Characteristics of an Oil Paint: A Guideline to Purchasing the Perfect Paint Every Time

Walking into a store and looking at their rows upon rows of oil colors can be either very exciting (if you are like me and want them all) or very overwhelming (if you are also like me and you just want a red that will do what you want it to do but you don't know which one will do that).

When I need to purchase a new color, say red, it is usually not because I want a "new" red color (I always want all the colors), it is because I need a different "acting" red that will do something different from the reds that I already have. There are three general paint characteristics that will help you to find that "right" color: Color Temperature, Tinting Strength, and Opacity.

Color Temperature 

I talk a lot about color temperature. Color temperature, even for abstract painting, is important as it can help you create better color harmony throughout a work as well as create correct lights and shadows (yes, even abstracts have lights and shadows).

Orange is the warmest color on the color wheel, and blue is the coolest. As you move towards orange you get warmer colors; as you move towards blue you get cooler colors. So within each color family you'll have a variety of warm and cool colors. Take the simplified example below, of the green family:

Let's say I own the green on the top row, a solid Kelly green. I am painting a warm green shadow on a plant, and as I am painting I realize that this green isn't working. Why? Color temperature. The Kelly green is a cool color, and what I really need is a warm green from the second row. Knowing this I can go to my paint store and pick the right colored green.

But why can't I just mix the right green? You potentially could, but there is a season for mixing and sometimes a season for purchasing. After all, just having the right color doesn't mean you have the right paint.

Tinting Strength 

Tinting Strength refers to how strongly one color will affect another. Take Phalo Blue, for example. It has a very strong, or high tinting, strength. One drop will dye the entire room blue. Cerulean blue, on the other hand, has a very muted tint and is wonderful when you need just a nice subtle blue tinge.

Be careful not to assume that opacity and tinting strength are the same thing. In the case above, the high tinting Phalo Blue is transparent while the low tinting Cerulean is opaque. On the flip side, Titanium White is an opaque white will take over anything that you mix with it, while Zinc White is a transparent white with an extremely low tinting strength (which makes it perfect for delicate veil and lace details).

Opacity 

There are three levels of opacity: opaque, semi-transparent, and transparent. Opaque paints advance towards the viewer with a thick, buttery consistency. Transparent paints recede away from the viewer with a thin, glossy consistency.

How to Pick the Right Paint You Want and Need 

Going back to my first color, red. If I am a beginning artist with a limited color palette, I most likely only have Alizarin red (this was me when I first started painting). Let's say I am painting a warm red apple. Alizarin is a cool, transparent red with a muted tint. That's great for my apple's shadows, but what about the rest of it? I could warm my red with a warm yellow, but then I would have to use a huge amount of my low tinting Alizarin to get a deep red, and even then it still would not be the real red that I want.

What I need is an opaque red so that it will advance, a high tinting red so that I can add yellow without my red getting overpowered, and a warm red to balance my cool Alizarin shadows. But which red has these qualities?

My Pigment Posts 

The answer to our red question can be found in my color pigment posts. I have already written a few pigment posts (White, Black, Yellow, and Orange) and as I was working on Red I realized that maybe why I was writing these posts wasn't entirely clear. Hence this guideline to tell you why the information in the color posts is useful.

My color pigment posts do not cover all the reds (or all of the greens, etc) made by all of the paint companies. Instead I have picked the top, most common colors which can be purchased from just about any paint company. They are the ones you will want in your collection before moving on to other colors.

When you need to purchase a new color, I would recommend taking a look at these color posts to see if the color you need is among the ones mentioned. Most likely it will be.

If you want to learn more about all of the colors, not just the ones I cover, I recommend checking out the Gamblin and Grumbacher sites.

If you have more questions about how to use oil paints, take a look at my main Tip and Techniques page.