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Posted
Bill, your technical knowledge could be very useful here - what I wonder do you think of the safety levels of odourless minimal spirits as compared with genuine Turpentine? I'm well aware that it's not a good idea to inhale Turps, but my thoughts on it are that at least you can smell it, which tips you off that it's toxic: better than the odourless spirits which can do bad deeds by stealth, i.e. if we can't smell them we might become blasé about them and progressively less aware of their dangers? (Now I come to think of it, this might also be true of Zest-it, depending on whatever the solvent is they use in it - a pleasant smell is good, but might it lull us into false security?) On the Amazon kindle app - I thought there was a Mac friendly version, but might well be mistaken. I keep meaning to get a paper version printed, but it needs formatting properly, which taxes my tech expertise to its very limits.In reverse order, I tried to download the Mac-friendly Kindle app, but coudn't get anywhere with it. I have an old Mac, which might be the reason. I can read it on my wife's Kindle (assuming she lets me, of course!). On solvents, I'm 18 years out of the industry, but I recall that the worst turpentine substitute is white spirits, which contain a fair percentage of dangerous aromatic hydrocarbons. It has the designation HARMFUL and there is a long-term cancer risk. Avoid like the plague, especially if you paint regularly. Odourless kerosene is a fair bit safer, definitely, although we're still taking about aliphatic hydrocarbons (like petrol or diesel), which can cause headaches and long-term damage to health. Turpentine itself and orange terpene are different again. These contain alicyclic hydrocarbons and are likely a little more harmful to health than odourless kerosene, but less harmful than white spirit. As you say, the odour of turps and orange terpene will let you know when the vapour level is building up too much. There are safer solvents than any of these, such as glycol ethers and even isopropyl alcohol, although I don't know if this is miscible with linseed oil (itself very safe). Odourless thinners probably contain either nonionic surfactants (usually safe) in water, and possibly include a solvent like a glycol ether or alcohol. Most of the solvents I mentioned are flammable, sometimes highly flammable. On the whole, I would be happy using linseed oil and a little turps or terpene. They're time-honoured too, so long term harms are not really an issue, unless you have respiratory issues, in which case I'd use linseed oil only. I hope that helps.
Posted
Good-oh. It could do with an update or two, but I wish I'd had something like that when I started out, which is why I wrote it.
On the solvent front(s): the only good thing about White Spirit is that you can sense it's trying to kill you! It amazes me that people still use it. I have wondered about Iso alcohol - I have seen it recommended as a good medium to clean off panels before priming them, ditto for shellac, but I've never used either. On the whole, I think the best advice is to keep any solvent to an absolute minimum, don't use them to clean brushes - it just de-natures them - and clean your palette off with paper towels and a bit of oil - unless you're one of those who like their palettes pristine (mine aren't!), in which case you probably will need a slosh of turps.
Posted
I bought your book a few years ago Robert and found it extremely helpful. At the time I did raise with you whether you'd consider doing a similar one on acrylics (you'd be able to use at least some of the templates?). I'm just wondering whether this would ever be a possibility as I'd still be interested. I'm sure it would be very helpful to acrylic artists. Do you know anyone who could assist with formatting as I think your book may sell better in print? (I could be wrong of course). I'd buy a print version if one were available.
Posted
Sandra - I think the reason, apart from inherent torpor, for my failing to write a similiar book on acrylic is that I realized I wanted to be in print, rather than wafting on the ether: my problem was that I wrote the book before ascertaining whether it would fit into any publisher's lists: and for several reasons, it didn't. Publishers like lots of pictures, I like lots of text. All part of the now, now, now, show me NOW ethos which has descended on just about everything in these days of reduced attention span.
He said: sniffily.
It also occurred to me that there were already a lot of books on acrylic painting: and that acrylics are - technically at least - nowhere near as complex as oils or watercolour. So the challenge was lacking...
I may yet do it: I'm just a kid of 72, so there's still time....
Posted
Thank-you for your reply Robert, I do understand the issues you've mentioned. It is a pity about the short-sighted publishers, I would certainly buy a print version of your book on oil painting, even though I'm not doing that at present. My opinion is that you really need art books in print rather than "wafting around the ether", and to add insult to injury the US version I had to buy (Amazon UK doesn't or didn't supply digital to NZ) has the illustrations in black and white!
I do have a number of books on acrylic painting, I just found your way of explaining more helpful than some. And there's always room for more books on art and on gardening!
This post has been removed as it violates our forum rules and guidelines.
This post has been removed as it violates our forum rules and guidelines.
Posted
A thought - We’ve had the discussion many times on how to stop the spammers ( and now the AI nonsense).
I think adding a profile pic, short bio, and at least one gallery item should all be mandatory before a new user is allowed to post anything on the forum….
That would surely do it, and not deter genuine arty people..?
