Oil Painting Tip - Toxic Free Oil Painting Mediums - Master Oil Painting 

What do you use to clean brushes and palette? Thanks

@@pepa1420 I use Dawn dish detergent to clean brushes. I paint everyday as its my profession so I rarely "clean" my palette. Its more akin to scraping off what's there if I'm changing the palette colour scheme.

I’ve seen walnut oil and recently learned about safflower oil being another alternative that may dry a little quicker, but what is “pure oil“? Is it thinner more a kin to OMS? Thanks :-)🎉🎉

Here’s a summary for folks!: • use paint straight from the tube • use high quality brands to make this work better (Michael Harding, Old Holland, Rembrandt, Natural Pigments/ Rublev, Gamblin) • if you need some fluidity, use a little walnut oil or Oleal Gel (not sure on the spelling). • underpainting- use Oleal Gel, (or acrylics! Another vid recommended. Then use oils on top without issue.) • clean brushes with Turpenoid Natural, or Safflower oil (some color might be left though)

Agree with you, this helps so much for starting & keeping things easy.

I've heard several artists who like Geneva paints. I haven't tried them because of the clove oil they add to their paints to slow the drying time. I'm glad they're working well for you, though.

@@masteroilpainting Yes they take forever to dry. Unfortunately they have gone out of business and stopped production.

he used turpenoid natural and so do i. it’s AP safe and non toxic and not bad to inhale. cleans great and protects brushes. he uploaded a video about it because he likes it so much. i work at michaels and it isn’t really available there, if ever. so you have to buy online. also water and soap works well too but doesn’t always protect as well as turpenoid natural and doesn’t get the deep deep oils from the ends of the bristles out. and don’t clean your brushes every time after you use them. best practice is to actually leave the oil in your brush often and clean them when you need to switch colors. wiping them off and switching colors usually works best. or better yet have brushes you use for darker colors and brushes for lighter colors so you have to clean even less. for general cleans use soap and water. every once in a while you need to really deep clean your brush, and in that case use the turpenoid natural for the reasons listed above. sort of expensive so don’t overuse. will easily last a year though, depending on how much you paint.

Great question Rhyannon. It's recommended to use faster drying pigments/mediums underneath slower drying. If you're painting alla prima (all in one sitting or before the first layer dries) then you'll be fine. If you let one layer dry before adding the next, if you don't let it dry thoroughly, it's possible the next alkyd layer could dry so much faster that the first layer causes the second layer to crack as it contacts and expands during the longer drying process. In reality, I don't know how often it causes problems, but you might want to experiment with a small panel you don't care about. Natural Pigment has a lot of info on their site that might help you decide.

Linseed oil is what you hear about mostly in the news causing spontaneous combustion, but as a working artist for almost 40 years I know of only one artist who's studio caught fire from oily rags. Most of the fires you hear about in the news are from hardware store linseed oil used for furniture. We artists rarely use enough oil to cause combustion. If you're worried, I'd recommend a metal trashcan made specifically to prevent or contain combustion. It's also helpful to empty your studio trash regularly. If you ever use mineral spirits which is usually generally highly flammable, make sure it's Gamsol. They've removed all but .005% of the aromatics (the harmful part) and made it safe enough that it can be transported by plane. If you decide to use any type of medium, be as clear as you can about why - most effects in oil painting can be achieved without mediums. Often they are simply a habit we fall into without really knowing how it's helping our work or process. I do use M Graham's walnut Alkyd Medium when I want a layer to dry more quickly. But mostly, I've been using just paint straight from the tube for the bulk of my career. For many years I did use Gamsol for the initial wash layer, but now I prefer watercolor to create the initial washes. Watercolors work great on an oil or lead primer and oil paint can be applied over it almost immediately since it dries so quickly. Watercolor is far superior as an underpainting than mineral spirits or acrylics.

