Spaces Between The Gaps: Alkyd Oil Mediums Compared

All the alkyd mediums compared

This post is for the oil painters.
Rather than wasting a lot of time working through one different jar of medium at a time to figure out which ones I might like or hate working with, I decided to be all ~~organised~~ anal, buy every one I could get hold of and compare the lot at once.

All these alkyd medium were tested on the same scrap of acrylic primed canvas at the same time. You can see the results altogether in the above photo. If you click on it you'll get a much larger version. The ambient temperature was around 16C, with no humidity to speak of. No paint was included, this is just the medium itself brushed on. The samples were left indoors in my studio, in the open but not in direct sunlight. I was wanting to know how fast these fast drying additives really are, how glossy or otherwise they may be, how thick or thin they are to work with and how much of a colour cast they have.

The price breakdown is partly for my memory, partly for your international curiosity and partly to remind my fellow artists to do material costing breakdowns for the health of your business if you don't already! Many of these mediums are available in larger quantities which works out far cheaper, per millilitre. This is their worst case scenario.

The testing was limited to the mediums I managed to obtain. For instance, would you believe there is only one Gamblin supplier in this entire country? Here in Australia, Art Spectrum (an Australian brand) and Windsor & Newton are available everywhere. Everything else requires a bit of hunting.

I am more than happy to add mediums to this list if you have personally tested them. I am well aware that this is but a small sample of what's out there.

Medium	Notes
Archival Fat Medium	4 hours drying time Somewhat glossy Very yellow, almost orange Consistency of oil $6.50 for 100ml = 6.5c/ml
Art Spectrum Liquol	1 hour drying time Very matte Quite yellow Consistency of turps $12.15 for 100ml = 12.2c/ml
Art Spectrum Glazing Gel	1-1.5 hours drying time Very glossy Quite yellow Thin thixotropic gel $16.99 for 150ml = 11.3c/ml
Gamblin Galkyd	4 hours drying time, plus very, very tacky from about 1 hour Very glossy Quite yellow Consistency of thickened oil $27.45 for 237ml = 11.6c/ml
Windsor & Newton Liquin	nearly 4 hours drying time Very matte Somewhat yellow Thin gel $12.99 for 75ml = 17.3c/ml
Sennelier Flow & Dry	4 hours drying time Somewhat matte Somewhat yellow Thin gel $11.39 for 75ml = 15.2c/ml
Lukas Medium 3	1 hour drying time Very glossy Perfectly clear Consistency of turps $11.35 for 50ml = 22.7c/ml