Maroger Black Oil Painting

BLACK OIL is made of purified raw linseed oil cooked with red lead and adding mastic.
Cold pressed raw Linseed Oil - 96.5g, Mastic - 30g, Pbo - 4g
This comes out to visually about 1/2 cup oil, a handful of crystals, and about a 1/4 tsp of PbO.
In this test I used 6 times more litharge red lead. I'm testing for drying time and gloss.
I think it's best to apply a thin layer of Maroger first. It's dark but seemed to lighten while still wet. Mix the gel in a media cup with enough turpentine to make it fluid, so it can be used to thin the tube paint into a painting consistency. Photos and instructions to make Maroger medium.
It painted with the smoothness of wax without the loss of gloss. Really nice stuff!

I had finished painting by 6PM, the night was in the 60's, 6AM I checked the painting, it was dry and shinny!
Now I'll start working backward with the amount of litharge in the mix. I want the amount of litharge that will dry in 16 to 18 hours.

11-21-04, Heavenly Hana Inn Dolomite Lantern, Maroger's medium plus 3 pigments and white. Indian Yellow, Old Holland, quin magenta PR122 Daniel Smith, cyan PB15 Grumbacher
Wow, that's what I have to say about the normal Maroger's. What do I like about it, let me count the ways.

I put a small amount from the tube in a tub, and added turpentine. It was much lighter then copal and had a lot of the characteristics. Copal is nice to paint with, I love Maroger's. First I coated the panel with the thinned mix.

I didn't have to add wax to make it slide, it just does it. Like an E ticket.

It doesn't pick up the stroke before, like Venetian balsam.

It starts setting in a couple of hours, like a heavy dose of drier, but it won't turn as brown. Cobalt drier is more browning then linseed oil.

It's not difficult to keep the good painting consistency as stand oil is.

England; J.C. Ibettson, "An Accidence, or Gamut, of painting in Oil", 1803, page 15; under the heading of "Megilp"... "The very best pale is made by boiling the linseed oil in an earthen pan, at the bottom of which white lead is spread a quarter of an inch thick; do not stir it at all until it turns a brown ash colour, when it will have imbibed a sufficient quantity of lead to turn the mastic varnish and itself into a stiff jelly."

In France, 1827, P. L. Bouvier wrote a book for beginning painters (Manual Des Jeune Artistes...") and included the following: Name: Macgilp, Maguilp, Magelp, Magilp; Materials: Linseed oil boiled on Litharge; strong mastic varnish; materials ratio: 1:1 or 2:1 http://www.jamescgroves.com/meguilp.htm

Clint (1855), Under the heading of Brown Megilp, this author writes: "Brown Megilp is composed of equal quantities of strong Drying Oil and strong Mastic Varnish, well shaken or stirred together. If a small quantity only be required, put a given number of drops of each on the palette, and rub them well together with a knife, when they will produce a strong transparent jelly; this is an old-fashioned vehicle, but in my opinion a very good one."
I say that this is an incomplete and poor recipe.

Gumption, a slightly differing concoction known as "Gumption". An invention of Julius C. Ibettson, Gumption utilized all the basic ingredients except the turpentine. The Mastic resin was mechanically ground up into the linseed oil, a small amount of Lead Acetate was required and the yellowish opaque glop did form into a stiff jelly. More oil was added until a favorite consistency was achieved. Some tests show Gumption to be a better lasting medium than Meguilp.

Iv'e always said it made more sense to use lead acetate instead of lead oxide. I would rather have the clear sugar of lead or the white calcinated stannum oxide, like the Egyptians used. " target="_blank">

Here's the setup.

The drawing painted with a brush

100% coverage, half way finished. Photo in the sun. While you are working on the wet pre-wash with medium, colors can be laid down and another stroke of a different color can be forced to lift the under color and lay the new color. Like the pink in the right tree lifting the green.

5 hours Finished. Photo in the shade. I really like the under washes and over painting in the foreground palm.