That sounds like a good alternative Steve. Alkyd seems to make oil paint even tougher - drying to a nice strong film. The drawback to most alkyds is they are dissolved with solvents and usually have mineral spirits in them. M Graham makes a good alkyd that they say doesn't have solvent in it and is non-toxic.

Great questions, Toni. First, I use Turpenoid Natural to clean my brushes. During the painting process, I rarely clean them. Instead, I wipe my brushes on a rag or paper towel while painting. That can be troublesome, though, especially for new painters because the value or color temperature of whatever paint is in my brush can affect the next batch of paint I mix or try to apply to my painting. One of the benefits of working with a lot of thick paint strokes and applications for the first 10 years of my career is that it gave me a knack for knowing when I could have free reign with a 'dirty' brush and when I should clean it before mixing a new batch of color. Those moments when I do clean my brush during a painting is when I want that particular brush, and I want to apply a completely clean color to my painting - for example, painting a translucent yellow flower petal when my brush has a dark lavender color in it from a previous mixture. For most leaves, grasses, trees, and similar subjects that in nature are alive with a mixture of values and color shifts, I don't worry about cleaning my brush because the precision of value or color is not as important. Now, after a painting is finished, or if my the paint in my brushes is starting to dry out, then I will clean all of my brushes with Turpenoid Natural and then use a rag or paper towel to squeeze the excess out of the bristles. I no longer do any other cleaning of my brushes. Most soaps remove the natural conditioning oils from the brushes. Turpenoid Natural will dissolve old dried paint and effectively keep my brushes conditioned so they retain their shape better. To your second question - I seldom varnished my paintings for the first 20 years of my career. Over the past 15 years, I've read and researched extensively and decided it is better to varnish than not for two reasons: 1. Today, varnishes are superior to the Damar varnish I made and used through the 80s and 90s. They are easy to remove with mineral spirits instead of the much more toxic turpentine. They contain UV inhibitors which add a layer of sun protection. Now, it could be argued that my paintings won't be valued for centuries in museums, so why does it matter, and I would respond that UV inhibitors are a minor benefit in my mind, but it's a benefit nonetheless. The huge benefit for me personally is that they can be applied sooner. That idea is controversial among artists and art supply manufacturers. Gamblin states that Gamvar, which is what I use, can be applied once the painting is touch dry - dry enough that if you swipe a brush over it while varnishing, it will not break the skin of thicker paint. That, for me, is crazy convenient because I often need to get my paintings out to a gallery within weeks, not months. So, I no longer hesitate to varnish my paintings within a week or two, depending on how dry the thick paint strokes are. Others argue that varnishing so soon is detrimental to the painting. The problem is I have yet to see compelling evidence or research to back that up. So, I suggest you follow your own instincts until something is proven one way or the other. The primary reason to varnish a painting is so decades down the road if dirt and other environmental debris accumulate, the varnish can be easily removed without affecting the painting at all. Then varnish can be reapplied with all of the original colors and values intact. One other reason I varnish my paintings is to create a more uniform glossy surface so my paintings reflect the way they looked when they were first painted. I like the glossy wet look of oil paints because I love saturated colors and values. A good varnish helps reinvigorate any painting area that might look matte or sunken once the paint dries. I've sold hundreds of paintings that were not varnished, and none have been returned to me by collectors complaining about the paintings suffering from the lack of varnish. But I've seen older paintings occasionally that could benefit from a varnish sprucing-up because they looked a bit dry and matte in spots. Some artists like their paintings to dry matte so they avoid varnish. Or they varnish their paintings with Liquin because it lessens the glossiness. That becomes an aesthetic decision and is not a decision of one being better or worse. If that's the case, they would be better served using a matte varnish instead of the other two options. Please avoid using Liquin as a varnish because it bonds permanently to the painting and is not removable with mineral spirits if it needs to be cleaned. I hope the book I just wrote is helpful.

