Drying Oils & Resins

Linseed Oil (아마인유 — Flaxseed Oil)

The most widely used drying oil in Western oil painting. Pressed from flax seeds (Linum usitatissimum).

• Raw linseed oil: Slow drying (3–5 days), slight yellowing. Good for mixing with pigments. Not recommended for green or blue pigments — the yellowing shifts their colour.
• Sun-oxidized / sun-thickened linseed oil: Exposed to sunlight and air for several weeks, causing partial oxidation and thickening. Dries faster than raw oil, less yellowing. Produces a slightly elastic, flowing texture ideal for detailed work and glazing. A traditional studio preparation.
• Stand oil: Heated linseed oil (without air). Very slow drying but highly flexible film. Resists yellowing more than raw oil. Self-levelling.

Linseed oil is not recommended for green or blue pigments — the oil's natural yellowing shifts these cooler colours toward brown-green over time. Use poppy oil for blues and greens.

Perilla Oil / Korean Drying Oil (들기름 — Beefsteak Plant Oil)

Pressed from perilla seeds (Perilla frutescens) — a native Korean drying oil. Dries faster than linseed oil. The traditional drying oil of Korean painting before Western oil painting materials were introduced. Considered the vegan alternative to fish oil-based drying media. Used in traditional Korean craft and natural paint preparation.

Note: 참기름 (sesame oil) is not a drying oil — it does not polymerize and remains liquid. 들기름 (perilla) is the drying oil; 참기름 is a cooking oil only.

Poppy Oil

Pressed from poppy seeds. Very slow drying (7–14 days). Minimal yellowing — the preferred oil for white, blue, and green pigments. Less flexible film than linseed, which can lead to cracking in lower paint layers. Best used in upper layers of oil paintings.

Canada Balsam

A natural oleoresin from the balsam fir (Abies balsamea). High refractive index — produces extreme clarity and gloss. Used as a mounting medium in microscopy and as an optical cement. In painting: mixed with turpentine or other oils to create clear, high-gloss glazing media. Traditional recipe: Canada Balsam : Turpentine 5:5 + linseed oil 10%. Dries slowly, very clear.

Pine Resin / Colophonium (松脂 / 콜로포니움)

Distilled from pine tree sap. The solid residue remaining after turpentine distillation. Brittle and yellow on its own. Used as an ingredient in varnishes, oil painting mediums, encaustic wax, and traditional instrument rosin. In natural painting: can be dissolved in turpentine or drying oil to create a resinous medium. Also used in printmaking (etching grounds) and as a mordant in some natural dyeing applications.

Shellsol T

A purified petroleum-based mineral spirit (low aromatic, low odour). Used as a solvent for cleaning brushes and thinning alkyd and oil paints in studio practice. Not a natural material — included here as part of the practical solvent toolkit. Available from Kremer Pigmente.

Cobalt Siccative (Cobalt Dryer)

A metallic drier added in small quantities (1–3 drops per medium amount of paint) to accelerate drying time of linseed and other drying oils. Works by catalysing the oxidative polymerization. Use sparingly — too much siccative causes wrinkling, brittleness, and eventual cracking of the paint film. Also: Calcium salt siccative (slower acting, less risky).

Oil Application Notes

• Fat over lean rule: In multi-layer oil painting, each successive layer should contain more oil (be "fatter") than the layer below. Lean under-layers dry faster and create a stable base for slower-drying fat upper layers. Reversing this causes cracking.
• End of season / autumn oil: Traditional recommendation: change to heavier, more resinous medium in late October–November as studio temperatures drop and humidity rises.

Jay's Studio Note

Sun-oxidized linseed oil is one of those materials that requires patience — you make it in advance, not when you need it. Preparing a batch in summer sunlight (in a shallow open container, stirring occasionally over weeks) produces an oil that flows, levels, and dries in a way that raw oil cannot. The preparation itself is a material practice: watching the oil thicken, testing it between fingers, learning its resistance.

References

• Kremer Pigmente (shellsol, Canada Balsam, Colophonium)
• L. Cornelissen & Son (drying oils, resins)