There are some very famous portrait artists that use cobra as their main oil paint. For those that are curious. They are incredible and they are NOT a second tier paint. Water mixable means you can clean with water , that doesn’t mean use them like water colors; they are oil paint .
Thank you! I've been having trouble with my acrylic paints and have been thinking of switching to oils. But when I learned more about oil paints and what steps you would need to take I was hesitant. But the I learned about water mixable oil paints and my mind was blown. So, thank you for making a video that talked about your experience :)
Thank you for watching it ❤️ Water mixable paints are perfect as a start. However, you’ll still need to remember about oil painting rules like ‘fat over lean’ and so on. I hope that you’ll like them as much as I do!
I’ve worked with these paints for two weeks and it still feels strange that I can use water 😄 I bet with so many advantages I’ll get used to water soon!
Thank you for the great & informative video! Was waiting for an artist I like to talk about water-mixable oil paints and your video actually cleared things up a bit for me!
Hi Zarina, great info. Did you know you can turn your other oil paint into water soluble oil paint too? I had the same situation as you and then i bought Schmincke's Medium W (allows oil colours to be mixed with water instead of with turpentine and linseed oil). Also all the brushes and painting tools that have been used with Medium W mixed oils can be cleaned with soap and water just like the Cobra paint.
Thank you for the good explanation. I, too, have found Cobra to be the best for me. Mostly it's the creaminess. And I loved the brief moment at exactly 11:00 when your face becomes so real.
This is amazing I love your artwork it’s been on my inspiration boards for months and I just bought a bunch of these paints so I’m so glad I stumbled across this video
Thank you sooo much for that review! I've been struggling with the smell and brush cleaning process that comes with regular oil paints. I'll definitely try out water mixable oil paints.
Thank you Zarina, excellent review. I’ve been wondering how the chemistry worked between oil/water but like you I didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole I just wanted to avoid the noxious fumes of the traditional oils. You have a beautiful dog, I think he wants to play now!
@@zarinasart In case you can't read the answer, here it is. It's interesting! -> Traditional oil paints use linseed oil as a medium and turpentine as a thinner. This arrangement exists because linseed oil, as a medium, is ideal for oil-based paint as it is the most commonly available drying oil. Turpentine, in turn, was the most commonly available solvent for thinning the drying oil medium. The properties of oil paint are dictated by the medium in which the pigments are suspended, and ultimately it's the medium that dictates the choice of cleaning solvent. What continues to be required are the drying oil-type properties, but modern chemistry allow these to be retained without using linseed oil as a medium. When I first approached this question, I expected either one of two major approaches. The first approach would be to use surfactants - surface-active agents that would effectively suspend micelles ("bubbles") of hydrophobic pigments and drying oil components from a water medium. Surfactants of this type would be able to achieve this by being strongly hydrophilic on one end and strongly hydrophobic on the other; presumably, once the water evaporated, the drying oil components would be released and polymerize normally. However, this would require drying oil components and surfactant agents to be in the tube of paint from the beginning rather than being added externally. The second approach would be to modify the medium to be hydrophilic in some way. The simplest way of doing this would be to take the components of a drying oil - linoleic acid is the most important - and hydrolyse the esters to have free linoleic acids; this makes soap, but wouldn't produce a huge increase in water solubility. The second approach would be to modify a portion of it to be hydrophilic, perhaps by sulfonation, to produce an equivalent surfactant effect to the first approach, except without an externally added molecule. This approach would have the advantage of being able to be sold as an externally applied medium for modifying drying time as with traditional linseed oil. A third approach, one that I did not really consider, would be to refine the oils in such a way as to have hydrophilic modified fatty acids (naturally occurring; see lipidlibrary.aocs.org/Lipids/fa_oxy/index.htm ) be overrepresented to make the overall mixture more hydrophilic. All three approaches seem to be used to an extent by different manufacturers. Some limited amount of surfactant seems to be derived directly from the oils, either through hydrolysis of the esters (essentially producing soap) or through the sulfonation of the resulting fatty acids (giving you compounds somewhat like sodium lauryl sulfate). Grumbacher specifically claims to have done some refining of their oil to make it water soluble. However, the common factor is the use of surfactant agents, all of them ethoxylated or propoxylated alcohols. These are compounds produced by reacting various alcohols with ethylene oxide or propylene oxide, two highly reactive compounds, which end up sticking alcohol ethers onto the resulting molecules. They are highly effective, low-weight nonionic surfactants. The ones I specifically found mentioned were 2-butoxyethanol (from ethylene oxide and butanol) and dipropylene glycol methyl ether (DPM; from the reaction of two propylene oxide molecules and methanol). These are pretty commonly used in a lot of applications. I'm not a toxicologist and don't want to be mistaken for one, but from what I've seen about these compounds they're at very little risk of being restricted for regulatory reasons. They're nontoxic to humans and are routinely used for agricultural applications to promote the wetting of leaves, especially in herbicide applications in very dry environments; their environmental half life is about 12 hours. Regardless, they hold on tightly to water and don't volatilize easily.
