How do you use painting medium?

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Originally Posted by Michele Rushworth

I use paint and a bit of linseed sometimes. That's it. I can paint alla prima, glaze or scumble with different proportions of oil and paint, but either way, I don't use much linseed.

I will sometimes rub a very thin layer of it into any sunken in darks and then wipe much of it off. It does restore the gloss and depth of color in the darks and it allows me to blend wet edges, but I use this technique only once in a while.

Hi Michele,

I hope you don't mind me quoting you from over half a year ago! I was reading through old posts after doing a search on scumbling and I came across this post.

I am wondering how you get your soft edges? I'm thinking specifically of your recent work "Flowergirl", the edges were so lovely and soft. Instead of me assuming I could know how you did this, could you explain your method of getting those soft edges? I would have thought you used lots of layers with linseed oil?

I am just starting a painting and I'm going to try out the 'layering' method, layer upon layer of scumbles over my 'underpainting'. So, before I start my scumbling, I'm reading about how it's done.

Any information is greatly appreciated,

Thank you,

Joan