Selfproduction of alkyd oils

Formulation and properties

Abstract

Alkyd oils are a fairly recent type of paints, similar to traditional oils, yet with a faster drying time. Just because of its relative novelty, no pictorial techniques and materials handbook can be found which could show an artist how to produce their own alkyd oils, which indeed does happen with acrylics or traditional oils. The present study introduces a research that opens doors for an economic and accessible binder by means of which the artist can produce their own alkyd oil paintings. To this end, a wide sample of alkyd resins has been selected and they have been tested through several laboratory analyses and pic-torial tests until a combination of alkyd resin and linseed oil, most perfectly suited to the objective of the research, has been found. Once this binder was found, it has been studied in depth by using it to produce paints with a wide range of pigments, and explaining both their individual formulation and their characteristics of Body and viscosity, Gloss, Texture, Flexibility and Drying. Finally, a palette with the most suitable pigments for self-producing alkyd oils has been proposed.