that the paint will be ground properly.

The Grinding Process
Start by grinding your selected pigments using Linseed oil only. The basic idea is to mix the oil slowly to the pigment until a paste is formed. Put the dry pigment in the middle of the grinding slab and add some oil. Mix this with a spatula until a fairly stiff paste is formed. Remove this paste using a scraper to one side of the glass plate.

Then take a small amount of this paste, about two teaspoonfuls, and place it in the center of the grinding slab and proceed to grind with the Muller. You should not use too much pressure and should grind in a circular motion. Grind until the paste is very smooth. This smooth paste is your oil paint. Make sure that the paste does not become too liquid. If this should happen, add more pigment to the paste and continue grinding. Once you have ground all the paste in this fashion, use the palette knife to mix it further. The paint should have a buttery consistency. It is now ready to be put into tubes.

There are, of course, many additions and variations to this process, including the addition of stabilizers and wax and also of various other oils, varnishes and chemicals that can be added to the process. The above is the basic process and is only the beginning of your experimentation in making your own oil colors.

Storage

It is important to make sure that all your materials are properly stored. There is probably nothing worse than working through the entire process of grinding oils, only to find that your materials were not pure. Dry pigment should always be stored in glass jars. They should be well sealed so as avoid any moisture. The oils used as binders should be kept in full jars. The air should be kept out of these jars, as this will initiate the process of oxidation. A method of keeping out the air is to place glass marbles into the jars as you take out the oil for use. This keeps the jar filled with oil at all times, keeping out the air.

Store all turpentine away from light and air in closed dark-glass containers. Turpentine should not be kept for too long, as it tends to deteriorate over time.

Many students want to start with abstract art and many of them soon give it up. The reason for this is that abstract art is difficult. It is difficult in the sense that it requires artistic discipline, knowledge and a certain amount of expertise in painting techniques, usually acquired through training in more formal aspects of art.

Abstract art does promise more freedom of expression. It does allow a more expansive and intuitive play of creativity. The reason why many students fail to find it satisfying is that abstract art can all too easily result in a mess without any inner cohesion. Although many artists have begun with abstract art, it generally needs some practice in form, color and modeling before it becomes a worthwhile endeavor.

Having said this, the following article attempts to introduce abstract art for the beginner. As long as you have had some experience with drawing and painting you should be able to grasp the essence of what abstract art is all about.

Abstract art has been around for a long time. Cézanne painted essentially abstract art even though his subject matter was ostensibly realistic. Abstract art is linked in the past century to a much larger movement. This was the modernist movement against representation.

Representation was the unwritten belief that art was meant to reflect or represent what there was in the everyday world. Artists rebelled against this restriction and especially against the idea of art only as imitation. The idea of art for its own sake began to develop in the middle of the nineteenth century. In other words, art no longer had to refer to something in the everyday world. Color and form could express feeling or states of consciousness that were personal and not necessarily ” realistic.”

Artists like Paul Klee developed his own vocabulary of form, symbol and color as well as new techniques to express his inner vision. Picasso is probably the innovator who did the most to popularize and give legitimacy to abstract art.

How to create an abstract painting.

Firstly, as has been stated, abstract art is not merely messing with paint.

(Although there is nothing wrong with messing with paint in order to experiment and discover new possibilities.)

Abstract art requires great formal discipline. What does this mean? The following exercise in abstract art should make this clear.

Begin your first abstract work of art by painting or drawing something from real life. Consider this a form of sketching or preparation for the abstract painting. Begin, for example, with something very ordinary, like a bowl of fruit, a flower, or a portrait.

For purposes of this demonstration we will take a picture of a cat. This is a very simple form so it should not present much difficulty. Sketch the cat on a piece of paper or canvas; depending on which medium and surface you are most comfortable with. The process of sketching is in reality a process of close study. While sketching try to pay attention to the following:

Form: look at the form of the cat. This is a form that we are used to; it has become habitual to us. There is seemingly, at first glance, nothing strange about the form of a cat. Look again. As you sketch try to look at the shape from a different perspective as if you were seeing it for the first time. This is very difficult as we are accustomed to categorizing this shape in our minds and in fact neglecting to look at it in detail.

As you sketch, something should be happening to your old habitual ways of seeing the cat. The cat is in fact a very strange form. You should start to become aware of the uniqueness and strangeness of this form. In other words, you begin to appreciate the form as something that is strange, but also interesting.

Color. Once you have sketched the shape, begin to look at the color of the cat and also the shades of color within the main colors. Paint with watercolor or very thin oils over your sketch. Look at the shadows and you will see many different shades of color that you probably did not notice previously.

