Yellowing of WS Oil painting

I've had two paintings yellow over the past several years, especially in the blue areas where it is most noticeable. The one I am working on now was done in 2005 with W/N wso's and thinned with their linseed oil. It yellowed within a year of painting it, but I am just getting back to it now.



It only happened across the top and in the center right of the painting. I'm in the process of repainting all of the blue background and using titanium white with blue or primrose to cover it up.

Has anyone repainted areas that have yellowed and was the repainting successful? Did the yellow bleed though as the paint dried? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Judy

PS: The blur in the center, must be on the camera lens. It is not in the painting.

What is it painted on and how was the ground prepared? In this photo it almost looks like mold.

Dave, I found the problem. I never thought to turn it over and look at the backside. This was painted when I was new to WSO's and it was an off brand canvas that said acid-free, primed, but obviously looking at the back, I should have primed it myself probably with several layers of acrylic gesso.Here's what the back looks like. You can see that the oil seeped right through the canvas. It is interesting that the bird didn't absorb through so much because it was added after all the background had dried overnight.

Moral is: If you buy off brands, be sure to put several layers of acrylic gesso on before painting.

My second painting that has yellow all over the canvas was the one I did last winter.

It was done on a canvas I stretched myself from a roll of Fredrix, primed canvas. This one, however, doesn't show any seepage through to the back of the canvas. I did not add more primer, because I wanted the clear, smooth white of the canvas to show though in the halo. I did add acrylic gesso to the blues as my white source through the rest of the sky.

Here are closeups of the worst areas. The left being the original and the right six months later.



The one thing I did differently in this painting was that I used walnut oil alkyd rather than just plain walnut oil.

I noticed the same thing happened in my pink mountain painting with the alkyd, but it is OK because there is very little blue in the painting and the pink turned more salmon color which was actually what the natural coloring was.


So I guess the second moral is not to use walnut alkyd where there is a predominence of blue or white in a painting.

Yuk! That's a shame, Judy. I don't use walnut mediums so I haven't any experience to share. The medium does seem to be the problem with the two desert paintings here. It might be that you've used too much medium in those yellowing areas.

I agree that I might have used too much of the alkyd. I tend to be impatient about the drying time when I get on a roll while paint. These are the only two I used walnut alkyd in. I usually only use walnut oil and very sparingly.

The hummingbird redo is coming along well. The yellowing is covering and does not appear to be coming through again.

The halo painting has it's first coat of repainting of the sky straight from the tube with no additives. I'm letting it dry for a week before going onto the final painting to re-establish depth.

Thanks for your comments. Judy

Judy - sorry you had the problems, but thanks for alerting us to the causes. Hey, that sun is great !!!!!!!!!!

Judy, thanks for the information, and I'm sorry that this happened to you. So far, I haven't used any of the alkyds. I usually work on a couple of paintings at the same time, so that I don't get impatient waiting for them to dry. I think I'm going to go back to just walnut oil for my medium. At least I'm planning on it if my hip ever heals!

Dayle

Hi Dayle!

That is what I'm doing now also. The alkyd does bother my allergies so that is another reason.

I hope your hip is healing well. Nothing worse than having all the time in the world to do what you want and not being able to do it because of something like your hip. I hope you are keeping up with your painting skills with other media.

Judy

Thanks Jim,

Thank goodness I left the canvas clear where the sun is so that it didn't yellow like the rest. I'm making progress with both paintings so hopefully, they will be salvaged.

Judy

Judy, it looks like too much oil to me. I use walnut alkyd in all my paintings, but haven't seen any yellowing, not even in ones done several years ago. Have you tried putting them in sunlight for a while?

I generally apint in a room that is quite sunny and frequently leave the easel turned toward the sun when drying. I think I just used too much alkyd. I have painted over the blues and am waiting for it to dry more before working on the variations in the sky. I will move it into the sun right now to see if that helps.

Judy

This is too bad. I will look at my paintings to see if there is any yellowing. And I never paint in a sunny room so I will have to change how I store my art. Learn as we go.

The room I paint in faces east so it gets the morning sun. The sun isn't actually on it while I paint, but I do turn it toward the sun in between painting. The good news is, I was able to repaint the areas of both paintings where it had yellowed, and both look really good now. Thank goodness...the Cactus Halo one is one of my favorites and I get a lot of good comments on it from people.

Judy

Thank you Judy for sharing! Did you cover the canvas in oil first on that first one? I do remember reading that if you do that you need to use a very thin film and wipe the excess. I would say too much medium as well. I'm surprised the one with alkyd medium did that.