I use Cobra too, but the other oil paints you have can all be converted to 'water mixable' by using Schmincke’s Medium W. Just add to your oil paints then you can use as you use Cobra paints.
Thank you very much for all the information about Cobra water mixable paint. At the end of video reminded me of same situation. I have spent so much money on different paint brands to try finding my favorites. So don't feel alone in that. We all have to go through that spending money and going back to our other paints😅
Good information. I am making the switch over and am trying to understand all the ins and outs. You certainly helped. Love your pup at the end. I do dog portraits...so that was great!!
The cobra colors have a uniform drying time because added substances. That is a big advantage in my opinion. On the other side, they do not dry so fast if the layer is thick. Also i noticed that people says that water-mixable oil paints are not actually intended to mix with water - only for brush cleaning. I dont known about the other brants but Cobra color is definitely meant to mix with water during the painting. (The manufacturer states this also in his instructional videos.)
Oh, I've never heard about 'only for brush cleaning'! It's interesting to dig deeper into this theme because these differences (water for mixing or only for cleaning) can be really confusing and probably can cause damaging of the painting. I'm happy that Cobra doesn't have any issues with that. Thank you for your comment!
@@zarinasart Yes, many youtubers do not recommend mixing it with water. (I'm just starting with oil paints and Cobra fascinated me, but I was surprised by how many different opinions there are about mixing it with water so I'm trying to straighten my thoughts. ) Anyway, here's a brief explanation of how water works with Cobra Color - /b16CZjzjBEU?t=71 . Water is ideal for the lower layers (instead of turpentine). I guess it's not the best medium because of the speed of drying, spreadability and maybe the change in color as someone says, but in this mentioned case I don't see a problem. Anyway since everyone has a different composition of water at home, it is recommended to put a drop of painting medium in it. BTW classic cobra painting medium is actually made up of 50% of water so you working with watter anyway. I recommend watching their instructional videos.
I mix water with Holbein and Windsor N on top of Golden Acrylics… no problems…I am thinking about using tradition oils on top of that to see what t think… I love to work in layers with the strongest colors underneath…acrylics give me that, the others ar for blending and graying out
i'm new to your channel and this has been one of the best water-mixable oil paints demonstrations i've seen. I've been using Cobras for a while and while I agree with most of your notions, i've also learned some new things! thank you for taking the time and for the awesome work!
I've heard other artists say that you shouldn't use water to dilute but mediums. It's nice that you can clean with water. I sold my set of Van Gogh for a set of Cobra Artist because of my sensitive skin and this video got me more excited to try them out :)
I don't use water to dilute the watermixables. I use linseed oil or walnut oil. I only use water to clean the paint off my brushes. I feel like they work better like that.
Also, you don't have to use water with these paints while you paint. Many people just use the benefit of clean up with soap and water, but still use their regular mediums during the painting process. Gamblin's solvent-free medium works well with these paints too.