For example, if this is a black cat, after observing the cat for a while you will see different shades of black, from gray to even blue and purple. In this process you are beginning to see further than the usual cursory glance that we often give to things around us. In a sense, you are becoming sensitized to the world in a new way through art.

There will be those students who are confused at this point and possibly even slightly irritated. Please note that this is not something that happens quickly. Remember that we have many years of habitual sight, of re-presenting the world to ourselves through the eyes of others and through what we have been told by our peers and society. This takes time and a lot of practice and patience, but unless one goes through this process, abstract art cannot become a reality.

Once you have begun to find the cat to be more than just a picture of a cat but a complex relationship of form and color then you are on the cusp of beginning to understand abstract art.

After many more studies of the cat you should find that some areas or colors become more interesting than others- this is when abstract art becomes fascinating.

Practically, the next step is to paste all your sketches on a board and spend some time looking at them. Many artists leave the process at this stage and move onto something else. They do so in order for the images to “boil” in their subconscious minds. This is important, as the purpose of abstract art is not to imitate the picture of a cat but to glean certain images, forms and color knowledge that may or may not be combined with other images.

When you feel that you simply must paint the cat, then go back to your sketches. After a period of time it is also normal to see shapes and even colors that you did not see previously. It is almost as if your mind has been working on this painting without your conscious knowledge. Set up your canvas or paper and, glancing at the sketches, begin to paint or draw those areas that you find fascinating. This is still a sketch, albeit a final one. Feel free to add and subtract to and from your painting. Do not feel restricted by anything but in a disciplined way refer to your sketches for inspiration.

What finally emerges on your painting surface depends on how hard you have concentrated on the image of the cat. When you step back and look at your painting you might see something that has no resemblance to a cat at all- it may be a collection of colors, shapes and forms interweaving, or it might have the general outline of the cat. Work at this until you feel that you have exhausted the possibilities that the image of the cat offers.

Working from this sketch, begin the final process of creating your abstract painting. Remember that there is no point at which anyone can say that an abstract painting is finished. Only the artist knows this.

Stretching your own canvas is fairly easy once you know the procedure and have the proper tools and materials. Note that the canvas referred to below is pre-primed; but you could also use the following procedure with raw canvas and, after it has been stretched, prime it with two coats of acrylic gesso. Please read through all of the instructions first, since certain steps must be prepared for in advance.

First you will need to gather a few tools and materials: canvas pliers, stapler/staples or hammer and tacks, stretcher strips, and canvas. In addition, a T-square is convenient to help you insure that the stretchers are square. Then follow these steps to stretch your canvas:

1. Select the appropriate-sized stretchers for the canvas you want to build. Your art supply store has a variety of pre-cut wooden frame rails (or stretcher bars) that have interlocking mitered edges.

2. Once your stretcher frame is assembled on a flat surface, you should verify that it is square. Do this by taking a tape measure and checking that the diagonal distances from both opposing corners are equidistant. (They almost always will be.) If you encounter an offset, you can correct it by attaching a small metal right-angle brace on the inner frame corner. A small plywood right-angle triangle attached to the rear frame corner will also help correct any shift.

3. For frame rails longer than 36 inches, an interior brace should be inserted between these rails to support them from bowing inward after the canvas has been attached. This will also protect against frame distortion during periods of fluctuating humidity. If this type of support rail did not already come with your pre-cut frame, you should cut a piece of similar wood and attach it with the type of braces detailed in step 2.

4. Take the canvas and lay the primed side down on a clean, flat surface. Place the frame atop the canvas and then cut away any excess material so that there are two inches of excess canvas bordering the frame on all sides. It is important that you leave this border material because this is what you will use to grip, stretch, and attach the canvas to the frame.

5. Fold one side of the canvas over one of the shorter frame rails and then attach a canvas tack at the center of the outside edge of that rail.

6. At the opposite side, use canvas pliers (which are similar to regular pliers except they have a broader gripping area) to grip the canvas at mid-rail. It may be helpful for you to set the frame upright while doing this. With a firm grip, pull the canvas until a straight crease is formed to the tacked end. While keeping tension on the canvas, insert another tack at the center edge of the rail, just like the other side. Note that you may also use a staple gun/staples instead of tacks. (The Arrow JT-21 is easy to use.)

7. Move to the next frame rail (one of the longer ones) and repeat steps 5 and 6. As you do, you will notice a triangular canvas crease as you attach the third side and then a diamond-shaped crease when the fourth tack is attached on the remaining mid-rail.

