Italian Varnish is not a picture varnish but rather a gel oil painting medium.
Italian Varnish was first mentioned by Jean-François-Léonor Mérimée in his 1839 book, The art of painting in oil and in fresco, as a “strong oil prepared in Italy from a very remote period, and which possesses the double-advantage of drying well, and preventing the flowing about of the most liquid glazing.” Italian Varnish is made using linseed oil, litharge (lead monoxide), wax and a small amount of gum turpentine, ground as fine as possible.
It is an amber gel medium that performs similarly to Maroger medium, except instead of mastic, this medium incorporates wax, which is ideal for those artists who prefer a thicker painting consistency and faster drying time.
Italian Varnish sets quickly, while providing translucency and body to oil colors when mixed with them in glazes. It gives a somewhat fluffy consistency to paint, making possible many different ways of using this subtle technique. In addition to the soft sheen of the medium, the artist now also has the means of more rapid execution. Artists can mix the Italian Varnish into light pigments (Lead White, Lead-Tin Yellow, Naples Yellow, Yellow Ocher, etc.) to give these colors more body and a thicker consistency.
It can help to build up the lights and adds translucency and impasto for the brightest passages of a painting.
Essentially a Walnut oil based Oleogel.
Walnut Oil Gel is a thixotropic (meaning the more it is worked the more fluid it becomes) painting medium made with walnut oil and pyrogenic silica. lt is a clear pale amber gel that adds transparency and thixotropic body to paint. Add pigments or extenders to thicken it for creating impasto effects that do not sink in. It will increase the drying time of oil paint.
Pale Drying Gel is a firm oil gel medium made with linseed oil and fumed silica. Add to hasten drying of oil colors for creating transparency for glazes and faster-drying paint layers. Contains manganese driers, so use it sparingly to avoid drying cracks in paint layers. Add directly to your paint to give it transparency without thinning its consistency. Add to pigments or extenders to thicken the gel to create impasto effects that do not sink in.
Oleoresgel is a firm thixotropic gel made with bodied linseed oil, alkyd resin and fumed silica. Add to thicken colors for creating impasto effects that do not sink. Contains no driers, so it is safe to use in oil painting without worry of cracking.
This smells beautiful. Balsam essential oil medium is composed of Canada balsam, pale bodied linseed oil and spike oil. Add to oil paint for enamel-like effects (gloss and greater colour saturation), to achieve glow in glazes and to facilitate fusion of the colours and brushstrokes.
Rublev Colours Lead White #1 (also known as flake white or Cremnitz white) is an opaque white that is smooth and long. It is the most common white found on the old masters' palette.
Essentially a Walnut oil based Oleogel.
Walnut Oil Gel is a thixotropic (meaning the more it is worked the more fluid it becomes) painting medium made with walnut oil and pyrogenic silica. lt is a clear pale amber gel that adds transparency and thixotropic body to paint. Add pigments or extenders to thicken it for creating impasto effects that do not sink in. It will increase the drying time of oil paint.
A genuine best seller!
Oleogel is a thixotropic painting medium made with linseed oil and pyrogenic silica. Thixotropic!? This means a substance which is relatively firm and as you work it, it becomes mores viscous and liquid like, much the same if you stamp up and down in the same place on wet sand on a beach.
Oleogel is a clear pale amber gel that adds transparency and thixotropic body to oil, resin-oil or alkyd paint. Add directly to your paint to give it transparency without thinning its consistency. Add pigments or extenders to thicken it for creating impasto effects that do not sink in.
Oleogel does not contain driers, so it is safe to use in oil painting without worry of cracking. When mixed with colours, Oleogel does not slow the drying time.
Oleogel adds transparency without losing the body of the paint.
Wilson's Medium is based on the 18th century medium developed by Richard Wilson, British landscape painter and, according to Field, also used by Joshua Reynolds. No driers or resins added.
Velázquez Medium is a flowing paste that makes colors slightly transparent while allowing you to build impasted, thick paint applications. When added to oil paint, it does not alter the color temperature. It can be thinned with solvent or oil. Depending upon the proportion added to the paint, it does not affect the drying time significantly. Velázquez Medium is softer and ‘longer’* than Impasto Medium, which is ‘short’ or buttery.
Semi-opaque, deep yellowish brown with good tint strength, fine-grained, and, like most Rublev Colours Artist Oils, brushes "long" in the direction of the brush stroke.
Rublev Colours French Sienna is a semi-transparent brown with good tinting strength, fine-grained, and brushes "long" in the direction of the brush stroke.
Solid, rich and dark just what is required from a Burnt Umber, a version unique to Rublev.
Dark brown in masstone, when applied thinly it presents luminous, mahogany hues. For a Burnt Umber it is definitely at the cooler end of the temperature spectrum.
In tints when mixed with white, warm, earthy greys are produced and being a relatively strong tinter the range of these tints is quite wide. It paints 'long' being quite lean in body.
This French umber is from the quarries of Gargas and Rustrel in the heart of the Luberon Massif.
A classic, raw sienna is heated or calcined to bring out the inherent warmth of the natural Iron Oxides, thereby creating burnt sienna!
In masstone it is a rich chocolate brown, the swatch shown on the left has more red in it than the reality. It's tints when white is added produce instant mid-range (in temperature) flesh hues. The range of these flesh tints is wide as the paint is reasonably powerful.
Paints quite 'long', lean in body, meaning it is very easy to use without mediums. This takes a bit of getting used to, however once you have got there is no turning back.
There isn't a portrait painter who wouldn't find this a useful addition to their palette.
The pigment for this paint is sourced from the last remaining quarry of Gargas and Rustrel nested in the heart of the Luberon Mountains in France. It is an authentic paint, with the pigment selected purely for its colour qualities.
A semi-opaque golden yellow, very fine-grained, and has a buttery consistency. Our yellow ocher is a single pigment color made of natural earths from ocher deposits in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia.
Titanium White is the most opaque white available today. Very strong hiding power.
Rublev Colours Lead White #2 in filtered, pale walnut oil is an opaque white that is soft and slightly ropey. Lead White #2 is a brighter white than our first flake white (also known as Cremnitz white) because of the paler walnut oil. 50 ml (1.69 fl oz) tube.
Italian Raw Sienna is a semi-transparent reddish-brown oil paint with good tinting strength, medium-rained pigment, and, like most Rublev Oil Colours, brushes “long” in the direction of the brush stroke.