View PDF Artists' Oil Color Information Leaflet and Color Chart

View PDF Winsor & Newton Artist's Oil Color Chart

Covering Power
Covering Power not only comes from pigment strength, but also from the greater thickness of color, which results from the stiff consistency associated with Winsor & Newton's Artists' Oil Color. Covering power is particularly linked to the most opaque colors like Titanium White and the Cadmiums.

Pigment Purity
Like all raw materials, pigments are available in various grades. We use only the purest of pigments ensuring the cleanest, brightest colors, which in turn produce the best color mixtures.

Winsor & Newton's quality standards include the use of single pigments wherever possible to create individual colors. Combined with strength of color, single pigments provide a wide color range in themselves and offer cleaner, brighter mixtures with an infinite range of hues. This is particularly important for greens, violets and oranges. Single pigment 'secondaries' considerably broaden the artists' available spectrum. There are 80 single pigment colors in the range.

Color Series
As the cost of the pigments used varies, so does the price charged for the color. Therefore Winsor & Newton have grouped colors together in 'series'. The higher the series number, the higher the price. You can find the series number both on the color chart and on the tube.

Drying Times
The long drying time of Winsor & Newton Artist Oil Color is a key feature of oil painting. The color remains soft and wet for a few days and therefore allows alterations to be made from day to day. All colors will become touch dry in thin films in 2-14 days. The different reaction of each pigment when mixed with oil results in the different drying rates. Each color is individually formulated to optimize its drying rate, which helps artists to avoid the problems of slow drying underlayers. However, the following list is a guide to the likely variations.

Liquin Original is the perfect medium to speed the drying time of oil color. It will speed the drying by approximately 50%.

Winsor and Newton's Oil Painting Rules | Jackson's Art Supplies