Painting Without Solvents Tips // Easy Guide to Non-Toxic Oil Painting 

Exactly!

That's right. They are chemically modified to evaporate more slowly and are refined to have less toxic chemicals, but they are still toxic.

People that sell paints even Amazon don’t put safety things some say error yellow warning ⚠️ some don’t but still don’t do anything safety . They don’t think about very gifted talented disabled people’s safety . It’s about money and killing people that’s why which it’s sad . 11:15

yes! I started doing this too - dip in safflower oil and it stays wet for days. it's awesome!

Hi Blick! Thank you so much for your insights!! I couldn't agree more. I appreciate you checking out my video :)

I couldn't agree more with you Jenny! Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Painting solvent free is not perfect but as you mentioned, there's nothing like oils so I keep coming back :) Safflower oil seems to be the best thing I've found. Love the idea of using a heat source, that is interesting. Wishing you well on your solvent free journey!

oops, done*

I'm so happy it was helpful!! :)

Thank you!!!

Safflower is a drying oil and so will dry on your brushes if you leave them too long. You can rinse with it, but before putting your brushes away use some non-drying oil like olive oil or mineral oil or baby oil and they won't dry. Use a paper towel to remove almost all of the non-drying oil before you begin the next session. Too much still on your brush will prevent your paint from drying on the canvas. You can buy cheap safflower oil at the grocery store by the way. It's not necessarily artists grade, but it works.

@@jeremiahembs5343 I keep reading everywhere about safflower oil in the grocery store but in my country I have never seen it. We have Olive oil and Sunflower oil mainly. Also I said I use soap and water when I finish my session, I know it dries

@@loati94 Hi Loati. Yes you can use sunflower oil instead of safflower oil. If you want to try safflower oil and you can't find it in the grocery story you can order through dickblick or amazon. Only a little is needed and you can get large bottles for cooking. The artist grade is more expensive than the kind for cooking, but the artist grade might be more pure, but either should work to do some painting. You don't use very much after all; just enough to get the paint to soften a little. I've never used sunflower oil for painting but I've read that it's basically the same as safflower oil in the way that it behaves so artists can use that in the same way as safflower oil. Both harden though as you say so you have to wash out your brushes with soap and water after. Olive oil doesn't harden, but some of the cheaper brands are mixed with corn oil and corn oil gets sticky. I have read a lot of news lately though that sunflower oil will be in short supply this year because of the war in the Ukraine. Apparently Russia grows a lot of the sunflowers used to make the oil and some countries like Turkey, Spain, and India use a lot of it. I don't know about other countries though. Turkey has made a deal where they can get some from Russia, but Spain has already started to ration it, so if you use it you might want to be aware that it will be in short supply in many places so you might want to try to get some more now. Sanctions and wars hurt the little people the most and Russia makes a lot of the more rare artist supplies so I know that's not the only thing that will be difficult to get. I suspect real white lead paint will continue to be extremely difficult to get as will genuine cinnabar vermilion, genuine red lead/minium, orpiment, genuine chrome yellow, genuine tin yellow, and maybe genuine cobalt and cadmium. Beginners don't use most of those, but more experienced classical artists do.

🙌 👏 🙏 🤝 👍 YEAH mate, g r e a t advice This is learning by d o i n g !! Mostly the BEST way to learn . . . remember the great Francis Bacon: Never EVER visited any art school - and now his paintings sell for double digit MILLIONS !!!

This great tip proves again, that solvents are NOT necessary for cleaning ! I guess many of the "Old" artists also had no probs at all, to leave a trace of "unwanted" colour in their brush -> very nice UN-planned effects !!!

Thank you so much for watching! :) Yes! More videos coming soon 😎

@@hayleyhawkins It was my pleasure,I learned alot ..I paint in a poorly ventilated workspace so solvent free alternatives are much appreciated,lol ..take care and I look forward to more content :D

@@JamesBrown-xg2jr That's amazing, I'm glad it helped! I used to paint in small rooms with no ventilation so I understand haha! Solvent-free painting is perfect for that :)

@@hayleyhawkins You have no idea how grateful I am for your video , it got so that I didn't enjoy painting anymore , it was a pain to clean up because I had to go outside every time ,ughh ,lol ... many thanks again :)

Of course!!🙂

So glad to help, thanks for watching :)

That is amazing! Welcome to the club, wishing you well on your oil painting journey ahead :)

You are welcome, thank you for watching! 🙂

Yes it's so nice! Using less water is better so that's a great system :)

Yes! I actually just made a new video all about underpaintings :) I don't use acrylic that much anymore, but I used to in the past! It can be awesome for underpaintings. Now I use oils primarily :) Let me know how you like the chelsea linseed oil!

Yeah - thats a GREAT advice ! I got wonderful effects blending the incarnate of some acrylic (under-) paintings with oil-colour !

It’s a bummer about lavender spike oil for sure! Curious - why are you not comfortable using a nondrying oil?

Yes it’s very strong!! 😓 wishing you well on your solvent free journey!

Yes, all great points! Agreed and thank you😊😊

I know right!! I feel the same way 😅

None of the pigments you mentioned is absorbed by the skin, they are only dangerous when inhaled (in form of dry powder, of course) and when ingested.

