Titanium White: Love it, hate it, but could oil painters live without it? This powerhouse pigment is one of the most commonly used pigments in oil painting, and few painters would truly wish to part with it. Titanium White is associated with coolness and opacity, which is why we love it in so many applications like Gesso and grounds. When we need to cover a surface with a white acrylic paint, we reach for Titanium White. In oils sometimes the opacity is cut with fillers, extenders, and zinc to make it a bit more nuanced in mixes. In oils it makes a buttery paint. Titanium also has a reputation for high tinting strength as well as a "chalkiness" in tints that some consider overpowering as it lends a blue tone to mixtures. On the other hand, what would we use for the brightest highlights and speculars if not Titanium White?

The high tinting strength can partially be cut with fillers, modifiers, or other pigments, however we have grown fond of the super-highly-tinting version by Rublev. The chalkiness can be amended by the addition of other pigments, and titanium is popular in many convenience blends which are tints of other colors.

Perhaps the greatest drawback for titanium is the less-strong paint film that it forms. In a way we would describe this as softer, but in the way that something crumbles, so some people describe it as more brittle.

The differences in binding oils will matter a fair amount to oil painters as will the effect of additives. Just take a look at pure Titanium White in Linseed oil in the pictures found here to appreciate the effects of just a little bit of chalk and beeswax. Extensive interest in this over the years reveals it's a complicated matter, but here are some more results from Golden on the binding oil specifically: On the Yellowing of Oils.

We're not health and safety experts, so consult them for that part. Sanding or breathing PW6 can be dangerous-- our understanding is that it can be carcinogenic if the dust is breathed ("cancer hazard by inhalation"), so consult those health and safety experts and protect yourself with the proper gear. We were interested to find out that Titanium White can sometimes contain undisclosed contaminants-- PW4 and lead-- so consult Monona Rossol's work for more information.

The Rutile kind is more common, the Anatase kind is seldom found as it is somewhat deleterious to oil binders.