is a transparent white, which is kind of weird because white is not a colour normally used like other transparent colours are used….technically white is not a colour and is used to tint other colours when mixed with them. Zinc white has one tenth of the tinting strength that titanium white does.

so how should it be used…

…time for a bit of play, and as i’m writing this I’m thinking of a way in which I can experiment with zinc white.

My first experiment was a bit of a fail - trying to use zinc white like I normally would use white, mixing it with three primary colours to paint an eye - I ended up getting frustrated and having to add white gesso to add enough strength to the paint for the light tones because the zinc white is so subtle that it’s almost like using a water colour. (there is no watercolour white paint, btw, as the white paint that you get in watercolour sets is actually paint not watercolour. I gave up before I finished.

Then I thought I’d compare zinc with titanium as mixes and on a dark ground.

now I need to think of another experiment…

….also I’m writing this blog as I try the experiments, which is an experiment in itself too :) I feel like a bit of a scientist.

I’ll try it on a bit of fruit…and maybe another eye…

Just from these little experiments I understand zinc white alot better. It will be useful when I want gentle shifts of tone at the end stages of an acrylic painting rather than battling with getting the colour match using titanium, or thinning it with lots of medium. It would also be good for opening up dark colours like blue without obviously tinting them, I think.

The best thing I can do to really get a feel for it and see if I like it is to simply put it on my pallet along with titanium when I’m painting and see how I go, and if I do this for a few months it may become a necessary part of my painting process. We shall see.

note: all experiments were done in acrylic paint.