Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. Commonly used drying oils include linseed oil. What initially made oil painting art so appealing was the brightness and richness of its colors. What has allowed it to stand the test of time is its adaptability to an artist’s whims and requirements. For instance, Renaissance oil painting artists tended to use oil paints in layers, working fat over lean (which means adding more oil to the pigment as you go through each successive layer to allow for proper drying or curing so the final surface of the painting won’t crack) and dark to light. This is usually called indirect painting and allows an artist to build up the painting surface from toned underpainting to finishing glazes.
