Oil paints come with three levels of transparency: opaque, semi-transparent, and transparent. All three have their uses and can aid an artist in their art making. You can read more about how here. Before I get too far into why some oil pigments lend themselves to opaque paints while others are transparent, I must first take you back to last Christmas. Sometime last year I informed my husband I that I wanted the book The Artist's Palette, by Alexandra Loske. True or false, doe