Gamblin Oil Colour: Choosing From Their Many Whites

While most ranges of oil paint contain two or three whites, Gamblin produce ten: nine from their Artist Oil Range plus one FastMatte White Alkyd Oil Paint. We have taken a look at Gamblin’s whites to find out their different qualities and why you might choose one white over another.

Gamblin state that “between half and three-quarters of the paint on most oil paintings is white”, and I think that’s probably pretty accurate. I don’t think of my paintings as being pastel-tinted or white but I go through ten times more white than any other colour. That’s why most oil colour ranges do a large size of white. You can use white to lighten colours of course, and for white highlights at the end, but you can also use it to deaden colours that are too vibrant and make transparent colours opaque. To control your results when mixing with white you have a choice of whites to choose from. Most ranges of oil paint offer at least Titanium White and Zinc White and many also offer a mix of the two: a Titanum-Zinc White. But Gamblin offers seven whites, plus three tinted whites, so you have a lot of control when mixing.

The Gamblin website is a great resource with detailed mixing information for each colour in their range of paints and a large section on studio safety, something they feel strongly about. The article Getting the White Right has detailed information about their range of whites such as tests of brittleness and usage charts.

The Jackson’s website has the full range of colours of the Gamblin Artist Oil Paints; Gamblin Fastmatte Alkyd Colours; the very popular Gamblin range of useful mediums and grounds; the Gamblin studio-safe solvents and varnishes; and the Gamblin Etching Inks.

This chart shows the set up for the drying times testing. It also gives a good idea of the relative whiteness of each colour and the swirled portion shows the textures a bit.

Drying Times Test Chart

To see the information for myself I made a chart of the ten whites – seven true whites and three tinted whites. The Titanium Buff tube says the pigment is just Titanium White, so I thought it was an Unbleached Titanium, and in the tube it looks sort of cream-coloured. On the test panel it looked darker and researching it on the Gamblin website I found that it contains Iron Oxide, so that explains the darker colour.

The test chart is laid out so that each white has a thick blob that was spread with a palette knife, with one end brushed out. Next to that are two squares of different thicknesses. I made a grid of painter’s tape and scraped the paint on with a palette knife so they would be identical thicknesses. The first square is one tape layer thick and the second square is three tape layers thick, so it is three times as much paint. I then timed how many days each colour took to dry to the touch.

I used painter’s tape to create equal amounts of paint – 1 layer of tape and 3 layers of tape.

Tape grid creating squares of controlled thickness – a column of 1 tape thick and 3 tapes thick for each white.

Three layers thick on the left and one layer thick on the right.

Drying Times of the Ten Whites

As expected, most of the whites made with linseed oil dried faster than whites made with safflower oil, with the exception of the two Titanium Whites – the Titanium White and the Quick Dry White. Quick Dry White is not exactly what it sounds like, it is a slightly faster drying version of the Titanium White, drying one day sooner. It is still one of the slower drying of the Gamblin whites.

The Fastmatte dried really fast and to a very matt finish. There are a few advantages to this. If you paint in layers your underpainting is dry the next day. This matt quality also makes for a surface that is nice to paint on as it holds onto your new layer of paint instead of repelling it like some dry oil layers will. If you like a fully matt surface you can make your whole painting with this Fastmatte paint as there is a complete colour range of these fast-drying matt colours.

I expected Radiant White to be the slowest drying because it is extra oily and is made with safflower oil, the slower drying of the two oils used in this range. And also because Gamblin think it is the slowest drying. But it was not as slow as the slowest two. It is the only one that doesn’t agree with the Gamblin findings.

Something to remember is that unless you are using white on it’s own, the colour you mix it with will be part of the drying time. A slow-drying oil colour like Crimson will make your mix dry more slowly by the proportion you’ve used in your mix and a fast-drying colour like Burnt Umber will make it dry faster. So you could choose different whites to balance the drying rate of different colours, though I have not done this when I paint.

