How Can I Lighten My Oil Paint Without White?

Many inexperienced artists reach for white color when they need to achieve a lighter shade of oil paint. The white is supposed to serve as the element to increase the intensity of their color. However, most times, adding white might not really solve the problem. On the contrary, you tend to have less clean colors and might end up not achieving the exact color scheme you need. That only raises the question “How do I lighten my oil based paint without adding white paint?”.

Mixing different paints together is the best way to lighten your oil without using white. If the color is ultramarine blue, you can try adding a paler hue, such as a cerulean or manganese color. If the color is ruby red, a drop or two of vermilion can brighten it.

Never use translucent colors because they will disappear and won’t lighten your color as you might expect. However, if you’re looking at painting your walls or surfaces, adding white is the best option for lighting. With this in mind, I shall walk you through the best ways to lighten your colors and also share tips for achieving cleaner color shades, and go through the question How Can I Lighten My Oil Paint Without White?

Why White Color Is Not the Best Option to Lighten Your Oil Paint

It’s a different form of art when combining different colors to produce new hues. You can accomplish painting without white in a lot of ways depending on the paint you are using.

When painting with watercolors, I rarely use titanium white to achieve lighter shades. Instead, I use a lighter color or leave it blank if your paint surface is already white. A good instance with watercolors when painting the Sun. If you intend to achieve a highlight of your own, simply leave that place blank.

The same does not apply to acrylic paint and oil paints. While many whites think white is the best option for oil paints, it isn’t. White changes the hue, making it look chalky rather than lighter. When red is mixed with white, for example, the result is pink instead of a milder red.

For acrylic paints, you can lighten the pigment by adding water; however, you lose the thickness that way. Mixing several paints together is the best way to brighten oil paints and acrylic paints without losing the paint texture.

To achieve this, first, get the necessary materials you’ll need for your painting. This includes your oil paint set, one or two palette sets, your paintbrush, paint thinner, soap, and a rag for wiping surfaces.

How to Lighten Your Oil Paint with Other Colors That Are Not White

Squeeze a small amount of oil paint over the area of your palette. In place of white, you use the yellow colour.

Besides the first color on your palette, squeeze a pea-sized amount of yellow. Make a soft dab with your paintbrush on the tip of your brush after dipping it into the yellow. Combine the color you squeezed out previously. The original color should have a substantially lighter hue than the new color you’re using. You can add more yellow to the color to make it even lighter.

When you’re done mixing, wipe your brush with a paint thinner. After this, wipe it down with a cloth to remove any remaining paint. If you don’t want to use yellow, you can try lightening it with other colors like red. 

Both red and yellow can lighten pigments, as they are both complementary colors. For broader knowledge, experiment with the paints to find color combinations that you enjoy. You should also study the color wheel to aid you in your decision.

The Color Wheel

The color wheel is one of the basic things every artist should master to have a better understanding of how colors work. The wheel is an invention of the famous Sir Isaac Newton, a man whose studies have made history in the sciences. 

However, at 23, he discovered the color spectrum, which we refer to as the colors of the rainbow. After some experiments, he landed on a conclusion and produced the color wheel.

Red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors on the wheel. These hues form the basics of other colors, which means it is impossible to form these colors by combining others. 

When you mix the primary colors, you have the secondary colors as a result. Yellow and blue gives green, Red and yellow forms orange, Blue and red, purple.

Colors opposite to one another on the color wheel, such as red and green are complementary colors. As a result, they have a high level of contrast. When colors are close to each other on the color wheel, such as blue-green and green or yellow-green and blue-green, they are analogous. Usually, there is a color that dominates this series

You can also find triadic hues on the wheel. Triadic hues are those colors that, when arranged on the color wheel, make a triangle. A triadic color scheme includes the colors purple, orange, and green.

The reason a color wheel is an important tool for artists is that it displays the relationships between the colors. This aids in mixing the right color with another to achieve lighter hues.

The wheel also helps to identify warm and cool colors. Red, orange, and yellow are warm colors on the wheel, while green, blue, and purple are cool colors. Aside from paintings, these colors express ideas, feelings, and sometimes give information about a situation.

Common Causes of Dull Oil Paintings

It’s common for beginning painters to complain that their colors and values aren’t “clean”. Usually, they’re uncertain of how to fix the problem. If you’re unfamiliar with the term “clean”, it simply refers to a painting that employs strong, visually meaningful values and compelling colors.

When you look at some paintings, you notice that some of the colors mixed make the painting look flat and one-dimensional. In other words, it looks as though it’s on the brink of disappearing from the canvas. There are a lot of reasons your painting could be that way. 

It could be that you are working with a dirty brush. Brushes you use constantly without wiping clean retain fragments of colors you used previously when painting. When you deep brush into new paint, you add a different tone to the original color you want to use for a new painting.