I use soap and water to clean my brushes even with 'usual' oil paints. It just takes a bit longer. Unfortunately, we don't have Gamblin here where I live. And I can't order it because mediums and varnishes are usually banned for international delivery 😞 Anyway, thank you for the recommendation!
You can mix cobra with traditional oil paint. I also mix it with watercolor, acrylic ink and sometime brush pigment. Watermixable oil quickly become my favorite. The effects I can achieve with watercolor and ink is unparalleled by using only oil. Just don't overnight them.
This was a really great and in-depth review !! I might totally look into investing in these. Do you think starting out with the 3 primary colors as well as white and black would be sufficient ?
I have a suggestion, if you might consider using the primary printing colors, which some artists use. The Cobra water-oil paints include Primary Magenta, Yellow and Cyan, which can be mixed to make almost any color, including a near black. I haven't gone that route, and bought the usual artists colors as well, but I intend to experiment with them at some point. They also sell some of the primary colors under the Permanent label.
@@stryker1999 I want to try those too ! After some more experience with painting I could now see myself getting rid of black altogether (I've been using mixtures of blues to emulate black and it works well) I'm certainly curious about the printing trio though and how dark it can get !
Lovely dog 🐕 and will definitely try the water mixable oils of Cobra.The only thing I am not sure is the quick drying liquid that I have been using, it smells very strong almost unbearable .Probably yours is different, please advise on your brand
Cobra is my favorite of the oil mixable paint brands, but they are all nice. If you make it your main paint form, then you should get mediums, and water mixible linseed oil from windsor newton.
Thanks, that really narrows down what paint to buy. Also, can I mix these cobra water mixable oil paints with my acrylics. Would like to know,. I'm in the process of changing over to oil water soluble from acrylic
Oh, what a surprise when your reason came to light at the end of the video, it is exactly mine! I laughed for that. Yesterday I bought my basic palette colors by Cobra. It was 70€ about. I plan to use them in my bookings because I cannot get use to do them with acrylic. Personally. So after this lean first layers are very dried I can start with oil. I don’t use solvent anymore. Let’s see how it goes. Thanks.
A very good video and having started using Water-mixable paints about two years ago but have no experience of normal oils, would agree very much with the points you made. No way, as I am retired now and paint at home, could I have put up with the turpentine smell that normal oils have. I too tried Cobra and they were good but for a beginner where much waste (which I accept being a teacher and trainer most of my life) is required to practise mixing, was far too expensive and as such means costs reduces much needed practice to improve. May I ask if you still are doing RUclips videos, you do a similar one but for GEORGIAN water-mixable oil paints especially the buying 200ml tubes which are very cost-effective over time. May I also state having also been a professional presenter in my opinion you are head and shoulders above the old Dutch guy with glasses in the Royal Talens Cobra RUclipss, very strident manner, no true preparation or thought to his presentations (dare I say, very slap dash) and his actual brush and painting skills were far less than yours.
From what I understad, water is ONLY supposed to be used for cleaning, not for thinning as this was have a negative effect overtime, mediums are still necessary... I heard that the vibrancy of the colors is poorer in WMO and that techniques are more limited. I don't know whether that is true?
I think it DEPENDS on the manufacturer. Cobra paints are called 'water mixable oil colours'. You can check it on their official website. Also, I clean my brushes with water anyway so there is no need for me to buy special oil paints for that. I think that it was true for previous versions of wmo because I've also heard a similar opinions. And I haven't tried other paints. So I can't say for all of them but I didn't have any problems with these exact ones ❤️
Да, водорастворимые краски это тема. Сам давно уже на них перешел, конечный результат тот же, а геморроя с мытьем и т.д. меньше. Попробовал аналог от winsor, все бы ни чего, но оказалось что при высыхании масла, поверхность картин становилась страшно липучей. Потом узнал что в winsor, добавляют какой-то компонент, из-за этого при высыхании они становятся липкими. У кобры такой проблемы нет.