Touch-dry test results in the order of fastest drying:

Tinting Strength and Opacity

You will need less of a white with a high tinting strength to change your red into pink and it makes sense that the more opaque a white is the more it will lighten a colour it is mixed with. (Though this isn’t always true with other colours, like Phthalo Blue, which is transparent and has a high tinting strength, you only need a bit in a mix to make a big change.) Radiant White and Titanium White are the most opaque, so will lighten colours the quickest.

I mixed the whites with a small portion of Crimson to test tinting strength. (Note: this test wasn’t as accurate as the drying time tape grids because I had to estimate that I was using the same amount of Crimson to white each time.) In my testing they were all fairly similar at tinting with the exception of the Zinc White which lightened the Crimson less. I also made a stoke over two lines of Sharpie marker pen to see if the paint stroke would completely obscure the line. The Zinc White is the most transparent and the Flake White Replacement and Titanium Zinc White are somewhat transparent.

Mixing the whites with a small portion of Crimson to test tinting strength. As expected Zinc White has the lowest tinting strength. I also brushed some over Sharpie marker lines to see the transparency. Zinc White is also the most transparent.

Using Tinted Whites

If you use a warm or cool white for mixing across a whole painting it gives a warm or cool feeling to the whole painting. The Gamblin Warm White and Cool White are exaggerated versions of these. The Titanium Buff is actually quite dark but is an interesting mixing colour.

The three Gamblin tinted whites mixed with Crimson.

Texture and Brush-Feel

Fastmatte White is the stiffest and is slightly gritty and chalky.
Flake White Replacement is sticky.
Radiant White is the softest, it’s creamy. This means it contains more oil so it is also one of the most slow drying of the range. I’m not sure how it can be so opaque while being so oily, I would have thought more oil meant less pigment, so I’m not sure about why that is. (If anyone knows, leave a comment please.)
The other seven whites are all slight variations of a nice buttery feel.

Fastmatte White is the stiffest and is slightly gritty and chalky.

Flake White Replacement is sticky.

Radiant White is the softest, it’s creamy.

Whiteness

Temperature – warm or cool whites – depends on both which pigment is used and which oil is used for the binder. The linseed oil whites are warmer (more yellow) and this might matter if you are using white on its own. The clear safflower oil creates a more neutral white that could be called cooler (more blue). A linseed oil white will yellow even more over time as it ages.
The Gamblin Radiant White is the whitest white. You can see the relative whiteness of each on the drying chart above.

Yellowing of the Whites Over Time

The main factor in whites yellowing as they age is which oil was used for the binder – yellow linseed or clear safflower (or clear walnut and clear poppy in other brands). I have seen testing of whites where in about 2 years some whites actually turned a dark orange similar to amber. This is disturbing if you don’t want your painting to change. I am not an expert on the yellowing of whites, Gamblin have a lot of information on their website. They yellow more in complete darkness and lighten back up in sunlight. I’m not sure where the semi-darkness of a room in a house falls in their scale. And I am concerned if the whole painting needs to be in sunlight to whiten the whites or white mixtures, that the other pigments will be faded.

I did this same drying-time test three years ago but without an accurate tape grid, so I wasn’t sure how accurate my times were. But I kept the board and so it has become a test of yellowing. The board was in my studio with a skylight and electric lights and then in the Jackson’s office for a few months with windows and electric lights. So it was only in the dark at night. So this is normal conditions and not the complete darkness that results in severe yellowing.

Yellowing of the ten whites over three years.

The Gamblin Radiant White is the whitest white out of the tube and it remains the whitest over time as it yellows the least.

Flake White Replacement

Robert Gamblin developed Flake White replacement after an artist requested a paint with the working properties of Lead (Flake) White but without the lead. To make Gamblin’s version, Robert Gamblin “matched the working properties generally considered typical of Lead White: warm in colour, a dense and heavy paste with a long and ‘ropey’ quality, and a unique look to the impasto stroke.”

A Note About Zinc White

Zinc White in all brand of oil paint has been found to produce a brittle surface that may result in cracking over time. It is recommended that if using any brand of Zinc White you should be painting on a panel (wood or canvas glued onto wood), not a flexible surface like a stretched canvas. I often require a transparent white so my compromise is to use Zinc-Titanium and I often paint on a panel anyway.

