So I called up Robert Doak over the Summer to order some paint. As he does, he asked me about how I paint and started suggesting additional things for me to buy (he’s a very good salesman). One of the things he pushed was his new medium, “cristallo.” At $12 USD for a 40 ml tube I decided to splurge and pick some up.
Mr. Doak says that the primary ingredients in cristallo are leaded glass powder and sun-thickened walnut oil. It also contains small amounts of cold-pressed walnut oil, beeswax, and lead drier. It is based on recent research indicating that 16th century Venetian painters added more powdered glass to their paint than was previously thought, although he makes no claim that this is the “rediscovered” medium of Titian, Giorgione, and Tintoretto. He suggests that it is best used by spreading it thinly onto the surface and painting into it. He also suggests that it is a good replacement for varnish on a dried painting, but I am dubious about that application and have not tried it.
I’ve now painted with it, off and on, for a few months. It is a sort of thick, colorless fluid, about the consistency of ketchup. It is not sticky the way mediums containing resins, balsams, or stand oil tend to be. It is easy to spread very thinly onto the painting surface with a finger (you can feel a slight granularity from the glass powder, but it is barely perceptible) and it becomes more fluid as you move it around (i.e., it is somewhat thixotropic). It is nice to paint on, providing a pleasant, slippery quality to the painting surface. Mixed into paint, it dilutes it slightly and gives it extra brushability. It doesn’t hold brush marks. It does not seem to markedly increase or decrease the drying time of oil paint. So far, I like it. It does not make the paint magically transparent or luminous, but I didn’t expect it to.
If you do use cristallo or any other painting medium, add only very small amounts to your paint—never more than 20% of paint volume and preferably much less than that.
Also of interest
Tags: art materials, art suppliers, balsams, beeswax, leaded glass, oil paint, oil painting, painting, painting medium, Robert Doak, thixotropic, Venetian painters
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31 December 2006 at 1:55 PM
Michelle Philip
I have been using Robert Doak’s Cristallo for a year. I find it is perfect for mixing with paint that is already fairly stiff, such as Holbein oils. It helps the handling without thinning it, perfect for an alla prima style. When I have tried it for thinner glazing effects (by thinning the paint with solvent plus Cristallo), the crystals can be annoying because they move around under the brush and leave streaks. Overall, I am very pleased to have discovered this medium - I can’t imagine heading out to do landscape without it.
31 December 2006 at 4:48 PM
David
MIchelle,
Thanks for the comment on Doak’s medium. I agree that it’s a good general painting medium; but for glazing, not so much.
22 September 2007 at 5:47 PM
Mel
I bouoght some Cristallo and mine isn’t the consistency of ketchup, it’s like Dorland’s wax medium, very stiff. I can’t squeeze it from the tube, I have to drag it out with the end of a paintbrush. Maybe it’s a bad batch or has gotten old. I did mix it with a little thinner and a little paint and applied it to the surface of a painting, just to see how it dries. It’s been a couple of days and it’s still tacky. (granted this is Florida in hurricane season, but my studio has A/C)
Just wonder if any of the ingredients would slow down drying time.
Or if it should be returned.
22 September 2007 at 5:52 PM
Mel
One more thought:
As a pastel painter for 40 years, I used pumice/gesso or pumice/matte acryilc medium to recover areas that needed work. It sort of sealed, isolated the previous layer of pastel, made a muddy but toothy surface for reworking.
Is there anything I could use in a similar fashion on an oil painting to get a toothy surface back when the surface has become too slick to suit me?
22 September 2007 at 5:59 PM
David
Mel,
That’s nothing like the Cristallo I got. I’d give Doak a call and ask for another tube. It does not, in my experience, make paint dry either faster or more slowly.
As far as surface goes, what I generally do is either wet sand or apply a very, very thin layer of medium to the surface. Either of those approaches makes it much easier to go in with the next layer of paint.