Mediums

Adding a medium to your paint can make judicious use of an expensive pigment over a large area, all while retaining the brightness of the hue. Mediums for oil, acrylic and watercolor can help you shorten drying time or extend the working of a quick-drying paint. We continually stock the top artist grade brands for paint mediums including Winsor & Newton, Golden, and Liquitex.

OIL MEDIUMS

We carry the largest selection of Oil Mediums in Orlando. With Gamblin, Holbein, Winsor & Newton, and Grumbacher , Sam Flax provides both traditional and modern mediums to vary the viscosity, consistency and drying time of oils.

Linseed Oil, a traditional medium in oil paint, creates lean, glossy colors that dry quickly comparable to other oil mediums. Mix with oils for underpainting or bottom layers to create a base for additional layers. Sam Flax also offers Cold-pressed linseed oil, the highest quality linseed oil available, which dries more quickly. All linseed oils dry with a highly subtle clear, yellow tinge and thus should not be blended with blue and white cast pigments. Sun-bleached linseed oil is exposed to the sun while capped to prevent evaporation, resulting in an oil with less tendency to yellow and a bright, clear presence. Refined linseed oil is a low acid oil that can be specially important in creating pigments with no yellow tone. Raw linseed oil has an acid value of 4-7, while alkali refined linseed oil less than one.

Stand Oil is a faster drying alternative to linseed oil, and reduces visible brush marks and texture in layers.

Poppy Oil, a very pale oil, is suggested for use with light and blue tinted pigments, but dries more slowly than traditional linseed oil. This oil is the least likely to dry and/or age to a yellow tint, and gives oil paint a texture of warm, softened butter. Incorporate poppy oil in the top layers of a work as it is more likely to cause cracking when used in underlayers. Because of the slow drying time of poppy oil, it is a good choice for painters working wet on wet.

Galkyd Gel, a gelled alkyd medium, is a modern, synthetic resin that dries faster than traditional linseed oils. It creates a transparent impasto with a medium gloss that will retain brush and palette knife marks and can be applied in multiple layers. Sam Flax also offers Galkyd Slow Dry that provides the same properties of Galkyd gel, but allows the painter to work with the layer throughout the day. Mix 50/50 with paint as higher consistencies can produce a wrinkled effect.

Galkyd Lite is a low viscosity alternative to traditional damar/refined linseed oil/turpentine painting medium. Thicker layers will leave brush marks and palette knife texture while thin layers produce a translucent, satin sheen. Galkyd lite is exceptional for thinning oil colors while perserving a hard, yet flexible finish.

Neo-Megilp (also called, Megilp or Maroger) is a soft-gelled impasto into which low viscosity color can be floated. Its consistency has less drag than Galkyd mediums and dries to a soft glaze. Mix 1 part oil with 9 parts Neo-Meglip to create a slow-drying, transparent impasto layer.

Cold Wax Medium is used to create oil paints that are thicker with a matte finish. Produced from naturally white unbleached beeswax, alkyd resin and odorless mineral spirit, cold wax medium contains no oil and can be applied as a varnish over a dry oil painting. Most oil painters mix cold wax medium with Galkyd to increase flexibility of layers and prevent cracking. Choose rigid supports when applying cold wax medium when using more than 1/3 cold wax medium to 2/3 oil paints.

ACRYLIC MEDIUMS

Sam Flax provides acrylic mediums from Atelier, Golden and Liquitex that vary opacity, consistency and finish. Composed of the same polymers used to create acrylic paints, mediums dry to form continuous, durable films. We stock finishes from super-matte to high gloss in a variety of consistencies, from thin and fluid to thick and heavy bodied. Metallic and iridescent acrylic mediums are also available.

We stock the full line of Golden Acrylic Mediums. Below are just some of our favorites. Stop in today to explore

Created to thicken acrylic paints and blend pigments, Super Heavy Matte Gel medium extends volume and increases drying time. Using this medium will produce high peaks with highly visible knife and brush strokes.

Ultra Matte Gel doubles paint extension while retaining pigment value. Created from high-resin solids, this medium creates exceptional value on large projects where opaqueness is desired.

Matte Medium produces a modern, dull flat effect to acrylics, removing any gloss or plastic sheen when mixed into paints. Working areas can be given a matte ground that finishes smooth and flat, and will not yellow or crack with age.

Choose a Fluid Matte medium as an alternative to traditional matte mediums to alter the finish but not the viscosity of the paint. Fluid matte mediums retain the pourable consistency of acrylics and are useful to increase drying time, allowing the painter to lengthen working time without shifting the paint to a syrupy texture.

