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Oil paint - "smelly and messy"?
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Message
Posted
One of our number, whose painting I was looking at just now, remarks in his intro that he's a member of an art group, but oils are verboten! Because they're messy, and they smell.
I think I might have to concede the "messy" bit; if you're working in a village hall, for instance, yes, I can see there could be problems if everyone were painting in oil - they'd have to take their painty rags and kitchen roll away with them, with their brushes....it COULD be done; some groups manage it. But acrylics and watercolour would be a lot easier.
But the smell ...? Oil paint doesn't particularly smell, or it doesn't smell bad; Linseed oil has an odour, but not an unpleasant one. Turps, on the other hand, is odoriferous - and incidentally, not good for one's lungs. Low odour thinners are still bad for us even if we can't smell them. But - you don't have to use thinners. As it happens, I've taken to them again; and have hit a snag; my underpainting using Turps looks good enough to stand on its own, almost - I must photograph it tomorrow and show it as a WIP. It looks so good that I'm nervous about adding more paint (by "good" I speak in relative terms: I like it because I wasn't expecting it to look any good at all at this stage.
Anyway - if you don't like the smell of oil painting, use the water miscible ones, or - just don't use solvents/thinners. I don't say it's easy, but it's certainly possible. And that is my message of the day!
Posted
I do not know how, you would use oils without thinners, I do really, but I intend to continue. I couldn't bare the smell, when I first started painting with oils but I no longer notice the smell. I do keep the room well ventilated though. Painting is a messy business. Let's face it, water miscible are not in the same league. I just wouldn't paint in oils. That's just my personal view, I don't like them. I look forward to seeing your WIP.
Edited
by Denise Cat
Posted
I guess using oils at your local art group would also be tricky in terms of transporting your painting back home, as it would be wet or sticky-wet..?
I haven’t tried oils, largely because of the long drying time. But I do admire the beautiful effects that can be achieved with oils, that can’t be achieved with acrylics. I love acrylics because they dry so fast (sometimes too fast though, depending on what I’m trying to do)
Posted
If I’m using oils at art group I usually take a pochade box which can carry two 10x8” boards, so that the painting and the paints can be used and transported in that. I use a small container of low odour thinner in a screw top pot ( empty face cream jar). If the canvas or board is too big for a pochade, I carry it on a lightweight easel which works well so long as it’s not raining when I carry it out to the car after! I tend to only use one or two brushes so that they can be wrapped in kitchen roll at the end and transferred home for cleaning. I have never used turps there and never had a complaint re smell or fumes- so far!
Yes it can be a bit of a palaver, and has been the reason I used acrylics for a few months recently, but it can be done and is largely a matter of organisation.
Edited
by Tessa Gwynne
Posted
I always use oils at our art group and so do many others. We all use odourless thinners and the space we work in is large. There is no discernible smell at all from the paints themselves. One new member ( who apparently has asthma and reacts to turps ) is not affected at all and paints away happily. I manage quite easily to carry back the wet painting in the car…It’s habit so it’s no big deal. I also made myself some cardboard covers if I need them ( took them this weekend to a painting session). They are cut the same size as the painting support and have narrow thick pieces of cardboard stuck on the edge to hold the painting away from surroundings. Once I have positioned the painting I tape each side and hey presto, all good to go! Again, no big deal - and I don’t think I’m a particularly organised sort of person.
Posted
I'm going to restart using oils at our painting group. Our asthmatic member hasn't attended for a while. I'll use the water miscible (which are getting better and better, using proper pigments - it's just the oil in them that's different from the usual) as I can wash the brushes with washing up liquid.
As our group happens to be in walking distance for me, it does make transport a problem - it would be a 3 minute drive. But I'm saving A3 sized flat delivery boxes ( especially those that art surface supplies come in) and hopefully these can be used.
Snap, Tessa, we crossed in the post!
Edited
by Norrette Moore
Posted
You can use washing up liquid on regular oil paint too - provided you blot off, squeeze out the excess paint into a kitchen towel; I never clean brushes in solvent - it's not good for them, natural hog or synthetic.