Great to know Greg, thanks! When I asked how they created alkyd mediums without solvents they said it was proprietary info. I've tried the solvent-free gel but not the safflower alkyd medium. I love Gamblin paints, but wasn't especially thrilled with the gel (maybe the lousy experience I had with the Galkyd medium biased my experiment). I now use the Walnut Alkyd Medium by M Graham and find it very useful for both studio and outdoor painting - although I still use only a small amount.

Hi Jane, sorry this reply took so long. I have a couple of the Chelsea products, including their brush cleaner, but haven't used them yet. They seem like an excellent company overall. The brush cleaner smells great, like a yoga eye pillow. Although, I haven't used their spike oil, I tried Natural Pigment's spike oil. I would be leery of it if you're concerned about health. I would consider Gamsol safer than spike oil. The spike oil is a solvent and the aromatics have not been removed like they have with Gamsol. It doesn't evaporate at the rate of Gamsol or Turpentine, but it's still an evaporative solvent. When I used it as a medium in my studio my face flushed and felt prickly, and I decided to avoid using it going forward. Possibly, only using a few drops would be alright, but I like things in my studio that I'm not concerned about leaving in an open jar while I work. The amount they use as an essential oil for aromatherapy is a much smaller amount than we generally use as artists. Their website lists it as non-toxic while also stating 'All essential oils/solvents should be used appropriately and with ventilation and common sense usage.' Common sense tells me that something 'non-toxic' is safe even if we breathe the fumes. So, I'm leery of their brush cleaner as well since my brush cleaner (Turpenoid Natural) sits in a large container without a lid. Walnut and Linseed 'oils' don't emit any toxic fumes, so I'm not sure why they list oils in the same sentence as solvents when it comes to fumes. Oils do oxidize, and emit fumes, but they are not the toxic aromatic fumes that we avoid from solvents like Turpentine, Spike Oil, and Mineral Spirits. Gamsol has less than .005% of the aromatics left - it's really not very dangerous for our health. Some individuals are more sensitive to it and develop allergies to it, but some people develop allergies to peanuts, cats, grass, and dust - that doesn't mean we should all avoid those things. The more I study the toxicity of materials the less inclined I am to avoid Gamsol while staunchly avoiding spike oil.

Great question Maudale. There are a lot of formulas artists use for glazing, but there's no reason you can't simply use linseed or walnut oil with a bit of whatever color you want for glazing without anything else added.

He has videos on the subject.

@@masteroilpainting how do you clean your brushes?

Wow! Thanks a million for your valuable information! I'm so glad I consulted you.

Hi rainbows, no, you never want to use kitchen oils - they are not drying oils. Linseed, walnut, poppy seed, safflower, and sunflower are used today for oil paints because they are refined in a way that allows them to dry and form a hard shell. Safflower, poppyseed, and sunflower dry more slowly than linseed and walnut and do not form as tough of a skin. Even safflower and walnut oil from the grocery store are generally processed differently from those used for paint and they will not dry.

I've never used it Kiki, but I downloaded the Safety Data Sheet. The medium contains 2-BUTOXYETHANOL which can be absorbed through the skin and is considered toxic. If you look at all of the mediums they have for the WMOs some say non-toxic and others don't. If you are trying to stay away from toxic materials I would definitely avoid the Fast Drying Medium. I am especially leery of anything that will absorb through the skin. That is what makes Turpentine even more dangerous than mineral spirits - Turps not only absorbs through our skin but it helps take other toxic pigments from the paint with it, while mineral spirits does not. Of course, I avoid mineral spirits as well because of the fumes, but even the fumes are much less harmful than Turpentine. I've never been a fan of WMOs so I'm probably not the best resource for them (too much bias against them after trying to help students who were using them). And now that you've shown me the complicated mediums they have for them I'm even less of a fan. I just don't see any advantage to Water Mixable Oils and I find plenty of disadvantages.

