Gamblin Artist’s Oils have luscious working properties, and each color possesses unique characteristics in terms of texture, undertone, and tinting strength. The range of colors includes both historically accurate paints and modern, synthetically derived hues. Most are made with alkali-refined linseed oil as a binder, which creates a strong, flexible paint film and yellows significantly less than cold press linseed oil, the traditional binder in oil paints. Select colors use safflower oil as a binder. Not only are these vegetable oils completely non-toxic, but they are also used in health and beauty products, so you can trust in their safety
- SELECTION_90 colors provide a solid selection, around two-thirds are single pigment.
- PROPRIETARY COLORS_Anything that is not single pigment is somewhat proprietary_we like their Radiants.
- PIGMENT LOAD_High
- CONSISTENCY AND TEXTURE_Gamblin Colors are not Extra-Fine which means they are milled less than Extra-Fine Brands like Blockx, Holbein, Sennelier, and Rembrandt among others. It is not as smooth, has a slight grit and a little more drag on the brush. (These are characteristics some painters prefer.) Larger pigment particles also provide less tinting strength. With the Extra-Fine Brand’s pigments are milled as many times as it takes to get a consistently fine particle size. Gamblin, Natural Pigments, Williamsburg, Vasari, and others mill many of their pigments the same number of times to retain the characteristics of each individual pigment.
- BINDERS_Alkali-Refined Linseed and Safflower oils.
- ADDITIVES_Only their chemist knows for sure. There are two main schools of thought out. No additives and needed additives. The first extols the values of only pigment and binder with no additives the second uses additives required the get maximum performance from each pigment. Most manufacturers claim the first and do the second. TSoFA does not think the brands we tested are using additives to cut corners or save money.
- FINISH OR SHEEN_Gamblin promotes the use of their mediums a great deal to regulate sheen. Their cold was medium makes the finish more matte.
- PACKAGING_Openings seen a little small but other than that its fine.
- TOXICITY_No Leads but Several Cadmiums. Gamblin is by far the most health and environmentally conscious company we tested. Our guess would be that if Cadmiums become more of a health issue they will deal with it in the future
- TRANSLUCENCY_Limited number of Transparents but enough.
- OPACITY/COVERAGE_Most of their colors are opaque.
- MIXABILITY/TINTING STRENGTH_Somewhat less than Extra-Fine Brands because of particle size.
- INTENSITY_Good, they premix Radiants for you and have a good range of Modern Organic pigments to get the job done.
- LIGHTFASTNESS_ The ninety pigments in this range will stand the test of time
- DRYING TIME_ Normal for Linseed Oil, i.e., two to four days.