Types of Paint

The dry pigments are made into paint by using a liquid to bind the pigments together, called a binding medium . There are various types of binding media with which paint can be mixed, including egg, water and plant oil for example linseed oil. Binding pigments with water creates watercolour paint or thicker gouache, while binding pigments with oil creates oil paint.

Gibside, County Durham, the Seat of the Earl of Strathmore from South  by J.M.W.Turner and Mrs. Martha Udney by Charlotte Jones are examples of water-based paints. Generally, water-based paint has to be applied quickly, because it dries fast. In contrast, oil paint needs to be built up layer by layer with long gaps in between as it takes so long to dry. Mrs Douglas by Thomas Gainsborough and Christ’s Charge to Peter by Peter Paul Rubens are oil paintings.

 

Some pictures look (from a distance) as though they were created with paint, but are not. Look at   Mrs. ‘Perdita’ Robinson. In this picture John Russell used pastel, which is a drawing medium, not a painting medium. Pastel is chalky pigment formed into a hard stick (not mixed with a binding medium) – but it can make marks that imitate the lively brushmarks of paint, for example, Gainsborough’s Mrs. Douglas.