Gamblin’s Descriptions of Their Ten Whites

Radiant White

A good choice where the color white is critical, Radiant White formulated for painters who want a “refrigerator white” white. Same tinting strength and opacity as Titanium White. Excellent for abstract paintings. Bright and opaque Titanium Dioxide is bound with safflower oil, the clearest oil binder. Because safflower oil is almost colourless, the bright white of the Titanium pigment shows through Radiant White.
Pigment: Titanium Dioxide (PW6)
Vehicle: Safflower oil
Lightfastness I, Series 2, Opaque

Titanium White

Reflecting 97.5% of all available light, this most opaque white is the perfect choice for direct painting. Monet would have loved it because he wanted his paintings to look soft, like velvet. The covering power of Titanium White is useful for creating opaque layers, but T-Z White is preferable for color-mixing.
Pigment: Titanium dioxide (PW 6)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 1, Opaque

Titanium-Zinc White

Most useful all-purpose oil painting white. An excellent mixing white, T-Z White combines the soft texture and opacity of Titanium with the creamy transparency of Zinc for less “chalky” mixtures. Consider using T-Z White for color-mixing because it takes so much color to tint Titanium.
Pigment: Titanium dioxide, zinc oxide (PW 6, PW 4)
Vehicle: Safflower Oil
Lightfastness I, Series 1, Opaque

Quick Dry White

This buttery white is useful for painter who want their paintings to set up more quickly. Quick Dry White is not as fast drying as FastMatte Titanium White, and has a glossier surface quality.
Pigment: Titanium dioxide (PW 6)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 1, Opaque

FastMatte Titanium White

The fast drying rate, low oil content, and matte surface quality makes it ideal for underpainting. Using FastMatte Titanium White with traditional oil colors will speed the drying of the resulting mixtures, based on the percentage used.
Pigment: Titanium dioxide
Vehicle: Alkyd resin, refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 1, Opaque

Flake White Replacement

The first true nontoxic alternative to Flake White. It’s the leanest of the Gamblin whites and a terrific underpainting white. Its beautiful opalescent quality is of special interest to portrait painters. Flake White Replacement has all the working properties of traditional Flake White: long ropey stroke, warm color, translucency and short brush mark. Not only does our FWR come without the lead but it also doesn’t suffer from the fast drying time of traditional formulations, which contributes to the cracking of oil paintings over time.
Pigment: Titanium dioxide (PW 6)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 1, Opaque

Zinc White

The most transparent white, Zinc is recommended for glazing, scumbling and alla prima painting. Compared with all other whites, Zinc White has less hiding power. Zinc White dries slowly, so painters who want to paint wet into wet over a long time will find it useful. Because it’s brittle, painters should not consider it as a general painting white unless painting on panel.
Pigment: Zinc oxide (PW 4)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 1, Semi-transparent

Tinted Whites

Warm White and Cool White are formulated for painters who want to include the colour of the light into their colour mixtures. The colour of the light source influences all of the other colours in the painting’s subject matter. Using a white that replicates the temperature of your light will create a consistent quality of light and colour harmony throughout your painting.

Warm White

Perfect for painters working in warm light situations, such as painting at sunrise or sunset. Based on our Titanium Zinc White formula, it has a perfect balance of yellow and orange pigments to lighten and warm other colors, while maintaining their hue.
Pigment: Titanium dioxide, arylide yellow, monoacetolone, zinc oxide (PW 6, PY 75, PO 62, PW 4)
Vehicle: Safflower oil
Lightfastness I, Series 1, Opaque

Cool White

Perfect for painters working in cool light situations, such as painting under an overcast sky. Based on our Titanium Zinc White formula, it has a perfect balance of blue pigment to lighten and cool other colors, while maintaining their hue.
Pigment: Titanium dioxide, copper phthalocyanine, zinc oxide (PW 6, PB 15:2, PW 4)
Vehicle: Safflower oil
Lightfastness I, Series 1, Opaque

Titanium Buff

A light, yellow-grey made from a compound of titanium dioxide and iron oxide. This popular colour is valuable in figurative and landscape painting.
Pigment: Titanium dioxide (PW 6)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 1, Opaque

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