Still Life with Primroses, water-mixable oils on linen, (50x40cm). See demonstration below.
Max Hale revisits Cobra water-mixable oils, following improvements to the recipe, and shares his experience and the many benefits of working with this medium.
What are water-mixable oils and how do I use them?
My palette with colours laid out chromatically from titanium white, cadmium yellow light, cadmium orange, pyrrole red, sap green, cobalt blue, ultramarine.
Water-mixable oils are amazing. The paints can be used with just water as a diluent to imitate the use of white spirit or turps to ‘thin’ for the early stages of your painting. This is obviously convenient as noxious fumes are eradicated from your studio; any spilt paint, including on your clothes, can be simply washed off with warm water and detergent. Plus of course they don’t affects artists who suffer from asthma or breathing difficulties. The paint, being a bone-fide oil paint, still has a pale oily odour but the artist doesn’t suffer the toxicity and effluvium of the diluents.
Cobra water-mixable oils
In 2010 Royal Talens of Holland introduced their Cobra range, which was a huge improvement on anything else I had thus far encountered and the nearest to traditional oils with their buttery consistency and great pigment depth.
Cobra painting paste is a medium to stretch the paint, which ensures that painters aren’t tempted to add too much water, thus losing adherence and weakening the structure of the paint; it also increases transparency and gloss.
There is also a glazing medium to facilitate layering in the traditional way and a paste to bulk out for heavy impasto or knife work.
There are 70 colours in the 40ml range in four series. The whites can be purchased with a binder of safflower or linseed. In application this paint is almost identical to traditional oils and has good brushstroke retention. The one difference is in the mixing, with a slightly more extensive stir required to stimulate the emulsifier, any water and the paint.
Water-mixable oils, and certainly Cobra, are not inferior to traditional oils, nor are they designed to be an amateur product. There is a student version, Cobra Study, which is slightly cheaper than Cobra Artist; these are not quite as refined as the Artist quality paints but the pigment is the same.
FIND OUT MORE WITH STEVE STRODE
Where to buy Cobra water-mixable oils
Cobra water-mixable oils can be purchased from Jackson's Art Supplies by clicking here and from art shops and other online retailers.
What are the drying times for water-mixable oils?
In the early days of Cobra the paint was liable to appear ‘sticky’ after about an hour on the palette but improvements in the recipe has cured this slight anomaly and I don’t encounter it now.
Drying, or hardening of the paint is not dissimilar to traditional oils. This factor is probably the most confusing to potential users as any water present in the mix will dissipate, leaving the oil and pigment to continue to harden in time. Therefore, it is not a characteristic of water-mixable oils to have a faster drying time than traditional oils, but a Quick Drying Medium is available to help shorten the time, should this be required.
During painting the careful use of water in the early stages is crucial to avoid a wet canvas. New users have the tendency, especially if they are used to painting in acrylic or watercolour, to over-wet the paint, causing it to become unmanageable and produce a stain rather than a thin paint. It’s important to realise that water must be used with moderation – it’s better to underuse than over. I wipe any excess water off my brush so that I’m using a moist, not a wet brush, which is usually adequate to make the paint flow. There is plenty of oil in the paint so this more than adequate for a good creamy mix.
Working process
1. Underpainting
Underpainting for the still life study below
To begin, I do a mid-tone underpainting on my support. I sometimes use a thin acrylic wash to cover the canvas but if I use oil to do it, I have the added benefit of being able to interact with it to assist building initial tonal structure before I start blocking-in.
2. Drawing with the brush
The drawing is made using a short flat or bright with thinned paint; this won’t contaminate subsequent paint. Working my brush into a little mixed colour close to the subject hue I prepare my darks next.
DISCOVER JACKSON'S BRUSHES IN A REVIEW BY MAX HALE
3. Blocking-in
Mix for blocking-in the still life below
The blocking-in phase is one of the elements I take great care over. I don’t want the paint too thin or too thick, as I like it to be translucent and not clogged up.
I use a relatively dry brush, No. 10 or 12 hog, working the bristles hard in a small pool of paint to pick up enough to scumble over the areas of shadow and dark value. These areas dry quickly and can be painted over as necessary.
As I develop my work, the worry of switching from a thinner paint to a fatter one isn’t usually a concern as the paint is very malleable and oily already.
4. Lifting out
Lifting out for the still life study below
Lifting out with a rag is so useful to create lighter areas and the water-mixable oils are, like traditional oils, perfect for this.
5. Drying
Most paintings will continue to be wet for about a week under normal conditions, provided the paint hasn’t been ladled on with a knife. In about two weeks they will be tacky and almost touch-dry in about three weeks. That doesn’t mean you can stack them or store them face-to-face, as the likelihood of them sticking together remains months after completion.
6. Varnishing
Varnishing should be carried out after a year, when the paint is absolutely dry. Cobra spray varnish comes in matt, satin or gloss and is excellent and produces a super-thin coat – I apply three thin coats.
ORDER COBRA SPRAY VARNISH HERE
Cleaning up
In the cleaning up process, the dream continues – all palettes, brushes and any equipment used can be washed with warm water and soap. Brushes are best washed with a hard soap such as Royal Talens Cobra soap.
I use olive oil soap and massage it into the bristles after wiping off any spare paint with my rag. I leave it for a few minutes to penetrate any paint residue. It can then be rinsed away with warm water. Your brushes will be perfectly clean and even conditioned for the next time. Just leave them to dry flat after pulling the bristles back into shape.
Top reasons to try water-mixable oils
In addition to all of the above, two other reasons good reasons to use water-mixable oils are:
- You can take them on aircraft (most airlines prohibit any oily diluent in traditional oils)
- Most important is the environmental factor – we are not tipping white spirit or turps into the drains
In my opinion there are almost no cons to using water-mixable oils. Many manufactures now offer a water-mixable version of their oils so there are choices.
However for value, top quality, spread of palette colours and consistency, Royal Talens Cobra ticks all the boxes.
Demonstration: Still Life with Primroses
Reference photo