As for painting with solvents - it is a bit more difficult, or you have to learn slightly different techniques. How to thin your paint to a workable consistency if you don't, is the usual question. Use a little Linseed oil instead of solvent; mash the paint with a palette knife, and you can reduce it to as fluid a consistency as you like, though it'll never flow like water, because oil doesn't break down the paint as Turps/OMS do.
What about fat over lean? Well, that doesn't mean you can't use ANY oil in early layers - just that when you add further layers, you either add a little more oil, or a more oil-rich colour - there's rarely any need to add more oil to the cadmiums, or Titanium white, because they're already very heavy in oil and are very slow dryers. When you really need your fluid paint, it'll tend to be in the upper layers anyway - and in reality, few of us paint in that many layers - some do, and those painters need to be aware of fat over lean, especially on flexible surfaces; but alla prima painters, or those who paint over three or four sessions over so many days, don't need to panic over this.
Being careful about fat over lean was important for the painters of - generally - past generations, who painted in monochrome, then added multiple glazes - too much oil in the base coats, too little in the glazes, and cracking could ensue. I would guess that almost none of us here normally paint in quite that way now. I love to glaze, by the way, but a) I wouldn't glaze with Turps (that would be asking for trouble) and b) I don't employ the very high number of glazes said to have been employed by, say, Titian - though it would be fun to try that as an experiment one of these days.
In passing - I admire your very practical ways of dealing with oil paint in your art groups: I'm not a bad organizer - that was by way of being my profession - but am pretty hopeless with practical things, like creating boxes with dividers to hold wet paintings. The pochade box would be ideal for this, though, and no more difficult to manage than painting outdoors.
This post has been removed as it violates our forum rules and guidelines.
Posted
I happily use oil in my art class and there's never a problem. I use a Carrie art box to transport (can recommend) and this is the link:- CarriArt WorkShield - CarriArt. Also I use Gamblin products - Gamsol which is a mineral spirit thinner and can be used for clean up and I combine this with Gamblin's Galkyd medium. No odour in either. These two products are great for using in a 50/50 mix for a quicker drying oil underpainting and then using the Galkyd on its own which thins oil colours and increases transparency and gloss making oils 'easier' to use in terms of what I would call 'glide and making brush strokes easier. Hope this helps..
Posted
I paint on a daily basis using traditional oils! I don’t come out of the studio covered in paint.
It’s a misconception that oils are, or have to be messy.
The smell of turpentine and oil paint is life’s blood for me, and reminds me of my wonderful student college days…ventilation is a must of course…bring it on!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
As Alan will know - I agree with all of that! I wish I could say I painted every day, but the creaking joints, aching limbs, poor light, and general low mood - which has its ups and downs - do get in the way. Oils, though - traditional oils, not these water miscible ones either - are no messier than any other medium provided you exercise a bit of sense, don't wear your best clothes while painting, and take care not to step back from your picture and sit down on your palette (yes; yes I have.... just the once).
I do use Turps sometimes, to be honest, though extoll the virtues of doing without solvents - it's perfectly possible, you don't then have to dispose of paint sludge in solvent, you can scrape your palette clean, provided you don't leave paint to harden, can wipe off the remainder with kitchen towel, and give the palette a polish with a bit of Linseed oil; you don't need to use solvent to clean your brushes, you don't have any toxic fumes - I just don't see any advantage of water miscibles over 'proper' oils: they're certainly not more pleasant to use, they don't have the range of colour (though of all the brands, Cobra seems to be better than others), they're no easier to clean up - they're a solution looking for a problem.
That should provoke some response... all helps to keep the Forum bubbling!
If people look at the paint smeared studios of Jackson Pollock and Francis Bacon, they may well conclude that oil painting is a messy business - but Pollock was in his cups half the time and throwing paint about, Bacon was bone idle and painted big pictures, bigger probably than most of us would, and rarely if ever stopped to have a clean-up; Lucian Freud wasn't lazy, but he was obsessive and never stopped painting until he dropped - so there are pictures of him in his studio, both smeared with paint (lead-based paint at that - it's a miracle he lived as long as he did in apparent good health); but he had a proper studio, as did the other two; a big space - he wasn't bothered about winning the Good Housekeeping Award. Your studio doesn't have to look like an explosion in a paint factory, but some just like to work in glorious confusion: it's not the paint - it's the painter.