I've only tried Winsor & Newton and Cobra. W&N tends to be thick and dry and it takes time to mix with water to a good consistency. I add Liquin Original to them instead. The Cobra brand is really nice and creamy and a bit of water is all you need. For those who are sensitive to oil paint odour, water-mixables DO have an odour (though not as strong as working with oils). The drying time for water-mixables is a real plus. I have several paintings in constant rotation. Yes, you can clean your brushes to a certain extent with water but you still need to clean them with something that's going to cut the oil. I use both The Masters brush cleaner as well as Dawn dish soap.
Oh, then I'm so happy that the paints I've tried the first turned out to be the best! I wouldn't give them a second chance if they were thick and dry 😄
Thanks for all that good information, Zarina! My long term goal is to use oil paint but if I don’t have to deal with the solvents and other liquids and just water. These paints seem like the way to go. By the way, your are such an attractive artist! Thanks again!
I haven't painted for a while and got the itch again recently. Thanks to your video I decided to try some water based oil paints. One interesting thing I discovered was a medium by Schmincke called Medium W. You can mix it with ordinary oil paints to make them water miscible too. I haven't tried it, it sounds too good to be true... But quite a lot of people seem to like it. I still have lots of my old oil paints so I will probably try it soon :). thanks for the excellent video. PS. I have a Russian wife so it was fun to listen to you, you have an expressive face with funny little quirks and a really cute dog :).
Thank you for this great video! I have some oil paints but I never use them because of the smell! An installation to suck the air away would be helpful against the smell, but that is not cheap.. I'll hope to try out some cobra paints soon and start painting again :) I also thought they were developed for teaching oil -paint classes in high schools, because traditional oil paint was not allowed because of the toxicity. Thanks again!
As far as I know, they were developed a bit earlier than traditional oils were banned completely. So they weren't popular at that moment. The ban gave them the recognition they deserved. Thank you so much for watching! ❤️
Thanks for your video. Didn´t you find that the paint dont flow very well only with water? That it was kind of sticky? I am new to wmo and find them difficult to work with since I always paint with acrylics. Also I am worried on wasting too much paint and end up with very thin layers or some messy thick mass on my board with muddy colours. :(
You are very beautiful and very kind. Hi to your dog from Turkey.... I am an allergic person and ı use water-mixable oils (Georgian and artisan) but two of them also smell like traditional ones, especially Georgian is a very bad smell. I can't use Cobra cause it is hard to find in Turkey but ı finally bought 6 cobra paint colors by chance, ı can try with 6 colors. I found it very different ı can't tell how, the texture of my paintings are not fluid and thin, ıf ı use more water ıt can look like watercolors. I will try thinner (just for water mixable oils) and some mediums. If you want to look, i can show you. Very very thanks!
Thank you for the video! My eyebrows flew to the ceiling when I saw water mixable oil paint at the store, and I've been pretty snooty about trying them, but now I really want to! It looks like they'd be great to take to traveling (when Coronavirus hopefully goes away). Your dog is really cute!!
I’ve heard similar opinions, too! Some artists complain that it has kind of a soapy look/feel. I didn’t have such problems yet. Maybe I need to try more colors 😄 Thank you so much!
And I fell in love with lavender spike with linseed 😁 but I really like your style and expertise so look forward to future posts on these. It’s be cool it they work
Thanks for your video! my experiments lead me to believe that they don't contain much pigment. I wanted to like them, but even their Cobra Artist line is just about as good as the Art creation (the lowest quality traditional oil paint from the same company). It would be nice to use them and not use aggressive solvents but it felt like a struggle to mix some colors because of the pigment load and possibly additives.
Which colors were problematic for you? I have a feeling that browns and blacks are very nice. I’ve recently tried to work with yellows (cad yellow and lemon) and it feels that they are not as intense as Rembrandt ones 🤔 I need to continue my research.
