Page 7 - George O'Hanlon
George O’Hanlon is the technical director of Natural Pigments, and executive director of Iconofile, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to promoting understanding of sacred art. George received his fine arts education and apprenticeship in Mexico. Upon return to the United States, he worked as creative director for advertising agencies in Silicon Valley, working on such major accounts as Sony, Hewlett-Packard, and Ricoh. He founded an agency later acquired by the chemical giant, Shin-Etsu. There he served as vice-president of U.S. marketing. In 1992, he studied traditional art techniques abroad. Then in 2001, co-founded Iconofile and in 2003 Natural Pigments to promote an understanding of these practices. Since that time he has formulated hundreds of artists’ paints and materials, including Ceracolors, a waterborne wax paint.
- March 02, 2020 825
With the recent surge in popularity of painting on metal, such as aluminum composite material (ACM) and copper, some have questioned its viability regarding the thermal expansion of the metal. When an object is heated or cooled, its length changes by an amount proportional to the original length and the temperature change. This is known as “linear thermal expansion,” or the change in the length of a material...
- January 18, 2020 5108
White pigments consist of natural or synthetic inorganic pigments. Inorganic pigments are easier to disperse in most paint vehicles than organic pigments. Nevertheless, many white pigments undergo treatment to improve their dispersibility, lightfastness, and weather resistance. White pigments are used for white colors, tinting colors, and covering tones in paint...
- January 03, 2020 2281
The first project of the newly formed Inter-Society Color Council (ISCC) Project Committee on Artists' Materials was “a study of the pigments used in the manufacture of artists' paints as well as the labeling practices used by these manufacturers.” The committee membership and the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) D01.57 subcommittee were virtually identical. It was composed of artists, conservators, analytical chemists and color scientists, and artists' paint manufacturers and their chemists...
- December 15, 2019 2783
Search the words ‘Zorn Palette’ in Google, and you will find over 604,000 entries. Each discusses the famous four-color palette of Anders Zorn, a Swedish painter adored by thousands worldwide and long hailed as the artist’s artist. Among the many entries in Google are those expressing disbelief about the claim he only had four colors on his palette...
- November 01, 2019 1195
This is a revised table initially published in 2007 with current information on commercial oil colors as of November 1, 2019. The information in this table is compiled from public sources, such as manufacturers’ literature, product labels, and distributors’ websites. The information is subject to change. Please consult with the manufacturer for the latest pigment content of their paint...
- September 13, 2019 4062
Let's toss out the concepts of “fat over lean” and, for that matter, “thick over thin” (or the confused “thick over lean”) while we are at it, and let's consider the physical structure of the paint. To help you to understand the properties of oil paint, it is helpful to understand the relation between the pigment and oil. One way to think about the relationship between pigment and binder is a brick wall. Every mason knows there is an ideal ratio of mortar to brick. Too much mortar, and the wall is weak. Not enough mortar, and the bricks fall apart...
- August 25, 2019 766
The color of the old masters was more granular and had more body than oil colors today. Anyone who has ever painted with hand-ground colors will recognize the difference...
- August 23, 2019 1832
Emulsion grounds typically consist of an emulsifying adhesive, such as animal collagen glue and vegetable oil with chalk and lead white. There are many formulas for emulsion grounds, also called "half-chalk grounds," but the one herein we've tried and found that it works quite well if you follow the instructions carefully. This formula and its preparation is based on the Full Oil Ground described in Egg Tempera Painting, Tempera Underpainting, Oil Emulsion Painting....
- August 12, 2019 2572
Learn how to prepare and apply gesso for wood panels with detailed instructions on priming, applying fabric cover, and polishing for a perfect finish. Discover the best techniques here...
- August 09, 2019 3004
An irregular sheen on an oil painting often produces a patchy gloss after applying the varnish. This article considers how to fix this on an existing painting and how to avoid it in the future. “Sinking in” is a common phenomenon among oil painters and is one of the most frequent issues encountered while teaching artists in my Painting Best Practices workshop. The causes of sinking in can be reduced to a few causes examined in this article...
