Barns at Sedbergh, W&N Artisan water-mixable oil on paper
Emma Price tests out Winsor & Newton Artisan water mixable oil colours.
Water-mixable oils - the advantages
When I first started oil painting, I used traditional oil paints, but they always left me feeling lightheaded and tight chested, due to the solvents traditionally used for thinning paint and cleaning the brushes.
I don’t have a studio so when I was painting indoors it wasn’t particularly pleasant for anyone else in the house. This limited my use of oil paints, so as soon as I heard about water-mixable oil colours I switched and have never gone back.
With water-mixable paints there are none of the issues of smell, chemical use and disposal associated with traditional oils. There are now several different makes available, along with painting mediums and varnish, but you can just use them with water if you wish.
Initial thoughts
The Winsor & Newton Artisan range of water-mixable oils are made with linseed and safflower oil, and there are 40 colours available as 37ml tubes.
Whilst the colour range is smaller than for traditional oils, there is a wide enough range to meet most needs.
For this review, I was using the 37 ml tubes (see above).
On opening, some of the paints had a little pool of oil above the paint; this was easy enough to blot off the palette with some kitchen towel but be prepared if you like to squeeze paint directly onto the canvas.
The colours are bright and clear and mix easily. Dampening the brush with water before mixing helps the flow, but don’t overdo the water, even for underpainting, as this makes the paint go a bit frothy.
As with most paints, some pigments are more transparent than others; the transparency rating is on the tube, with a black square for opaque paint and a white square for transparent. Although they do describe Titanium White as opaque, when I found it slightly transparent.
Price: £6.17 for 37ml tubes
Where to buy: Art Supplies with Painters Online
Working with water-mixable oils
Goldfinches, W&N Artisan water-mixable oils
It’s important to remember that these are still oil colours, not watercolours, and the principles of oil painting – fat over lean/thick over thin – still apply.
READ OUR GUIDE TO OIL PAINTING HERE
If you want to paint a thin glaze of colour over a thicker layer, a glazing medium is required to maintain the ‘fat’ quality of the paint and prevent cracking, which would happen if you used a water-thinned glaze which would dry more quickly than the thicker layer below.
Happily, there are plenty of mediums now available for use with water-mixable oils; Goldfinches (see above) was painted using a glazing medium to add the rich golden brown of the autumn trees.
You can use acrylic paint thinly as an underpainting, but Winsor & Newton advise against painting over thicker acrylic, or mixing mediums.
About W&N Artisan water-mixable oils
1. Lightfastness
I know some artists are concerned about the long-term durability of these paints. As they are relatively new on the art market, it’s far too soon to judge how they will look in a hundred years.
That’s not a concern for me, though I realise it may be for others. The pigments in the Artisan range are all rated AA or A for permanence, and I have paintings that are now over 20 years old and have suffered no visible deterioration in colour or surface.
The permanence rating is shown on the tube, and there is more technical information on Winsor & Newton’s website.
2. Coverage
I found that the paint handled well whether thick or thinned, giving good coverage and allowing you to build up layers, scrape back or into the paint, and easily wipe off or paint over mistakes.
The titanium white paint needs to be laid on quite thickly, as it is a little transparent, so leave the lightest parts until last.
3. Surfaces
I’ve used the paints on oil-painting paper, canvas panels and stretched canvas, and found they work well on all these surfaces.
Barns at Sedbergh (see top) was painted on oil-painting paper. If you want to paint on watercolour paper, Winsor & Newton advise priming this first with Acrylic Gesso Primer rather than Oil Painting Primer, especially if you are using a lot of water in the initial layers.
4. Drying times
Drying times vary from a few minutes, with a watery wash of colour, to over a week with the thickest, neatest paint, although fast-drying mediums are available.
I found that areas with a lot of Titanium White took the longest time to dry.
Adding glazing medium slows the drying time further.
5. Odour
There is a slight smell whilst drying - it is not offensive, doesn’t go beyond the room I’m painting in, and I’ve not had any adverse reactions, but I’d still advise good ventilation if you’re working indoors.
6. Varnishing
As with conventional oils, paintings should be left for at least six months before varnishing, and up to 12 months for thick impasto painting. There are a range of varnishes available for use with Artisan paints.
7. Cleaning up
The cleaning up process was straightforward – I wiped the palette with a damp kitchen towel, then cleaned the brushes with hot water and mild hand soap, reshaping them afterwards.