I've been watching a lot of videos about anatomy and did drawings and paintings. It's all about practice and being conscious about what you do. I'm almost always create my own references.
You should ask a conservator about the longevity of the water mixable oils. They haven't been around so long, so we don't know how they will age. Advice was given, was you can't mix the normal oils with water soluble oils and thus if you switch to one of the other during the painting you should stay with that. So, start with the water soluble and finish with normal oils, and definitely no water soluble layers over the normal oils because one will crack the other. Thank you for informative overview of their performance and handling. Like you, I have hundreds of € worth of normal oils, so I'm committed. But as for the smell, that's one of the things I enjoy about oils. =)
I'll definitely do that because it's an important question! Hm, that's an interesting theme because the manufacturer says that there is no problem mixing both. What you mention is a technique similar to oils over acrylics. I absolutely love the smell of oils. That was the number one reason why I chose them over acrylics. However, there is a big difference between smelling oils (and solvents) while you work and living in this smell (eating, sleeping, etc.).
@@zarinasart just like oils over acrylics, it is only logical that with the water based oils drying faster that these should be the lower layers and traditional oils which dry slower over the top. I live in my studio, so I'm surrounded by the smells all of the time. However, when it comes to the solvents, those belong outside.
Oh, I’m sorry if I misled you! I mentioned that I’ve read somewhere that the drying time is between acrylics and oils but in reality it’s not. These exact paints are drying as slow as oils. And for burnt umber even slower. I should have stated that more clearly in the video.
@@zarinasart hmmm.... ok. I was going off advice a friend who worked in an art supply store gave me. But, I have a friend who is a professional art conservator who has worked for the likes of Christies and the Vienna Art History Museum. I'll check in with her also. I could report back to you about that if you like. It's interesting that you have found the drying times are similar. Yes, I guess like oils, the various pigments affect the reactiveness of the drying time.
still don't get the myth about water mixable oils being inferior... it ONLY means that you can clean your brush with water... the rest ist the same, isn't it? you use mediums as always... end of story :)
There are some very famous portrait artists that use cobra as their main oil paint.
For those that are curious.
They are incredible and they are NOT a second tier paint. Water mixable means you can clean with water , that doesn’t mean use them like water colors; they are oil paint .
Thank you! I've been having trouble with my acrylic paints and have been thinking of switching to oils. But when I learned more about oil paints and what steps you would need to take I was hesitant. But the I learned about water mixable oil paints and my mind was blown. So, thank you for making a video that talked about your experience :)
Thank you for watching it ❤️ Water mixable paints are perfect as a start. However, you’ll still need to remember about oil painting rules like ‘fat over lean’ and so on.
I hope that you’ll like them as much as I do!
Your English is great - Thankyou for all the info, water mixable oils still seem a bit strange - but intriguing!
I’ve worked with these paints for two weeks and it still feels strange that I can use water 😄 I bet with so many advantages I’ll get used to water soon!
Thank you for the great & informative video! Was waiting for an artist I like to talk about water-mixable oil paints and your video actually cleared things up a bit for me!
I’m happy that it was useful! Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions ❤️
Hi Zarina, great info. Did you know you can turn your other oil paint into water soluble oil paint too? I had the same situation as you and then i bought Schmincke's Medium W (allows oil colours to be mixed with water instead of with turpentine and linseed oil). Also all the brushes and painting tools that have been used with Medium W mixed oils can be cleaned with soap and water just like the Cobra paint.
Thank you for the good explanation. I, too, have found Cobra to be the best for me. Mostly it's the creaminess. And I loved the brief moment at exactly 11:00 when your face becomes so real.
This is amazing I love your artwork it’s been on my inspiration boards for months and I just bought a bunch of these paints so I’m so glad I stumbled across this video
Thank you sooo much for that review! I've been struggling with the smell and brush cleaning process that comes with regular oil paints. I'll definitely try out water mixable oil paints.
