technique problem: oils

Often my paint streaks or leaves streak marks when no white is added. It's the dark colors: ultramarine blue, cad red. Is it because they are 'transparent colors'? Currently using walnut oil as a medium but this has plagued me throughout a variety of mediums.

I've never thought of either of those as 'transparent' pigments. But if you're using a student grade paint that is formulated from a mix of dyes to simulate those colors, then they 'could' be transparent. If you're using better quality oils, then I can only suggest that you are picking up previous layers that are not dry to the touch? Or possibly painting too thinly so that your brush marks leave dark and light 'streaks?'

nada, I wouldn't do that

this could be the case, I just wonder why I can continue painting 'into' the oranges, yellows, greens, light blues, lavenders, but these two colors, dark blue, deep red, even mixed, leave streaks

This COULD be, but like I said, I'm not using any solvents so I'm just dipping the bristles in the oil and then grabbin some pigment. also, I HAVE experienced the same when I was adding solvent to my medium. i tend to paint the whole canvas at one time, moving around the picture developing all areas towards a gradual finish, these dark colors just aren't playing by (my) rules...

post here... you'll get an answer

Is it streaky as you are painting? Or after the paints have dried? Ultramarine blue can be somewhat transparent; but real cadmiums are not. Are you sure you are using a real cadmium red? Read the fine prints at the back of the tube to see the real ingredients.

You could be painting too thinly. Walnut oil is not the problem. I often use it instead of linseed oil. I painted over a dozen paintings this summer using just walnut oil.

yes

Or after the paints have dried?

yes

Ultramarine

blockx cad red deep

Read the fine prints at the back of the tube to

I don't THINK I am painting particularly thin, just enough to allow the paint to flow from the brush.

Walnut oil is not the problem. I often use it

you have had a more productive summer than I... the sunny days are far too distracting.

BlockX has a reputation for being soft. But their cadmium red should be made from real cadmium. What does the label say? If you want stiffer paints, try Winsor and Newton, or Old Holland.

Without seeing your paintings, I don't know how thick you are painting. If after two layers of paint, you can still see the weaving of the canvas, I'd consider it thin. But every painter has a different standard. If you use a medium containing Venice turpentine, it will give your paints a 'drag', and help you put on the paints thickly. You might not want to go down that path, however, as the results are very different from just painting with walnut oil.

distracting.<

This was not a productive summer for me, Mike! I was bogged down by a few figure paintings of which I can not resolve. When I used to spend the summer painting landscape, I'd crank out about sixty paintings a summer. They weren't very good, mind you; but there they are.

Any paint called 'Cadmium Red' should contain real cadmium. Any paint called 'Cadmium Red Hue' will not contain real cadmium. Although many people are not familiar with it, the use of the word 'Hue' is a standard naming convention to designate economic alternatives to more expensive pigments.

- Bob C.

It isn't clear to me what you mean by this. I am imagining something like this: starting with a completely clean brush, dipping it in the paint (perhaps mixing with medium), and applying to dry canvas, and the result is something other than a smooth application of paint. If so, I'd say you either have defective tubes of paints, or aren't mixing them with your medium well enough. If what you are doing is anything different from what I am describing (eg, brush not clean, canvas not dry), that's probably it right there.

As someone else mentioned, true cad red is not transparent at all - and it generally isn't even that dark. Perhaps you are thinking of alizarin crimson? In any event, the opacity of the painting isn't really much of an issue except when you are applying it in fairly thin washes or glazes - but in those cases, it is indeed true that the color underneath will be visible through the glaze, which is normally precisely why you'd be doing this in the first place.

Excellent! In fact I used to recommend Liquitex 'Value Series' acrylics to my beginning students who could not afford the more expensive professional grade paints. I still have a few tubes and was looking just now at the labeling. Liquitex does indeed label honestly. The 'Cadmium Red Medium Hue' contains Napthol Red and Arylide Yellow and the 'Cadmium Orange Hue' contains Perinone Orange, Arylide Yellow and Titanium Dioxide (all conform to ASTM D4236).

And it is this particular line of paints that illustrates what I was trying to get across in an earlier thread about colors from one manufacturer not mixing well with colors of another when discussing 'student grade' paints. These Liquitex colors work well together, but don't do well when mixed with other mfr's acrylics. Of course a beginner is not going to be able to see that necessarily. They'll struggle to get the intermediates without understanding the problem and perhaps eventually arrive at a color that satisfys their need.

get across in an earlier thread about colors from one manufacturer not mixing well with colors of another when discussing 'student grade' paints<

Sell your snake oil to somebody else. In this as in the other thread, we are discussing oil paints, which you obviously know nothing about.

I have never heard of oil paints not mixing well because they are of different brands, or because one paint is made from cadmium and the other is not. If you can find such oil paints, I will eat it in front of you.

Stop making things up just because you have been exposed for being a charlatan.