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How to use Liquin Mediums

There are five types of Liquin mediums, each will help you accelerate the drying times of oil paint; the varieties are a slightly different formulation of the original. There is Liquin Original, Liquin Fine Detail, Liquin Light Gel, Liquin Impasto and Liquin Oleopasto. Liquin Original improves the flow and extends your paint, as is shown here with Winsor Yellow and Cerulean Blue oil colours. Fine Detail is very fluid and self-levels brush marks, Light Gel provides a thick consistency and dries to a high gloss. The thickest are Impasto and Oleopasto, they will both retain brush strokes but Impasto has a semi-gloss finish whist Oleopasto dries faster and has a semi-gloss finish when dry.

Video transcript

Hi there, today I'd like to show you five types of Liquin mediums which are used to speed up the drying time of oil paint.

You can use Liquin with any oil paint and they all speed up the drying time.

Here we have: Liquin original, Liquin fine detail, Liquin light gel, Liquin impasto and Liquin Oleopasto.

You can use oil paint straight from the tube but if you'd like to have a more fluid paint then Liquin is useful to improve the flow and extend your paint so you can cover a greater area.

Let's start with Liquin original - it was the first type of Liquin to be manufactured. We're going to mix a little Winsor Yellow and a bit of Cerulean Blue so you can see the effect it has on light and on a dark colour. Depending on the pigment load, Liquin original can cut your drying time in half. Look how the Liquin has affected the yellow here and the cerulean blue here.

Next is Liquin fine detail - a very fluid quick drying medium as the name suggests, ideal for painting fine detail in your work. It allows your brush marks to ‘self level’ and give a smooth finish.

Liquin light gel is a gel-like medium which offers a thick consistency ideal for creating a non-drip effect when painting upright. This dries to a high gloss finish.

Liquin impasto is very thick and will retain the texture and peaks of your brushstrokes. It will thicken slowly over a few hours and dry to a semi-gloss finish.

Liquin Oleopasto is very similar to impasto but, will thicken and dry even more quickly within an hour or so. It will add body and level out your brushstrokes - drying semi-matt.

You should consider these mediums for your painting as their individual qualities will have a dramatic influence on your work. I hope you’ve found this video useful.

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