Thank you! I can’t say for all brands and series but this one is definitely worth trying!
Thank you Zarina, excellent review. I’ve been wondering how the chemistry worked between oil/water but like you I didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole I just wanted to avoid the noxious fumes of the traditional oils. You have a beautiful dog, I think he wants to play now!
Glad it was helpful! I bet someday we'll go down to that!
He always ready to play 😀
@@zarinasart In case you can't read the answer, here it is. It's interesting! ->
Traditional oil paints use linseed oil as a medium and turpentine as a thinner. This arrangement exists because linseed oil, as a medium, is ideal for oil-based paint as it is the most commonly available drying oil. Turpentine, in turn, was the most commonly available solvent for thinning the drying oil medium.
The properties of oil paint are dictated by the medium in which the pigments are suspended, and ultimately it's the medium that dictates the choice of cleaning solvent. What continues to be required are the drying oil-type properties, but modern chemistry allow these to be retained without using linseed oil as a medium.
When I first approached this question, I expected either one of two major approaches. The first approach would be to use surfactants - surface-active agents that would effectively suspend micelles ("bubbles") of hydrophobic pigments and drying oil components from a water medium. Surfactants of this type would be able to achieve this by being strongly hydrophilic on one end and strongly hydrophobic on the other; presumably, once the water evaporated, the drying oil components would be released and polymerize normally. However, this would require drying oil components and surfactant agents to be in the tube of paint from the beginning rather than being added externally.
The second approach would be to modify the medium to be hydrophilic in some way. The simplest way of doing this would be to take the components of a drying oil - linoleic acid is the most important - and hydrolyse the esters to have free linoleic acids; this makes soap, but wouldn't produce a huge increase in water solubility. The second approach would be to modify a portion of it to be hydrophilic, perhaps by sulfonation, to produce an equivalent surfactant effect to the first approach, except without an externally added molecule. This approach would have the advantage of being able to be sold as an externally applied medium for modifying drying time as with traditional linseed oil.
A third approach, one that I did not really consider, would be to refine the oils in such a way as to have hydrophilic modified fatty acids (naturally occurring; see lipidlibrary.aocs.org/Lipids/fa_oxy/index.htm
) be overrepresented to make the overall mixture more hydrophilic.
All three approaches seem to be used to an extent by different manufacturers. Some limited amount of surfactant seems to be derived directly from the oils, either through hydrolysis of the esters (essentially producing soap) or through the sulfonation of the resulting fatty acids (giving you compounds somewhat like sodium lauryl sulfate). Grumbacher specifically claims to have done some refining of their oil to make it water soluble. However, the common factor is the use of surfactant agents, all of them ethoxylated or propoxylated alcohols.
These are compounds produced by reacting various alcohols with ethylene oxide or propylene oxide, two highly reactive compounds, which end up sticking alcohol ethers onto the resulting molecules. They are highly effective, low-weight nonionic surfactants. The ones I specifically found mentioned were 2-butoxyethanol (from ethylene oxide and butanol) and dipropylene glycol methyl ether (DPM; from the reaction of two propylene oxide molecules and methanol). These are pretty commonly used in a lot of applications.
I'm not a toxicologist and don't want to be mistaken for one, but from what I've seen about these compounds they're at very little risk of being restricted for regulatory reasons. They're nontoxic to humans and are routinely used for agricultural applications to promote the wetting of leaves, especially in herbicide applications in very dry environments; their environmental half life is about 12 hours. Regardless, they hold on tightly to water and don't volatilize easily.
They look very interesting. Plus fluffy intruder at the end 🥰
Thank you 😀
I use Cobra too, but the other oil paints you have can all be converted to 'water mixable' by using Schmincke’s Medium W. Just add to your oil paints then you can use as you use Cobra paints.
That’s great! Thank you for the info. Unfortunately, it’s not available where I live.
Thank you! i enjoyed hearing your perspective on this.