I've heard of their products and they're very expensive. I'm sure their walnut oil is highly refined but I've been buying it from Asda for £1.90 for 250 ml and reading the ingredients it says just walnut oil, no additives. It dries after a while and I have paintings 5 years old done with it, no problems no yellowing. One of the first lessons my tutor taught me at art school was don't go to an art shop before you've been to a hardware store first. I soon realized that when the art shops were trying to sell MDF painting panels for £20 each but with a trip to Wikes or B&Q I could buy enough MDF to make 7 of them for that price.

Chelsea's Spike Lavender is not really Spike Lavender, it is lab made with other chemicals, and very strong.

I certainly understand, turpentine is so much nicer to paint with than mineral spirits. I avoid it because the fumes are highly toxic, but every artist needs to determine their personal goals and what will help them achieve those goals. Besides creating beautiful artwork, strong brain and body health is one of my goals.

he uses turpenoid natural and so do i. it’s AP safe and non toxic and not bad to inhale. cleans great and protects brushes. he uploaded a video about it because he likes it so much. i work at michaels and it isn’t really available there, if ever. so you have to buy online. also water and soap works well too but doesn’t always protect as well as turpenoid natural and doesn’t get the deep deep oils from the ends of the bristles out.

I'm sorry that I didn't clarify that. The medium is Oleo Gel from Rublev (Natural Pigments art materials). I rarely use it. I mostly use paint straight from the tube, but two products I'm experimenting with from the same company are Impasto Medium and Pale Drying Gel. I experiment quite a bit and I encourage all artists to do the same. Find what works well for you and your techniques.

@@masteroilpainting Thank you so much for details! I come from watercolors, and I see oil painting as a udge different world (I just bought WMOils years ago, but have never really deep in oil world..). But your video really gave me courage as we can make it pretty simple, straight from the tube :) I just painted today and it was challenging but quite fun. Thanks for giving me motivation to go with oils ! I subscribed by the way :)

Bill Inman yea looks like we have had similar paths in art, I got a masters too at East Carolina , used to use liquid in the 90s and then Galkyd for a bit then found the walnut alkyd. I have some Canada balsam I want to try out. You can mix it with oil of spike and walnut

Bill Inman been liking your art for awhile. check out my website www.kevinevans.net. Right now I’m doing a lot of photography

he used turpenoid natural and so do i. it’s AP safe and non toxic and not bad to inhale. cleans great and protects brushes. he uploaded a video about it because he likes it so much. i work at michaels and it isn’t really available there, if ever. so you have to buy online. also water and soap works well too but doesn’t always protect as well as turpenoid natural and doesn’t get the deep deep oils from the ends of the bristles out.

@@johnster02 found that video. Thanks!

You can use Master's Artist Hand Soap. I just use the bar version of it and rub my brushes on it and work in through and rinse. It's amazing soap.

he used turpenoid natural and so do i. it’s AP safe and non toxic and not bad to inhale. cleans great and protects brushes. he uploaded a video about it because he likes it so much. i work at michaels and it isn’t really available there, if ever. so you have to buy online. also water and soap works well too but doesn’t always protect as well as turpenoid natural and doesn’t get the deep deep oils from the ends of the bristles out.

Use a bar of olive oil soap. Murphy’s oil soap works too.

That would depend on the thickness of the paint right out of the tube. There are thinner paints like Geneva oil paint. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eEd8o2WTw2g.html

@@masteroilpainting Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

Yup, that kinda worries me as well, because fat over lean, because well, underpainting and suppose to be a base, not many textures or detail(maybe defining what is dark and what is not dark if want), toning. The actual painting, got it, fewer mediums or none or jut those mentioned, a little, however, the first steps kinda troubles me.

@Centurian interesting idea, I did found out about acrylic grounds, never thought tho about the water-mixable oils. thx!

Hey Marty, I use dish detergent and warm water to clean my brushes. Works beautifully and the bonus of the brushes lasting longer because the hairs are not dried out by the solvents. Dispose of the dirty water safely as the paint residue (this includes ALL paint types) is harmful to your waterways and willdlife if disposed down the drain.

