Linseed oil, which is the main type of oil used for oil painting, comes from the flax seed. Flax has been an important crop for thousands of years, because linen cloth is made from it. This means that the oil for painting and the cloth for painting on both come from the same plant. To get different effects, artists would use mixtures of different oils. These include pine resin, frankincense, poppy seed oil, walnut oil, and in more modern times safflower oil.