8. Now, place temporary tacks at all four corners. Starting with the center of one of the long rails, grip the canvas tightly with the pliers and fasten tacks at 2″ intervals. Repeat with several tacks in both directions (from center) and then switch to the opposite side and repeat this process. Continue working from the center until both long sides are completely tacked down to all but one inch from each corner, stretching the canvas evenly as you proceed.

9. Once both long sides are finished, remove the temporary tacks that you fastened in step 8. Now repeat the same fastening process for both of the short sides, working out from the centers. For smaller canvases, one entire short side can be fastened first, followed by the opposite side. Larger canvases should be rotated several times to evenly stretch the material over the frame. Note that a primed linen canvas (oil-primed linen, in particular) will normally require that the tacks be placed closer together, due to the limited stretch of this material.

10. Fold and pleat the corners of the canvas and then neatly wrap them around to the rear of the canvas frame. Keeping tension on the material, tack all of the excess cloth to the rear of the frame so that it is neatly secured. Then place tacks on all four outer corners. This excess material is important to have in case you ever need to restretch or remount the canvas.

Any remaining canvas indentations or ripples can be reduced by moistening the affected area with a damp sponge. Be careful not to saturate, and allow the canvas to dry completely in a well-ventilated area.

Keep in mind that it is easier to stretch primed cotton and Polyflax canvas than it is to mount a primed linen canvas, since linen fibers do not stretch as much. Oil-primed canvas requires the most attention when mounting on a frame because it has virtually no stretch. When working with this type of canvas, you may have to remove tacks in wrinkled sections and then restretch and retack.

By following the above steps and using proper materials and a few tools, you can easily build your own canvas. With a little practice, the process becomes much faster and easier, almost to the point of becoming routine.

Whether it’s the second gunman on the grassy knoll, the alien mystery at Roswell or what really is hidden within the high-security confines of Area 51… conspiracy theories abound. Many of us are amused by the speculation, while hardcore buffs examine every nuance looking for clues to support their version of the story.

If you’ll notice, all of these conspiracy theories involve some type of dastardly deed or cover-up. Someone is out to brainwash us or hide the facts from the public. After all, “the truth is out there,” according to X-Files scripture. I never seem to hear people suspecting, for instance, a conspiracy by furniture salesman to stuff money into the nooks and crannies of the couches they sell. Yet I always find change under the cushions when I clean. Hmm… maybe they’re secretly… Oh, never mind.

There’s another kind of conspiracy conjurer. You know the type. The artist, musician or writer who believes the deck has been stacked against him or that nobody will ever give her a break. “This town is just not artist-friendly,” he/she proclaims. “This sucks. Why bother?”

To listen to these people, you’d think the radio stations, theatre groups, art galleries (or whatever venue applies) were all part of a sick joke, trying to obliterate creative growth. And just like the bigger conspiracy nuts, they find clues and plenty of ammo to support their claims.

“See, that guy never returned my call,” they announce. “I can’t buy a job in this town.” Anything even remotely inconvenient that happens to them lends credence to the devious master plot.

Here’s a fun little game that I challenge you to play. It’s called the Inverse Conspiracy Game. For one entire day, I encourage you to go through the day believing wholeheartedly that there is a conspiracy involving you. Only with this Inverse Conspiracy, the whole world and everyone in it are involved in a conspiracy to help you succeed.

If you’re familiar with the recent Jim Carey movie “The Truman Show,” you know what I mean. In the film, everything that happens to the main character is a preplanned scene — only he has no idea it’s fabricated.

So for one day, imagine that everyone is pitching in on a secret mission to help you. There’s a positive reason behind everything that happens to you. Even seemingly negative events are put into action in order to propel you toward a reward that’s just around the corner. And it’s your job to break the code and figure out exactly how the world intends for you to use what happens to your advantage.

True, this isn’t your father’s conspiracy theory. It will take some brain work to reorient your mental perspective — especially to keep it up for an entire day. But just think how this shift in attitude might alter your progress. You’ll be forced to view everything in a far more constructive light. And when bad things do happen, it will be your mission to find the hidden opportunity (instead of more reasons to stop trying to reach your creative goals).

Give this inverse conspiracy theory a try. You can always go back to looking for evil schemes and cover-ups. In the meantime, you just might discover an alien on a grassy knoll waiting to help you succeed.

Bob Baker is the author of “Unleash the Artist Within,” “Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook” and “Branding Yourself Online.” Get a FREE subscription to Bob’s newsletter, “Quick Tips for Creative People,” featuring inspiration and low-cost, self-promotion ideas for artists, writers, performers and more. Visit www.PromoteYourCreativity.com for details.

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