You're right Ana, fashions come and go. My decisions have come from both personal experience and research. I did use Turpentine for the first 15 years of my professional career but not as a medium - just to make damar varnish, and I always wore a respirator. I did the same thing when I primed my canvases and panels with oil primer or used spray fixatives or varnishes. My art school painting professor in the 80s developed such a severe toxicity from turpentine he had to quit oil painting - he would get sick every time he got near his studio. Unfortunately, he didn't know what was causing the problem at the time, or he could have simply stopped using the solvents and kept oil painting. I was there when he started to get sick from the solvents and that taught me to use a gas mask around the solvents once I figured out what was causing the problem. It's a lot easier though to skip the solvents altogether since they aren't necessary for oil painting especially considering that most of the historical masters rarely if ever used any solvents. Each of the things you mentioned - turpentine, cadmiums, and zinc have become more readily available in the last 100-200 years and weren't used by the old masters. Conservators today agree generally that zinc should be avoided in oil paint and turpentine is wholly unnecessary. Cadmiums are nice opaque pigments, but they weren't invented until the early 1800s. Turpentine as artists know it was invented in the 1900s. Zinc wasn't used in oil paints until the mid 1800s. Rubens did not use any of the things you mentioned. Of course, just because the old masters used or didn't use something doesn't make it the 'best' practice. There might be some things today that become superior to what the old masters used. That's what the research today is all about - figuring out which materials last for hundreds of years and which materials don't. Artists today also want to make sure they stay healthy and live long lives so they can keep painting. Researching this information though still isn't very easy since paint manufacturers don't all agree - most still use zinc in white oil paint - and it's tough to distinguish between hype, marketing, and legitimate scientific information. My thought is we each need to study and research and then follow our instincts, but don't get so consumed with conflicting opinions and scientific studies that we forget to paint or lose the joy of being artists.

We're working on it Janet. We have a team now that's helping us rewire our whole website infrastructure and it's a crazy amount of planning and work. We're attempting to create something that doesn't presently exist, so there's a lot of work involved in figuring out how. It will take us a few months more to develop the systems we need, but after that you will see an increase of tutorials that will be targeted and useful way beyond what I've been able to do with just Kristie, David, and I. We aren't gone (even if it looks that way at the moment).

I, as the beginner, read somewehere what alkyds have same principles theoretically as an oil, but no as critical, so you can use same or increasing amount of alkyds in later layers. And try not to use slow Drying Pigments in the early stages.

Hi Joyce, good question. I'll do a quick tip video about this soon, but for now, I'll give you some basics from my research and experience. There are multiple reasons why oil paintings crack, wrinkle, and/or delaminate - and for the most part, conservators don't know. There are too many variables to figure a lot of this out. My recommendation (which is flimsy since I'm not a scientist or conservator) is to make sure your layers never get too slick. Most paint, oil or acrylic, binds to other paint through mechanical means. Paint needs 'tooth' or texture to help one layer stick to another. With oil paint, there is some chemical bonding as well, but it's mostly mechanical. Alkyd medium, unless used in small amounts, can cause the paint to level out (lose the brush texture) and become slick. That slick surface discourages other layers from adhering or bonding. Most of the cracking we see early on in our paintings is caused by a thinner faster drying layer being applied to a slower and/or thicker layer or by the bottom layer being too slick and not allowing the top layer to stick. Once the top layer dries enough it loses flexibility and the contraction/expansion of the lower layer causes it to crack. The fat-over-lean rule is not an exact mathematical equation and is now considered by many conservators to be misrepresented or an outright incorrect theory. JustPaint.org recently released information about a study they're conducting where they found multiple acrylic gels or mediums under oil paints causing cracking even when there are several layers of acrylic gesso over those products (they have not found the same with acrylic gesso by itself unless your oil paint has zinc in it in which case you don't want to paint on top of any type of acrylic). As long as you keep the top layers the same or thicker thickness as the bottom layers so they continue to dry at the same or slower rate you will be fine. This is usually avoided by painting alla prima or wet-into-wet but even that is guaranteed.