If you paint in oils and you're not using mediums, you're probably working harder than you need to. Mediums change how oil paint handles — its consistency, drying time, surface finish and how layers interact with each other. Langridge makes some of the best available anywhere, and the fact that they're made in Melbourne makes them easier to get hold of in Australia than many European equivalents.
Here's a plain English guide to what the main Langridge mediums actually do.
Linseed Oil — the starting point
Linseed oil is the most basic oil medium and the one most painters start with. Adding a small amount to your paint increases its flow and transparency without significantly changing drying time. Langridge makes several linseed oil variants — cold pressed linseed is the most popular and gives paint a slightly warmer tone and good flow. It's the medium to reach for when you want paint that flows a little more freely off the brush.
Don't use too much. A common beginner mistake is adding too much linseed oil in an attempt to make paint go further — this slows drying dramatically, causes wrinkling and can compromise the structural integrity of the paint film over time. A little goes a long way.
Langridge Alkyd Medium — when you want it to dry faster
Alkyd medium is a modified oil that dries significantly faster than straight linseed — typically within 24 hours rather than days. This is genuinely useful if you work in multiple layers and don't want to wait a week between sessions, or if you're painting on location and need work to be touch dry before packing up.
It also increases gloss and improves flow, making it a useful general purpose medium. It's probably the Langridge medium worth trying first if you've never used mediums before.
Langridge Galkyd — professional finish, faster drying
Similar to alkyd but with a slightly different resin base that gives a particularly beautiful glossy surface. Many painters use it for final glazing layers where they want maximum depth and luminosity. It dries faster than standard alkyd and gives a very professional finish.
Langridge Lean Medium — for the fat over lean rule
If you paint in layers, the fat over lean rule matters — each successive layer of paint should be slightly more oily than the one beneath it to prevent cracking as the paint dries. Langridge Lean Medium is specifically formulated for underpainting and early layers — it dries faster and is leaner than subsequent layers should be. Using it in your first layers and gradually increasing oil content as you work up gives you a structurally sound painting.
Do you actually need mediums?
Honestly — you don't need them to make good paintings. Plenty of excellent work is done with paint straight from the tube and nothing else. But if you find your paint drying too slowly, cracking, sinking into the canvas unevenly, or if you want to build glazed luminous layers, mediums solve those problems directly and elegantly.
The Langridge range is well explained on their own website and their technical support is genuinely helpful if you have specific questions. We stock the full range in store at Duthy Street Unley and online Australia-wide.