Soft Gel, Semi-Gloss is thinner than Heavy Body acrylic mediums, holding only slight peaks. Useful for thinning heavy colors or thickening fluid paints, it provides exceptional adhesion for collage work.

Gel Medium, Gloss dries with a clear, bright and glossy finish that almost sparkles. Light applications produce translucent effects while thicker applications present more opaque when paint is added in a higher concentration. Gloss gel mediums are an excellent choice for integration with collage work along with providing an excellent binder for pigments and additives such as sand, sawdust, and dry pigment.

With extra density and a high viscosity, Gel Medium, Gloss Heavy achieves an oil paint consistency with acrylics. Paint mixed with this medium is workable for a longer duration than other medium mixtures. It is an excellent binder for powdered pigments as it dries to a transparent gloss finish.

Gel Medium, Super Heavy Gloss produce the highest peaks and dimensional textures in acrylic mediums. Sculptural effects can be attained by using a palette knife, creating a stiff, oil-like appearance that resists shrinkage during drying.

WATERCOLOR MEDIUMS

Watercolor mediums can increase granulation and texture, and allow painters to experiment with blending techniques and drying time. We carry the full line of Winsor & Newton watercolor mediums.

Watercolor Medium, containing gum arabic, acetic acid and water, increases the flow and wetting of paints. Avoid using this product with acid sensitive colors such as ultramarine.

Blending Medium slows the drying rate of watercolors to provide extra time for blending and applying effects. Especially helpful in hot climates where watercolors dry quickly, simply mix the medium with paint for maximum drying time, or mix with water and experiment with moderate drying times.

Art Masking Fluid is a latex-rubber solution which can be painted or drawn over the surface of the paper to repel paint from soaking into the surface. Drying in minutes, art masking fluid allows the painter to reserve detail shapes while layering color and texture in the surrounding area. Once paint has dried, simply remove the fluid gently with a putty rubber or cotton ball. The masked area can easily be painted after removal, unlike traditional methods like applying a clear, thin film of wax. Colorless Art Mask Fluid provides the same effects as traditional art masking fluid in a colorless form.

Permanent Masking Medium is a transparent liquid mask that is permanent when applied and dries fully water repellent. This medium is used for masking small, detail areas with a thin, liquid wax and can be tinted with small amounts of watercolor before application.

Lifting Preparation allows dry color washes, including stains, to be easily lifted from paper with a wet brush or rag. Apply to paper and allow to dry before beginning painting. Lifting preparation works best when paints are not applied heavily in multiple layers and make highlighting easier.

Gum Arabic controls the spread of wet color and can be used for any gouache or watercolor. Dilutable in water, gum arabic make a fine choice for a binder when creating custom color pigments.

Ox Gall Liquid is a wetting agent that creates very fluid watercolors. Best used with marbling techniques and pale, pastel pigments, ox gall is an alcohol based medium that can increase the absorption of colors on hard sized papers. Simply apply a thin layer and let dry before painting.

Granulation Medium provides a subtle mottled appearance when mixed with watercolors prior to application. If further diluted with water, granulation medium can produce a variety of textural results.

Texture Medium contains fine particles to create a subtle texture in the paint. It can be applied as a base coat or mixed with paints to produce this effect.

Iridescent Medium creates a pearlescent or glitter effect to the paint and is particularly effective when mixed with transparent colors, especially over dark backgrounds.

Solvents

Sam Flax provides only the highest quality, professional grade solvents tested to ensure your paintings never yellow due to the aging or application process. We carry artist grade Weber and Gamblin solvents.

Refined Turpentine is the traditional solvent used in oil painting. Derived from the sap of various pine trees, it has a high evaporation rate, releasing harmful vapors in the process. Turpentine can be used for thinning oil-based paints, creating varnishes, and cleaning brushes and supplies. Paint thinned with turpentine will retain its oily texture and sheen. Turpentine is also the only solvent strong enough to lift varnishes such as damar from a painting.

Odorless Mineral Spirits are equally evaporative as traditional mineral spirits, but some toxic odors have been removed from the product through the refining process. Odorless mineral spirits are generally less solvent but are both less toxic and less flammable, creating a viable alternative for thinning paints, stripping varnish, and cleaning brushes.

Turpenoid is an odorless, volatile and colorless turpentine substitute. With the same properties and drying time as turpentine, Turpenoid makes an excellent painting vehicle either alone or in other mediums and also serves as an excellent varnish thinner or solvent, paint brush cleaner, and even for use in removing paint spots from clothing.