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Question asked 2017-02-02 09:43:44 ...
Most recent comment 2017-02-02 17:29:00
Oil Paint
Varnishes
I understand that there may be a temporary yellowing of a fresh paint film, if it is stored in the dark, which is reversible with the application of sunlight, and there is a more long term, permanent yellowing that occurs over decades, if not centuries.____Isn't this long term yellowing due more to the aging of damar, copal, or other or other varnishes used in or on the top of the paint layer than to the drying oil used in the paint layer?_____Thanks for your thoughts.___Richard
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Moderator Answer
(Kristin deGhetaldi)
The yellowing encountered in drying oils is a separate issue than yellowing encountered with soft and hard resins (obviously if you are one to add these materials into your oil paints that is another discussion entirely...). Many natural resins (and even some poor quality synthetics) will certainly yellow and/or darken with time but noticeably less than say the yellowing that can occur with oil paints. There are two reasons for this. One: the fact that pigments are present in the paint layer will certainly help to mitigate any dramatic yellowing that would otherwise occur in an unpigmented oil film. Second: the presence of fillers and/or pigments in the oil film means that there is less oil binder overall. Contrast this with the pure, unpigmented resin layer that is generally found atop the oil film. Honestly the long term, permanent yellowing in a pigmented oil film is far less pronounced when compared to the dramatic yellowing of dammar, mastic, copals, etc. If you paint using appropriate pigment to binder ratios with your oils, that is one step you can take to help mask the inevitable degree of yellowing that will occur in the future.
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