Oiling Out:  Coating dried color with oil before more paint is applied. 

Between painting sessions, many of the colors will have dried and the oils will have settled to the bottom of the layer, leaving the top layer of pigment unsaturated. The result is a matte effect; the layer is so dull that the proper color/values cannot be judged. These absorbed areas must be oiled out, or retouched. 

Some painters prefer using walnut oil or Damar retouch varnish. One technique is to apply copal retouch varnish to re-saturate the colors. Medium can accomplish this just as well when one intends to work back over a passage.  

Adrian Gottlieb

GottliebStudios.com/Classical_Glossary

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