raw materials

Gamblin FastMatte Alkyd Oil Colors was named as the best new product at the annual NAMTA art materials trade show earlier this year, and we now have it in stock in all colors. Here’s what Gamblin has to say about this new line:

Gamblin FastMatte alkyd oil colors are formulated to give oil painters a fast-drying oil color with excellent working properties and permanence. The balanced color palette allows for great color mixing potential in a variety of oil painting techniques and styles. When used for underpainting, the matte surface allows for maximum adhesion with subsequent layers.

FastMatte alkyd oil colors are formulated to:

• Give painters a fast-drying palette of colors.
• Give painters an artist-grade alkyd oil color with strong pigmentation and balanced color palette.
• Create a matte surface. When used as an underpainting layer, this ensures the adhesion performance of subsequent paint layers.

Dry Time: FastMatte alkyd oil colors will dry within 18 to 24 hours, in thinly painted layers. This drying rate allows painters to work throughout a painting session, while creating a dry surface for the painting session the following day.

Color Palette, General Oil Painting Techniques: The balanced color palette was chosen for its mixing capabilities in a variety of oil painting techniques and styles. The surface quality of dry paintings will be quite matte. For a gloss surface, apply a thin coat of Gamvar picture varnish.

FastMatte alkyd oil colors have a low to moderate oil content, so they are appropriate for underpainting when painting “fat over lean.” All colors (with the exception of titanium white) are transparent to semi-transparent in nature, as this quality will create the tonal range important to underpainting techniques.

The fast drying rate of the colors makes them well-suited for plein air painters, especially while traveling and transporting freshly painted work.

For illustrators working against deadlines, FastMatte colors offer them a fast-drying solution, and the matte surface makes their work easy to photograph.

The palette of FastMatte colors consists of: Titanium White, Hansa Yellow Medium, Napthol Scarlet, Transparent Earth Red, Quinacridone Red, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Green, and Chromatic Black.

Compatibility and Permanence: Alkyd resin in the polymerized oil of the 20th century. Alkyd resin has a great compatibility with the linseed oil binder of traditional oil colors and increases the flexibility of the resulting paint film. FastMatte alkyd oil colors are completely compatible with all artists’ grade oil colors. FastMatte alkyd oil colors are also compatible with Gamblin’s alkyd-based Galkyd painting mediums.

Unlike acrylic colors, which we are not generally recommended as an underpainting material for oil colors, Gamblin FastMatte colors make an excellent base color for an oil painting. The matte surface quality of these colors creates a receptive surface for subsequent layers of regular artists’ grade oil colors, ensuring that both physical and chemical bonds are made.

We’ll have a special offer related to FastMatte soon, but in the meantime they are all 25% off every day both in store and in our online store.