Certain Facts About Oil Paints That Are A Must To Know

By Author: DixieCunningham
Total Articles: 29
Comment this article

It is a well known fact that oil paints are the creators of world’s greatest paintings. Oil paintings have always been a renowned art piece whether it was by Leonardo Da Vince, Rembrandt, Michelangelo or modern art painting by one of the oil painting artists. Every painter has contributed greatly to this medium through a different style like stippling, brush strokes or adding a dimension through light and shade or by giving bright and vibrant colors to the paintings.

Oil paintings normally take lot of time to complete because of the involvement of oils that is mixed with the dry color. When oil is exposed to air, it is bound to get hardened and that is the basic principle of oil paintings. Normally linseed oil is employed in making oil paintings. It does take long time to dry the painting for the next layer of colors but the output is no doubt amazing. Some of the interesting facts about oil paints that not many people know are mentioned below:

* Oil paints started to be used in the 5th century in Afghanistan in order to decorate objects like shields. This practice was continued in the country till 9th century.

* ...
... Until 15th Century, Oil Paints were nowhere in usage in European countries. Artists used to employ egg tempera wherever required prior to emergence of oil paints.

* Wood was used initially for making paintings and it was after the emergence of oil paints that wood was replaced with canvas in the 16th century. Since canvas could hold oil pigment better as compared to wood and no beforehand preparation was involved, canvas surfaced thereafter.

* White oil paint was made with the aid of lead. The biggest advantage of lead was it quick drying power and covering the entire surface easily. However, it was poisonous. In the year 1845, they started to use zinc instead of lead.

* Before 19th century the studio of oil paintings artists used to resemble a laboratory. Oil paints were created by grinding the dry paint with oil, which needed lot of efforts. It was only after 1841 that oil paints started coming in tubes. Now there was no need to prepare the paint and all an oil paint artist had to do was to mix it with linseed oil.

Over a period of time, considerable changes have come in the preparation and usage of oil paints which has indeed helped the artists to prepare better artwork oil paintings.

For more information about Oil Painting, please visit http://goldenoilpaintings.com.