Thank you for this great review of Cobra paints. I've never tried them for my paintings, but I think I will now!😍
Thank you so much for the information!! I started with acrylics and now I'm full into oils but I miss the water hahaha Perhaps this is a great option!
That’s true! The transition from acrylics to oils is much smoother if you don’t need to dive into the world of mediums straightaway 😂
Very helpful video. Thank you!
Love the paint review, and your beautiful dog.
Thank you very much for all the information about Cobra water mixable paint. At the end of video reminded me of same situation. I have spent so much money on different paint brands to try finding my favorites. So don't feel alone in that. We all have to go through that spending money and going back to our other paints😅
Good information. I am making the switch over and am trying to understand all the ins and outs. You certainly helped. Love your pup at the end. I do dog portraits...so that was great!!
Rewatching this again before I order my first batch of Cobra paint. I can't wait until I finally get to use them
Yay! I’ll be happy if you share your impression about them with me!
Thank you so much Zarina for this review! If was so useful ❤️
Ps: your dog is so beautiful 😍
Thank you so much for watching it 😊
The cobra colors have a uniform drying time because added substances.
That is a big advantage in my opinion. On the other side, they do not dry so fast if the layer is thick. Also i noticed that people says that water-mixable oil paints are not actually intended to mix with water - only for brush cleaning. I dont known about the other brants but Cobra color is definitely meant to mix with water during the painting. (The manufacturer states this also in his instructional videos.)
Oh, I've never heard about 'only for brush cleaning'! It's interesting to dig deeper into this theme because these differences (water for mixing or only for cleaning) can be really confusing and probably can cause damaging of the painting. I'm happy that Cobra doesn't have any issues with that.
Thank you for your comment!
@@zarinasart
Yes, many youtubers do not recommend mixing it with water. (I'm just starting with oil paints and Cobra fascinated me, but I was surprised by how many different opinions there are about mixing it with water
so I'm trying to straighten my thoughts. ) Anyway, here's a brief explanation of how water works with Cobra Color - /b16CZjzjBEU?t=71 . Water is ideal for the lower layers (instead of turpentine). I guess it's not the best medium because of the speed of drying, spreadability and maybe the change in color as someone says, but in this mentioned case I don't see a problem. Anyway since everyone has a different composition of water at home, it is recommended to put a drop of painting medium in it. BTW classic cobra painting medium is actually made up of 50% of water so you working with watter anyway. I recommend watching their instructional videos.
I mix water with Holbein and Windsor N on top of Golden Acrylics… no problems…I am thinking about using tradition oils on top of that to see what t think… I love to work in layers with the strongest colors underneath…acrylics give me that, the others ar for blending and graying out
thank you for this. the comparison with the other talens oil paints was particularly helpful. big fluff monster at the end was nice too.
Glad you enjoyed it! ❤️
i'm new to your channel and this has been one of the best water-mixable oil paints demonstrations i've seen. I've been using Cobras for a while and while I agree with most of your notions, i've also learned some new things! thank you for taking the time and for the awesome work!
Yay! I'm so happy to hear that ❤️
I've heard other artists say that you shouldn't use water to dilute but mediums. It's nice that you can clean with water.
I sold my set of Van Gogh for a set of Cobra Artist because of my sensitive skin and this video got me more excited to try them out :)
I don't use water to dilute the watermixables. I use linseed oil or walnut oil. I only use water to clean the paint off my brushes. I feel like they work better like that.
I’ve heard a similar opinion that water-mixables are better with oil. I can’t say for every brand but mine are great with water 😄
Also, you don't have to use water with these paints while you paint. Many people just use the benefit of clean up with soap and water, but still use their regular mediums during the painting process. Gamblin's solvent-free medium works well with these paints too.
I use soap and water to clean my brushes even with 'usual' oil paints. It just takes a bit longer.
Unfortunately, we don't have Gamblin here where I live. And I can't order it because mediums and varnishes are usually banned for international delivery 😞 Anyway, thank you for the recommendation!