Although there are no solvents to dispose of, I still prefer to reduce the amount of paint going down the sink, particularly with pigments like cobalt and cadmium, so I wipe as much paint as possible off the brushes prior to washing them.
8. The packaging
I do find, over time, that the threads on the caps get very sticky with paint and awkward to remove; this could possibly be resolved by more thorough cleaning after use, so I won’t hold that against the paint, and I have the same issue with some watercolour paints.
Conclusions
Overall, I enjoyed using these paints and would certainly recommend them to anyone who suffers from the smell of conventional oils or is concerned about the environmental impacts of solvent use. They are also much easier to remove from your clothes and furniture!
The pros:
- Competitively priced
- No solvents – better for health and the environment
- Easy to clean
The cons:
- Smaller range of colours than traditional oils
- Long-term durability still unproven
- Messy caps
Demonstration: Gulls at Middlehaven
Gulls at Middlehaven, W&N Artisan water-mixable oils on Loxley canvas panel, (14x10in.)
This was a quiet little scene at low tide at the old Middlehaven Dock in Middlesbrough; the herring gulls were hunting for mussels and crabs amongst the seaweed on a bright, autumnal day.
I used several reference photographs for this piece, combining them to make a suitably understated composition. The light was coming from the right-hand side, so I had to keep this in mind whilst painting back at home.
Stage one
After deciding on the composition, I roughly sketched this in with a 3B pencil.
An undercoat was applied using a very thin, watery wash of cobalt blue and the merest touch of permanent alizarin crimson.
I roughed in the darks with cobalt blue and burnt sienna whilst still wet.
This was allowed to dry, which took about 15 minutes
Stage two
At this stage, I used a small amount of water to keep the paint flowing but not too transparent.
I painted the birds first as this is the most detailed area and saved getting my hands sticky or having to wait for a background to dry.
Plumage
- Titanium white was mixed with the cobalt blue and raw umber to make cool greys for the birds’ plumage; reducing the amount of white provided darker greys for the feather edges and the pure colours were used for the deepest darks on the birds and the background posts and reflections. A touch of permanent alizarin crimson was added where warmer greys were required.
Eyes and beaks
- A near-pure white with just a touch of grey was used for the lightest parts of the birds, and cadmium yellow pale and cadmium red light were delicately dabbed on, using my smallest brush, for the eyes and beaks.
Legs
- The legs were lightly indicated with a mix of cadmium red Light and white; at this stage I could be fairly rough, the finer detail comes later.
Seaweed
- The colours of the seaweed were suggested using mixes of yellow ochre, French ultramarine and raw umber, with a touch of burnt sienna to indicate rusting areas.
Water
- The river was blocked in with a thicker mix of the underpainting but adding white to bring opacity. A darker mix of cobalt blue and permanent alizarin crimson indicated small waves.
This stage took two days to dry as the paint was kept thin and flat.
Stage three
This is the fun part, using pure paint and laying it on thickly to provide form and texture.
The seaweed is especially enjoyable to paint, using thick, juicy mixes of yellows. greens, blues and browns. Just remember which way the light is coming, and roughly how the weed is growing, then let go!
I like to use different size brushes and vary the strokes, dabbing and pulling and laying on paint to give an idea of the thick growth.
I also added more detail and definition to the birds and the reflections, building up the shadows and highlights.
The thickest paint was added in the white foreground reflection of the bird, and I used a palette knife to add texture in the water nearest the bottom.
I then left the painting for a week until it was touch dry.
Stage four
The final stage was basically tittivating.
I used pure paint at this stage, with no water except for cleaning brushes.
I added some white to the top of the water and darkened the foreground to give a sense of distance.
Some thick white dashes were added to show wave tops, and I refined some of the detail on the birds, tidied the edges of some reflections, and gave a little more form to the seaweed.
This would be the stage to use glazing medium if you wish to. It’s hard to know when to stop, but when you find yourself looking for things to fiddle with, that’s usually the signal to finish!
Final thoughts
W&N Artisan water-mixable oils are:
- Competetively priced
- Colours are bright and clear
- Easy to mix
- Easy to clean
- Better for health and environment than traditional oil paints
- Provide good coverage
- Have good permanence ratings
About Emma Price
Emma lives in Teesside on the northeast coast of England. She sketches and paints for enjoyment and relaxation, in particular looking at, and learning about, the plants, wildlife and landscapes of the local area.
Emma has also shared top advice on sketching birds and natural objects found in her local woodland. These articles can be found by
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