If dirty brushes are not the problem, you could be skimping on your paint. This means that you’re using very little paint on your paint surface.

Another reason could be over stroking or over blending. Regardless of the cause of your dull painting, there are always different ways to fix them. 

How to Achieve Cleaner Colors with Your Oil Paint

While painting with your brush, have paper towels near you. Any time you change to similar colors, wipe the brush, squeezing out excess paint with the paper towel.

When switching to a different color that is significantly lighter or darker, don’t just squeeze out the brush. Also, rinse the brush in your cleaner jar, then, use more paper towels to squeeze out the excess color and moisture, and then dip into the new color.

By doing this, you will discover that using clean brushes for your painting goes a long way to giving you clearer and precise colors.

When painting don’t skimp; cover the surface. Color will be poor if you use too little paint, which can make your painting drab and uninteresting.

Do not stretch the paint by spreading it so thinly that the surface roughness shows through. Instead, use enough paint to adequately cover the rough surface. 

Avoid over striking and over blending. Your brush is not just for applying paint; it is the tool that sculpts the picture on the paint surface. In other words, slow down when painting and five thoughts to each stroke of the brush. 

While doing this, you should avoid repeating strokes in the same spot. If you’re not satisfied with a  stroke you’ve already made, try connecting it with new strokes. Do not over-style or mix quickly as it results in murky colors.

Always use the right hue to lighten your color. As I have mentioned earlier, white changes the value of the color, giving a different result than what you intended. Rather than reaching for white, try using other colors that will lighten the shade but not neutralize the original color. 

For instance, lightening Alizarin Crimson with Cadmium Red light gives a brighter hue than lightening with white.

Oil Painting Techniques That Artists Should Know

Now that you understand how colors work, you should take your art to another level. Oil painting is the best way to experiment with art, trying out different techniques that could yield wonderful results. Before experimenting, you should understand the three rules that painting entails.

These are, “thick over lean”, “fat over lean”, and “slow drying over fast drying”. In simpler words, every paint layer should be thicker, more flexible, and dries slower than the layer beneath it. These simple rules prevent cracks from forming while you’re working.

Scumbling

For techniques, scumbling is the best way to start if you’re a beginner. Scumbling is a painting technique that entails spreading thin layers of paint onto a canvas using a dry, stiff brush to create a three-dimensional effect. Consequently, the artwork lacks a clean finish, and elements of inexperience might be visible.

Glazing

Glazing is a fantastic technique for beginners because it involves using transparent layers on an opaque canvas layer. The added layers of color have a glossier outlook resulting in an outstanding finish. This technique also works on a thin layer of paint to add luster. Vermeer was one of the great artists to employ this technique in his works.

Grisaille

The technique is a monochrome painting style where you use the colors black, white, and gray to express light, dark, and shading. The wide variety of colors available today has caused it to lose popularity; still, you use it in underpainting and for other purposes. Beginners should try this before moving on to work with more vibrant color schemes. 

Alla Prima

It is possible to paint in one sitting using the Alla Prima approach, which makes it ideal for painters in a hurry. It entails painting in layers without allowing for the base layer to completely dry. Also known as “wet-on-wet”, it was popular among experienced artists such as Van Gogh and Monet because it allowed them to create masterpieces in a single sitting.

Chiaroscuro 

Chiaroscuro is a painting technique that generates a great contrast between lighter and darker sections of a picture. It was popular among Renaissance painters such as Rembrandt, Caravaggio, among others. 

It increases the dramatic impact of a painting by creating the sense of a three-dimensional image. To effectively use this approach, begin with a single light source, such as a lamp, and work your way to other aspects of your painting.

Impasto

Van Gogh’s paintings are the best examples that feature using impasto. This is an oil painting technique that requires more training. Each stroke of the paintbrush is clearly visible in the finished painting products, thus requiring careful strokes of thick paint on your background. 

Artists who adopt this method frequently combine colors directly on their canvas. When an artist uses impasto painting on specific portions of an artwork rather than the entire canvas, it draws the viewer’s attention to those specific areas of the artwork. To achieve stronger strokes, you could use your palette knife instead of a brush.

Underpainting

For those who are new to oil painting, the thought of putting color on a completely blank canvas may seem unpleasant at first. Underpainting removes that worry, as it involves sketching the image in a single thin coat of paint. 

Here, you blot out any backdrop so that you know where to position it later while painting on the canvas. Artists like Jan Van Eyck and Giotto have used it as a tool in their respective works.

Final Words

Irrespective of the technique you plan to use, it is important to blend your colors right, which includes using other options rather than white to lighten your oil paint.

Sources

• How to lighten the colour of paint without using white paint
• Tutorial : Lightening Colours Without White
• Starry Night and the Astronauts | The Art Institute of Chicago
• Portrait of an Aging Man. c. 1700. Artstor