Schmincke Oil Bronze Powders are jars of dazzling metallic pigments, ready to be mixed with ease into a versatile paint using the Schmincke Bronze Medium. Designed to be used on oil paintings, they can be used for detailed work on the surface of your painting, mixed into the oil paint itself, and glazed over the top in thin layers. The colour and reflective payoff is so rich it feels like painting with liquid metal, adding a new dimension and light to any painter’s kit. In the following review, I tested painting with three of the Oil Bronzes to explore the breadth of their usability.
Metallic Effects With Schmincke Oil Bronze Powders
The Packaging and Consistency of Schmincke Oil Bronze Powders and Medium
The Schmincke Oil Bronze Powders come in glass jars of 50 ml with a sturdy screw top lid. On opening, the jars are filled to the absolute brim. I barely made a dent in the three colours I was testing for the following swatches, as you need very little to create a workable amount of paint. I consider them to be great value for the amount of use you’d get from a relatively small container. The Bronze Medium comes in bottles of 60 ml or 200 ml, with a safety lock lid.
For the following swatches, I tested three of the colours from the five in the range: Rich Gold, Rich Pale Gold, and Silver.
The Schmincke Oil Bronze Powders have a consistency like a loose eyeshadow. The gold ones were ‘chunkier’ in pigment size, and slightly wet, whereas the silver is a very thin dry powder. The Bronze Medium is like runny honey, and although golden in colour, doesn’t affect the colour of the mixed Bronzes, as proven by the pure silver it can achieve.
Interestingly, despite identical volumes, the two Gold Bronze colours I tried were much heavier to hold than the Silver. This is because the Bronze Powders contain actual metals to achieve their brilliance. The Silver contains aluminium – which of course is famously light. Whereas the labels on the heavier Golds both say they contain ‘bronze pigment’.
What Surfaces Can They Be Used on?
The Schmincke Oil Bronzes can be used on a variety of materials, such as primed paper, canvas, board, and metal. They can also be applied to absorbent surfaces, and it’s recommended that you prepare the surface beforehand with some Bronze Medium diluted with turpentine substitute.
For my swatches I tested them on the Jackson’s Oil Colour Block 5 x 7 in and a Jackson’s Premium Cotton Canvas Art Board 4 mm 8 x 10 in,, using three of the Jackson’s Akoya White Synthetic Brushes, in sizes 0, 6, and 12.
How to Use Schmincke Oil Bronze Powder With the Bronze Medium
To mix the Oil Bronze Powder into paint, combine 3 parts of Powder, with 2 parts Medium. I scooped out the powder with the end of a palette knife to keep the jars clean. You don’t need much to make a generous amount of paint, I’d recommend only scooping out the amount you’re about to paint at that moment to avoid waste. I poured some of the Medium into a little container and deposited it on my palette with a clean brush. You could probably pour it straight on your palette, but I think this method allows for more portion control to ensure you don’t waste any product.
For this initial swatch of all three colours, I painted them in a solid rectangle at the top, and below painted a squiggle with one brushful of product for each colour. I found that the Silver and Rich Gold had more flow than the Rich Pale Gold. With more room on the page, I could’ve continued painting them, whereas the Rich Pale Gold was drier in consistency and ran out. I found this too when mixing them, that it was slightly less fluid.
You can also thin the Oil Bronze with a Turpentine Substitute, which I tested for each colour to see the effect it provided. Of course, the punchy metallic effect of the paint is reduced by doing this, but it could be a great approach for glazing areas you may want to have a slight glimmer over. The potential to control the strength of the metallic effect is useful for tonal variation, as you can see here in this gradient I loosely painted.
Drying Time and Cleaning Up
The drying time for the Schmincke Oil Bronzes is much more rapid than for oil paint. Despite being designed to be used together this product shouldn’t be confused with another oil paint. All of the swatches I painted were dry the next day, even with pressure applied. They form a kind of stiff shiny veneer that feels like nail polish to the touch, which is wipe and water-resistant. Avoid leaving the Medium sitting out uncovered for any length of time for this same reason, as it will congeal and dry up too.
When left on the palette overnight, the mixed-up Bronze paints will not remain wet and movable like oil paint will. You can’t rewet them with the Bronze Medium once they are stuck down like this. It’s possible to remove it with a turpentine substitute, which is great for cleaning up. Though I’m not sure why you’d want to try to paint with it after reactivating with a solvent when the freshly mixed Bronze is so reflective, glossy, smooth, and pigmented.
Cleaning them up involves pretty much the same process as working with other oil painting products. Whilst still wet you can scrape the Bronze paints off your palette with a palette knife and wipe into a rag to be safely disposed of. If dried down, turpentine substitute will remove it. Cleaning brushes is easy once they are wiped off with some turpentine substitute into a rag, and then cleaned of any residue with a brush soap. Try to avoid getting any on your skin or clothes. Due to its toxicity any that comes into contact with your skin should be washed as soon as possible, and you shouldn’t pour any straight down your sink, just like other oil painting chemicals.
