Term: Long and Short Oil Paint

Long oil paint means that enough medium has been added to the pigment that it has very little ability to "peak" (to make small peaks or hills out of the paint). Long paint is smooth and oily. The peaks in long oil paint level off gently. Long paint leaves few brush marks and produces fluid brushwork.

The oil paint as it comes out of the tube is called short paint. It has a stiff buttery quality which retains its brush marks easily; and when stippled with a palette knife it creates many short crisp peaks of paint, from which the term is derived. Short paint produces a paint quality not easily obtained by any other means.