Crutch or Tactical Edge?

Ding!

Another notification in my email inbox!

It’s from a friend who was commenting on a thread in a painting group on Facebook. A beginning painter asked a question about which paint was best to use when starting out. One of the members, who posts a lot (and also promotes his workshops and products), made a statement about how thick paint was a “crutch” for wet-on-wet painters.

I found that interesting for two reasons. Bill and his thick paint were instrumental in getting this individual started in his career.

The second interesting thing was that of all the paint brands we’ve tested (I’ll share with you in just a bit how you can do the same test very easily), this individual’s paint contains the most oil of any of them. (I’ll also clarify why this makes a difference in wet-on-wet painting.)

Beginners will believe anything

Here’s the problem…beginners will believe anything. Her mistake was seeking an answer from folks like herself.

We wrote an article recently entitled “Who is Your Mentor?” The point of the article was to make sure you are getting advice from someone who knows what they are talking about. Someone who, perhaps, painted for over sixty years and had millions of fans from his Emmy award-winning television show?

So when Bill says “the paint will help you”, who do you believe? An accomplished master artist with millions of fans, or someone trying to sell you another pretty picture?

Detail?

Oh yeah, he also mentioned that he wanted more “detail” in his paintings.

HELLO!

[POP QUIZ] Why did Bill leave out detail in his television paintings?

[ANSWER] He only had twenty-eight minutes to complete his painting. (In fact, if you time him when he was actually painting, you’ll find he used even less time.)

Bill used just enough detail to make his paintings work and no more. Bill wasted no effort at the canvas.

Test it yourself!

Oh yeah…here’s how you can test the amount of oil in paint.

Tape a tube of paint upside down on a slanted canvas board. (You can use one of your table-top easels.) Loosen the cap of the tube so that it barely stays on. Leave the tube (or tubes if you’re testing more than one brand) in a heated room. If it’s cold, the oil will take a while to leak out of the tube.

When we tested paint, this guy’s paint was the first one to leak…like a sieve! In fact, a month later it was still leaking oil. Don’t believe me…test it yourself!

A thinner paint

Now, why does this make a difference? (You should know this if you plan on painting wet-on-wet.)

As Bill says over and over in his videos, “A thinner paint will stick to a thicker paint.”

Wet-on-wet is all about stacking layers of paint one on top of each other before they dry. That way you can create paintings in half the time and make more money if you want to sell your art. (You get your paintings to market quicker, the cost of your time is less, etc.)

[QUESTION] If you’re using a thin, oily paint, how are you going to stack a thin layer on top of another thin layer?

[ANSWER] You can’t! The paint layers will mix rather than stack. You create mud instead of beautiful color.

There outta be a law!

So…here we have this innocent beginner asking one of the most important questions she will ever ask. And she’s being advised by someone who should know better, to do the one thing that is going to guarantee her failure at the canvas.

PS I used to take martial arts. My teacher trains Navy SEALS. The uniqueness of his method of training is to give his students a tactical edge over their enemies. Do you think his students look at those tactics as a crutch?

PPS Quality paint makes a difference! Don’t believe us, try a tube of Bill’s paint. Discover for yourself that “the paint will help you.”