For plein air sketching and painting in general, alkyds definitely have a leg up on regular plant oils (like linseed oil) due to their fast drying qualities. Never tried painting at night? For more and observations and information on these products, I found the following sites useful: View Cart ; Add To Favorites lists ; Add To Teacher's Cart ; Add To Cart; Product Listing . L fine detail              Sticky                              Mainly dry                      99% dry                    Thickest paint Neo Megilp gives colors a satin gloss. My drying times: Medium                  After 12 hrs                  After 18 hrs                   After 24 hrs              Paint My recommendation still stands – use it sparingly. The basic paint-modifying options are: "Galkyd has a lower level of solvent and less driers. Gamblin claims the neo doesn't yellow so bad over time, at least not bad like most mediums, after my 6 month experiment with neo (no paint), Neo Megilp is not as nice looking as galkyd for my use, Neo has less shine but has a shimmer I like. All rights reserved. For optimal adhesion, alkyd mediums should not be used over the top of traditional oil painting mediums or unmodified, slow-drying paint. Gamblin Neo-Megilp. Yellow varnish was made by melting dammar crystals (a tree resin) in hot linseed oil, mixing them with a water-in-oil emulsion paste. Neo Megilp gives colors a satin gloss. Also, this is clearly a good medium for painters who like to have a very smooth finish with no “impasto effect” from the paint. W&N Liquin™ Fine Detail was a linseed oil lookalike; it has similar viscosity and painted smoothly on the paper. Solvents also allowed mediums to be "cut" or diluted, often in precise amounts, which led to a greatly expanded variety of paint surface possibilities. Geranium painted using Liquin Fine Detail medium, which felt similar to linseed oil when painting; but it dried within 24 hours. Neo Megilp is similar to Liquin's texture. Like other oil mediums, Neo-Meglip dries from the top down. W&N Liquin™ Fine Gel was quite different. M. ineral spirits can be used for thinning. However, with this freedom from the laborious tasks of manufacturing their own paint materials, artists also lost their in-depth knowledge of the composition of their paints and other materials, “During the eighteenth century, and more completely during the nineteenth, the knowledge and intelligent study of the methods and materials of painting fell into a sort of dark age, from which our contemporary painters have by no means entirely emerged. GALKYD. So artists experimented with different substances - animal fat, tree saps and plant resins, for example, to try to obtain a binder, or glue which would give the paint more adhesion and durability. Could use thick paint and it flowed well. A thick glob will form a flexible bubble over a soft interior. This soft gel medium maintains the body of oil colours, increases transparency and flow, and imparts a smooth, silky feel. I decided to paint some of the geraniums on my patio, using 6x8 gessoed watercolor paper. The paint also looked as if I were using linseed oil. Images; Reviews; Related To- See Also. Note: I dried my pictures indoors, not in the sun. G Neo-Megilp is a pretty stiff gel in the bottle, but on the palette it mixed well with paint and paints on very smoothly. Alkyd mediums can be used in underpaintings for traditional oils, beneath fatter layers, or from start to finish in every layer. Neo Megilp seemed a bit too watery out of the bottle so I let a generous batch sit on the palette overnight to thicken up (read more about Neo Megilp here). However,  given that plastic bags are found to last a very long time in landfills, maybe art painted with alkyd mediums may also last longer…? Galkyd Lite is close in dry time also, but it is a low viscosity medium so it affects paint very differently. We created The Artist's Road in order to share our knowledge and experiences with you, and create a community of like-minded individuals. Gamblin claims the neo doesn't yellow so bad over time, at least not bad like most mediums, after my 6 month experiment with neo (no paint), Neo Megilp is not as nice looking as galkyd for my use, Neo has less shine but has a shimmer I like. Unlike Black oil, Neo Megilp will dry very fast without becoming brittle or darkening. You'll learn some of the history of painting mediums, what doesn't work, and what. So the terms, "solvent" and "oil" derive their meaning from how they are used. The three products were: http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=569515, http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310663, http://rachel-shirley.blogspot.com/2013/01/im-confused-about-alkyd-mediums-for-oil.html, http://helloartsy.com/why-i-stopped-painting-with-liquin/. "Neo Megilp": A New Painting Medium from Gamblin Artists Colors Some of My Many Postings to the Portrait Artists Forum In Response to A No-lead Maroger Medium? were initially developed by General Electric in the 1920's as a coating for electrical wires. First it is a slighty runny gel, and that weird half gel consistency remained on the palette. Alkyds. In his book The Secret Formulas and Techniques of the Old Masters, (page 100) Maroger also condemns megilps. Cuisine & Maison . Galkyd Gel. Many of these substances proved to have unsuitable aging or durability characteristics and were therefore replaced as different materials were discovered to work better. Name. If you’ve been using Liquin and love it, then follow what you think is best for your art. Plein air painters often use Liquin™ or other quick drying (alkyd) mediums in the field for that reason—they dry fast, usually in at least half the time it takes linseed oil to dry. is an organic solvent used for thinning oil-based paints, for producing varnishes, and as a raw material for the chemical industry. More Permanent. It evaporates more slowly than turpentine, mineral spirits or odorless mineral spirits. It took about 3 hours to create the 3 paintings. Neo Megilp. I had to use several layers of paint to reach the color saturation you see in this trial piece. Soft and silky: those are the most common words found in Neo Meglip testimonials. It was probably discovered by accidentally leaving the oil out to bake in the sun for many hours. G Neo-Megilp is a pretty stiff gel in the bottle, but on the palette it mixed well with paint and paints on very smoothly. mixture of linseed oil with mastic varnish, a plant resin, (. 6x8 - oil on paper. As more artists started using it in their paintings, this new enamel-like appearance changed the way paintings looked from that moment on. I paint with thick paint (often with no medium at all) and in terms of use felt no major difference between this and linseed oil. ", Historic Photograph of Turpentine Harvest. It has a thin viscosity and dries at a moderately slow rate. Good for layering, alkyd mediums can be used for very complex glazing applications. Another way to go is to use a less toxic solvent. The inclusion of the fatty acid confers a tendency to form flexible coating. It includes a gallery of paintings by masters of the nocturne, information to inspire and encourage you in your plein air nocturne painting, an illustrated step-by-step demo and tips for working in pastel and oil. Prime Panier. A Step-by-Step Plein Air Watercolor Demo by Herman Pekel, In the Footsteps of Van Gogh-Part II In the Footsteps of Van Gogh, PBS Video Plein Air PaintingStep-by-Step Watercolor Demo:A Votre SanteArtist Profiles, Adventure and Inspiration in Glacier National Park. Images reproduced only upon permission.