Solvent-free painting in a variety of styles can be done simply using the putty medium. Following is a step-by-step illustrated tutorial about making an example putty from beginning to end.

Putty is principally made from stone dust and oil, a few other ingredients come into play in small amounts. The oil in tube paint is raw and makes a relatively weak paint film. The putty oil is therefore engineered to be stronger by using no raw oil. However, thicker or prepolymerized oils need to be used with care in more traditional styles of realism -- at about 5 to 10 percent of the total oil amount -- as they can easily create a paint which is over-saturated and difficult to manipulate. Illustrated here are a variety of oils that might be used. From left: Allback boiled linseed oil, aged a year in the light, a mixture of leaded walnut oils, all also pre-heated, Burnt Plate Oil #7, another pre-heated leaded walnut oil, a pre-heated walnut oil. More information about the oil can be found here.

First step, the oil is mixed into the bowl. In this case, I'm replicating a putty recipe that worked out well with a few small changes. The oil can be all thin, in this case the putty will dry matte. Adding small amounts of pre-polymerized oil -- such as sun oil, stand oil, Burnt Plate Oil -- will give the putty more saturation. These seem to work best at about 5 to 10 percent of the total oil. Burnt Plate Oil especially needs to be used in small amounts if control and relatively normal paint handling -- and drying -- are important. All of these factors of course depend on the look the painter wants. Because the putty is inherently stable, its parameters can -- especially on panels -- be pushed much further than other mediums without any technical issues occurring.

Next, the egg is broken and separated. The white gets beaten a little, but not enough to make glair. The yolk is reserved in this case, although putty can be made with egg yolk for use on panels. This paint has a soft saturation similar to tempera grassa if egg yolk is added as 5 to 10 percent of the putty.

The egg white is added to the oil. Egg white creates a seizing of the putty which requires more oil, resulting in a putty with more movement. This putty will be used on panels, for use on canvas it would be best to use egg white in smaller amount, at about 5 percent of the liquid totals. Egg is, in any case, optional. Without egg, the putty is more adhesive and tends to make low impasto or none at all.

The egg white is mixed thoroughly into the oil. It can form a loose emulsion, as here.

Various forms of stone dust can be used in putty, but the principle one is calcium carbonate. The various forms of calcium carbonate all perform a little differently. Chalk is more absorbent, the crystalline forms such as marble dust or calcite less so. Fine chalk is quite glutinous, coarser chalk more mobile. In practice none of these differences matter that much -- they all work, they all stabilize and buffer the paint -- unless you need a certain degree of fineness for the style. For very fine work this can be important. This particular putty is being made with 1/3 cup each of Kremer Calcite, Graphic Chemical French Chalk, and a fine Omya marble dust.

}Dry ingredients added to wet. It's always a good idea to wear a particle mask for this.

Beginning to incorporate dry ingredients.

It looked a little wet so I added more calcite. Unless using a quality scale, putty is a relatively inexact science, but one learns more about what various rheologies will do on the palette from experience.

How tight or loose you make the putty depends on how you work and the specific combination of ingredients. I make it on the loose side when it's going in a tube, because it sets up a bit with age. On panels putty can be applied like mortar, but for canvas it can simply be used as an extender and strengthener of smooth paint.

One final ingredient, a tablespoon of bentonite. This complex clay is never very light but even a small amount will make a putty more springy or boingy.

Putting the putty into a large tube. This is not necessary, but ensures long shelf life for a recipe that you like. I'd also recommend working with the putty more informally for a while as just chalk and oil before tubing it, you can cover more conceptual territory quickly this way.

The final product, ready to extend and strengthen tube paint. Recipe in this case is: 7T pre-heated and/or leaded oil, 1egg white, 1 cup assorted calcium carbonate, 1 T bentonite. About half the amount of egg white would be preferable on stretched canvas.

Putty recipes tend to continue to evolve with experience, as the paint suggests different ways it might be configured. The recipe track may slow down getting to know the material, however. It may be helpful to work with a simple wet-dry mix of chalk and oil on the palette for a time before making up a particular or more complicated formula.

The putty changes color behavior. Here are samples of terra rosa, green earth, and ultramarine blue.

The samples above cut progressively with putty. While these colors are lighter, they have significantly more chroma than a similar value made with white. If this is making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, thank you. The putty brightens the colors, and gives them a lighter, more aerated quality. Using the putty allows a great deal more apparent color to come from a simple earth color palette by sequestering the use of white to specific areas of the painting. This was of course the foundation of many different 17th Century techniques.

The putty medium can be configured in many ways. It will make paint which is thin and smooth as well as paint which is rough and broken. It acts both physically and chemically to stabilize the paint film. It will not, however, make you breakfast. Almost all work on this site from the last three years is made with the putty medium and no additional resin. This is an extremely versatile and tough material.

       More putty process details to be found here.

       More putty history and instructional text, including a variety of recipes, can be found here.

      Detail below of alla prima study of onions from 2007 made with a simple chalk-oil putty.