Oil Painting Without Solvents
M. Graham & Co. offers
artists a safer non-toxic and environmentally conscious method
for traditional oil painting you won't find with any other brand
of artists color! (Winsor & Newton, Grumbacher, Daler-Rowney,
Rembrandt, DaVinci...the list goes on and on!).
Cleaning
To avoid solvents while cleaning, use Walnut oil in place
of turpentine or odorless mineral spirits.
Walnut oil removes color from the artist's brush, palette
or hands as effectively as odorless paint thinners without creating
a hazard to the individual or the environment. Walnut oil is
a natural vegetable oil that does not evaporate neither does
it remove essential oils from the artist's skin or the hair of
the brush.
To clean brushes while painting, keep two small jars (one
"dirty"-one "clean") filled with Walnut Oil-a
small piece of screening can be kept in the jar bottom to facilitate
removal of color from the brush. As it becomes necessary to clean
your brush, wipe the brush with a rag, dip into the first jar
of oil rubbing vigorously to dislodge any color, wipe the oil
from the brush and dip the brush into the second jar to remove
any remaining color. A final wipe with your rag to remove any
left over oil completes the process.
Since Walnut Oil is slow drying, the same method can be used
at the end of the day. If the brushes are to be put aside for
a week or more, a final washing in mild soap and water is recommended.
Technique
The simplest approach to solvent free painting is to execute
the painting directly in one application, thinning the color
only with a small quantity of Walnut Oil or Walnut Alkyd.
Use only the smallest amount needed and apply the color directly
to the surface of the canvas. For the greatest permanence, the
colors should be applied thinly. When multiple layers of color
are required, the technique is quite simple if a few rules are
remembered.
-Paint Thinly...Heavy applications of color are too
massive (ultimately brittle) to age well. Such applications are
generally liable to wrinkle or cause cracking. It is a good idea
to apply color in such a fashion as to assure that the canvas
texture is not lost.
-Fat Over Lean...this is the same thing as flexible
over inflexible. The first coat of color should have little or
no medium. Each successive layer should have slightly more oil
or medium added to it than the underlying coat. This has little
to do with the oil content of the color-simply add more medium
to each layer of color.
-Thick Over Thin...Thicker or heavier layers of color
need to be applied over thinner layers of color. Often when thin
layers of color are applied over thicker layers, cracking can
occur-this is especially true for whites composed with Titanium
or Zinc when they form the underlying structure. (Titanium and
Zinc Whites act as though they have high oil content and they
must be used carefully in underlying applications. They are generally
not recommended for use in underpainting unless applied very
thinly on a porous ground and allowed to dry thoroughly and hard.
Zinc white is especially sensitive in this regard.)
Note: Glazes applied with appreciable quantities of
medium in exceptionally thin layers are an exception to this
rule.
-Slow Over Fast...Slow drying colors such as Titanium
White, Cadmium Red, etc. should be applied over faster drying
colors such as Burnt Umber to avoid cracking. In addition, sufficient
time should be allowed for the underlying layer to dry thoroughly.
-Use a sufficiently porous ground with "tooth"...Oil
colors adhere by mechanical adhesion. This requires a ground
coat that the oil can sink into and some surface irregularity
to grab onto. Linen or cotton canvas prepared with a first quality
acrylic gesso fulfills this requirement nicely. Remember that
gesso, like your color, needs to be applied thinly and the more
one preserves the texture of the canvas weave, the better the
adhesion of the color.
-Use the same medium throughout the painting...This
will help to avoid difficulties in the painting structure that
can lead to cracking due to uneven drying rates.
History
Solvents have been used effectively
in Artists Materials from the 19th century onward. Appropriate
use of solvent combined with oils and resins produced mediums
that often overcame the technical constraints of painting in
oil.
However, solvents are highly toxic and,
when used extensively, very detrimental to the appearance and
permanence of the work. Furthermore, it appears that artists
of the European Renaissance did not use solvents to thin their
color, but preferred to paint directly, using the oil in the
which the color was ground as their medium..."When they
are ground with these oils (Walnut or Linseed) which is their
medium, nothing else is needed so far as the colors are concerned,
but to lay them on with a brush" Vasari on Technique,
Georgio Vasari, 1550 (Available form Dover Books as a reprint).
The fine condition of works from this period attests to the correctness
of this approach.
Solvents are neither necessary nor desirable
when working with oil colors. The oil in which the color is ground
with perhaps the addition of a fast drying, solvent free, alkyd
resin and a few simple techniques enable the artist to paint
with traditional oils completely free from harmful solvents.
Physical Attributes of Oil
Color
|
Color |
Drying Rate |
Oil Content |
Film Character |
|
Alizarin Crimson |
S |
H |
Soft/Flexible |
|
Azo Yellow |
M |
M |
Soft/Flexible |
|
Burnt Sienna |
R |
M |
Hard/Strong |
|
Cadmium Orange |
S |
L |
Strong |
|
Cadmium Red |
S |
L |
Strong |
|
Cadmium Red Lt. |
S |
M |
Strong |
|
Cadmium Yellow |
S |
M |
Strong |
|
Cadmium Yellow Light |
S |
M |
Strong |
|
Cerulean Blue |
M |
M |
Soft/Inelastic |
|
Dioxazine Purple |
S |
H |
Soft/Flexible |
|
Ivory Black |
S |
H |
Soft |
|
Napthol Red |
S |
H |
Soft/Flexible |
|
Permanent Green Light |
M |
H |
Hard/Strong |
|
Pthalocyanine Blue |
M |
H |
Hard |
|
Pthalocyanine Green |
M |
H |
Hard |
|
Quinacridone Rose |
M |
H |
Soft/Semi-Inelastic |
|
Quinacridone Violet |
M |
H |
Soft/Semi-Inelastic |
|
Raw Sienna |
M |
M |
Tough/Strong |
|
Raw Umber |
R |
H |
Hard/Strong |
|
Titanium White |
S |
M |
Semi-Strong/Hard |
|
Alkyd Titanium White |
R |
M |
Semi-Strong/Elastic |
|
Ultramarine Blue |
M |
L |
Hard/Brittle |
|
Viridian |
R |
H |
Hard/Flexible |
|
Yellow Ochre |
M |
H |
Strong/Elastic |
Drying Rate: S=Slow M=Moderate R=Rapid
Oil Content: L=Low M=Medium H=High
|
Note:
Although Titanium Whites have only a
moderate oil content, to assure that they are adequately flexible
for the artist's needs, they have been formulated to perform
like high oil content colors. Because of this, care must be taken
in multiple layer applications to follow the rule of "Fat
Over Lean". This is especially important when using our
Rapid Drying Alkyd based Titanium White.
|
