Well, it had to happen eventually: I finally conducted an experiment that ended up being a near-total failure.  This one definitely put the PAIN in painting.

We have two bottles of oil (both Holbein products) that go with our Holbein water-soluble oil paints.  The first one contains linseed oil (which I have used with some success), but the other contains a darker liquid, and it’s called “Painting Oil Medium – Water Soluble Blending Oil”.  This confused me somewhat because that sounded an awful lot like what linseed oil was supposed to do.  Were these products interchangeable, then?  Short answer: NO.

First of all, even with proper ventilation, this stuff REALLY stinks… which kind of defeats the whole point of using non-toxic water-soluble oil paints, no?  Secondly, it didn’t deliver on its promise of being a blending oil.  Oh sure, it extended the paint somewhat, at first… and then it started to clot and gunk up on my palette.  Behold the beautiful results above!

Anyways, between the smell and the clumping, I ended up rushing through the painting.  My only goal was to approximate a portrait, then get it downstairs to off-gas in my garage as quickly as possible.

Oh, did I mention that I chose to paint on an ultra-smooth panel?  Well, guess what?  I now know that oil paint doesn’t like being scraped across ultra-smooth panels!  Who knew?

On the plus side, I do like the unfinished clothing and the eggshell white background.