I'm glad this was helpful! Welcome to the world of painting :)

Oh I'm glad you mentioned this! I've been wanting to try their paints for awhile. I will look into their non toxic solvent. I bought some canvas roll from them, they just seem like a cool company in general. I was worried about the earth paints not being archival or lacking vibrancy, but will read a bit about them first. Worth a try, it sounds like.

@Cinnamin Herring Thank you for sharing!! Let me know how you like the eco-solve! :)

😅😅 yes that makes sense!!

Hi there! I like to dip brushes in safflower oil then leave them on a towel overnight so they stay wet, I wouldn’t personally leave them sitting in the oil overnight though. Yes lavender spike oil has strong chemicals still so I don’t use it, but some people like it. Oh yikes I didn’t know that about nitrile, although I kinda figured no gloves were truly safe. I bought cotton gloves once but they’re too way loose & thin lol. I think if you aren’t sweating a lot & only paint for a couple hours it’s prob not the worst thing, but I will definitely research to see if there’s any alternatives! & curious if others have tips too :) thanks for this comment!!!

@@hayleyhawkins Ok, I will also just leave them in on a towel instead of in the oil. Apparently there is natural latex gloves made from natural rubber, but I need to do a bit more research, Will comment here if I find out anything ❤

I try hard to not have any leftover paint, so I usually will just have circles where the colors were but no paint. I just let the palette paper dry and throw it in the trash, or if I used a glass palette I’d scrape anything off & add it to a jar - eventually to be taken to hazardous waste management

Hi! That's a great question. You may have used too much. When I used linseed oil in the past, it would dry but it does dry slower than some oils. I think the key is to use oils sparingly, just enough to help your paint glide more on the canvas. Linseed oil is also thicker and tackier than Safflower Oil and I prefer Safflower Oil these days, so I recommend testing that if you are able to!

Hi there! Yes, drying oils will slow drying time, and solvents like gamsol and alkyd mediums will increase the drying time. Linseed is also faster than Safflower - however Linseed is more yellowing so I prefer Safflower. It completely depends on your goals and style of painting! I personally like my paint to dry slower so I can blend the next day for example. But recently I've been finishing my smaller paintings in 1 sitting so it doesn't really matter. If you are working in lots of layers it may be more difficult to paint with oil mediums, but you could try something like solvent-free gel that isn't completely non-toxic but is a better option.

@@hayleyhawkins Thanks for the advice, appreciated

Murphy's oil soap is quite good as well H

It’s so easy once you get the hang of going solvent-free! Your lungs will thank you 🙂🙂

Hi Gary, I will absolutely check it out, thanks for the recommendation!

Hello, do you thing the BIOBASED ARTIST RINSE & THINNER can be used as a medium for paint or only to clean the brushes ? Thank you for your response.

I've never tried it personally! How do you like it? I have been painting solvent free for awhile and I prefer that method because I get headaches easily from smells - so I'm just using safflower oil and soap/water currently and it's great. But there are also so many good products out there that I haven't tried.

I have always read that the supermarket varieties are non-drying and they are different from the painting versions which are faster drying. I am not 100% but it's probably safe to use a painting specific one! Online I am seeing "the supermarket ones have compounds added to keep them from spoiling but these also prevent the paint from drying."

@@hayleyhawkins thanks for the feedback 😀

I hope you heal soon!!

Gamblin is the best for sure! I agree, I don't have asthma but I am VERY sensitive to any kind of smells, fragrances etc. I wish that non toxic painting was a little bit easier, it's a bit of a hassle, but it's still worth trying it and limiting solvents as it will be better for our health!

Yeah ! Nice tip mate ! Oil is sooooo natural, and we all have natural skin-oil on our surface ! So yes, do NOT use a big cannon (solvent) to shoot a little sparrow !

Acrylic is great too! :) I prefer oil because of how it looks and blends, but there's so many benefits to acrylic as well! I want to start using it more again.

@@hayleyhawkins Absolutely ! Its really VERY nice for beginners as a test: If they are suddenly burning then for the wonderful art of painting, they will naturally come to the old masters (Oil) technique. Also, they could later on simply overpaint/overwork/refurbish their "old" acrylic paintings with oil-colours - without any probs (sfumatio, blending. etc.) That will work also VERY well . . . especially if a solvent customer wants REAL museum quality !

With 240 degrees (Celsius!) I do NOT think it is "very" flammable. In fact most oils are kinda "inert" , due to relatively l o w content of solvents. Only if used with rags (soaked and scrunched up) it c o u l d burn. That should in fact be considered (just put the rags in water and let em dry then) This I have found in the internet: "Self-ignition probably occurs through autoxidation of double bonds of the α-linolenic acid with a simultaneously large surface area and thus high availability of atmospheric oxygen. If the heat generated during the oxidation of linseed oil accumulates, carriers can also self-ignite at corresponding temperatures. The danger is particularly high when working with so-called half-oil, half of which consists of linseed oil and half of which consists of turpentine oil, since the latter has a flash point of less than 50 °C, while linseed oil itself, with a flash point of approx. 315 °C (Marcusson) and a boiling point above 350 °C, is rather difficult to ignite. Textiles impregnated with linseed oil should be spread out on a non-combustible surface to cure or stored under water. Outdoors, they can be hung to dry. For storage, they should be kept in an airtight container or they can be burned in a controlled manner. Brushes can hang in raw linseed oil until next use. "