Mixing With Oil Paints
Although there isn’t advice given by Schmincke on mixing the Bronze Powders into oil paint, I decided to give it a try. For my swatches, I worked with three of Jackson’s Professional Oil Colours: Yellow Ochre, Quinacridone Magenta, and Phthalo Turquoise. My pairings of oil colours and Bronzes Powders were: Phthalo Turquoise with Silver, Yellow Ochre with Rich Gold, and Quinacridone Magenta with Rich Pale Gold.
From left to right, I swatched the oil colour on its own, then with a pea-sized amount of Bronze, followed by a coin-sized amount of Bronze, and then the second ratio dispersed with some turpentine substitute.
I found the results compelling, and potentially exciting for further experimentation with more colour combinations. Two of the colours I was working with – Yellow Ochre and Phthalo Turquoise – are opaque, and I think they worked less effectively for this reason. Though there is still a shimmer in these example swatches, the real star was the Quinacridone Magenta, which due to its semi-transparency, allowed the Bronze to show through more. It’s interesting that when mixed into paint, the Bronze has an inconsistency to it that the initial swatches don’t. It gives a beautifully varied, expressive brushmark, almost appearing marbled.
Due to the success of the Quinacridone Magenta with the Rich Pale Gold, I decided to swatch it again mixed with all three Bronzes. It’s really interesting how it slightly changes the overall hue of the paint, whilst also giving it that metallic sheen in the light. I would recommend trying the Bronzes with other semi-transparent and transparent oil colours to find more combinations.
On Top of Oil Paint
Next, I painted lines of the Bronzes on top of rectangles of the three oil colours, already dried down to see how they sat on top. The quick drying time was unaffected, and still took about a day.
For the top three lines, I painted each Bronze with its recommended ratio and found that none of them allowed the colour beneath to show through. They are dense and non-patchy in application. For the second three lines, I used a bigger brush and thinned them with some turpentine substitute, to see how glazing with them looks. I love the sheer quality of this effect, as the pigment is still evenly distributed but allows the colour below to show through. I could imagine adding this over a painting of water, glass, or ornaments – the possibilities are really exciting. It could be added as an extremely subtle detailed wash to a work, or with full strength, depending on your vision.
Detailed Work
For this next sheet, I tested how the Bronzes handled for picking out fine details, with a variety of brushwork. In a traditionally inspired way, the Oil Bronzes could be used in the place of gilding or gold leaf detailing. Since the mixed paint is smooth and strongly pigmented, applying it in small amounts works beautifully. You don’t need to layer it up at all to get a strong payoff.
Are There Any Drawbacks?
On opening the jars and medium, you do immediately notice their smell. The two gold jars have a slight acetone-like smell, whereas the silver smells strangely like damp. These aren’t overly noticeable, but the smell of the Bronze Medium definitely is. It has a strong smell like petroleum, and it enters the air where you’re working. After smelling this I noticed that on the label for the medium, it does disclose that it contains naphtha, which is made from crude oil. This is literally the only drawback I can see with these products, and for anyone sensitive to fumes I would approach these with care. I would recommend only keeping the jars open for taking the product out and immediately closing them, and especially using them in a well-ventilated area like all oil paints should be. Once dried down, this smell has evaporated.
The Schmincke Oil Bronze Powders and Bronze Medium are an exciting discovery for me, adding an extra dimension to my oil paintings. I’ve tried other metallic oil paints before, and they pale in comparison to the Schmincke Bronzes. I’ve found that in oil paints, silvers and golds are more like a shimmer that’s been added to a colour, unlike the true liquid metal that has been achieved by the Schmincke Bronzes. I’m looking forward to further experimentation with them, mixed with a wider palette, and added to resolved work.
Further Reading
Artist Review: Da Vinci Professional Brush Soap
In Conversation With Suzi Morris: Schmincke Mussini Oil Colours
Gold Gilding Process With Tuesday Riddell
The Unexpected History of Payne’s Grey
Shop Schmincke Oil Bronze Powders on jacksonsart.com
Thank you, Louise, for this highly
informative article! I am currently painting
an autumnal landscape and would love to
experiment with metallic colours. I think
incorporating some gold tones into this
particular piece would work great. Thanks
to you, I plan to try out Schmincke’s Rich
Gold!
That sounds wonderful! So glad you found the article helpful, and I hope you enjoy using the Rich Gold!
Excellent article thank you. So you know
how they perform mixed with fully
transparent oil paints ?
So glad that you enjoyed the article! Because of their light-reflecting properties, they add opacity to transparent oil paints. One approach might be to glaze transparent colour on top of the Oil Bronze Powder. That would produce some interesting effects!