@@zarinasart cobra makes there own mediums for there water mixable paints.
@@zarinasart I am seriously thinking about migrate in pursue of some art materials haha
You can mix cobra with traditional oil paint. I also mix it with watercolor, acrylic ink and sometime brush pigment.
Watermixable oil quickly become my favorite.
The effects I can achieve with watercolor and ink is unparalleled by using only oil. Just don't overnight them.
This was VERY informative, thank you!!
Thank you so much for this very informative and useful video.
And the doggie is a cutie...😄
This was a really great and in-depth review !! I might totally look into investing in these. Do you think starting out with the 3 primary colors as well as white and black would be sufficient ?
Definitely! Nothing can beat this combination.
Thank you for watching ❤️
I have a suggestion, if you might consider using the primary printing colors, which some artists use. The Cobra water-oil paints include Primary Magenta, Yellow and Cyan, which can be mixed to make almost any color, including a near black. I haven't gone that route, and bought the usual artists colors as well, but I intend to experiment with them at some point. They also sell some of the primary colors under the Permanent label.
@@stryker1999 I want to try those too ! After some more experience with painting I could now see myself getting rid of black altogether (I've been using mixtures of blues to emulate black and it works well) I'm certainly curious about the printing trio though and how dark it can get !
Lovely dog 🐕 and will definitely try the water mixable oils of Cobra.The only thing I am not sure is the quick drying liquid that I have been using, it smells very strong almost unbearable .Probably yours is different, please advise on your brand
Amo tus videos, no entiendo nada pero con ver tu paleta de colores y cómo pintas aprendo mucho, saludos desde Mexico
I’m happy to hear that my videos are useful! Soon I’ll add Spanish subtitles for this video ❤️
Cobra is my favorite of the oil mixable paint brands, but they are all nice. If you make it your main paint form, then you should get mediums, and water mixible linseed oil from windsor newton.
Thanks. Beautiful dog!!
Wonderful information, beautiful painting, and great demo! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! 😊
Your skills are amazing
Thanks, that really narrows down what paint to buy. Also, can I mix these cobra water mixable oil paints with my acrylics. Would like to know,. I'm in the process of changing over to oil water soluble from acrylic
Oh, what a surprise when your reason came to light at the end of the video, it is exactly mine! I laughed for that. Yesterday I bought my basic palette colors by Cobra. It was 70€ about. I plan to use them in my bookings because I cannot get use to do them with acrylic. Personally. So after this lean first layers are very dried I can start with oil. I don’t use solvent anymore. Let’s see how it goes. Thanks.
I’ll be happy if you share your thoughts about Cobra after trying them! I’m always happy to hear different opinions 😄
A very good video and having started using Water-mixable paints about two years ago but have no experience of normal oils, would agree very much with the points you made. No way, as I am retired now and paint at home, could I have put up with the turpentine smell that normal oils have. I too tried Cobra and they were good but for a beginner where much waste (which I accept being a teacher and trainer most of my life) is required to practise mixing, was far too expensive and as such means costs reduces much needed practice to improve. May I ask if you still are doing RUclips videos, you do a similar one but for GEORGIAN water-mixable oil paints especially the buying 200ml tubes which are very cost-effective over time.
May I also state having also been a professional presenter in my opinion you are head and shoulders above the old Dutch guy with glasses in the Royal Talens Cobra RUclipss, very strident manner, no true preparation or thought to his presentations (dare I say, very slap dash) and his actual brush and painting skills were far less than yours.
From what I understad, water is ONLY supposed to be used for cleaning, not for thinning as this was have a negative effect overtime, mediums are still necessary...
I heard that the vibrancy of the colors is poorer in WMO and that techniques are more limited. I don't know whether that is true?
I think it DEPENDS on the manufacturer. Cobra paints are called 'water mixable oil colours'. You can check it on their official website. Also, I clean my brushes with water anyway so there is no need for me to buy special oil paints for that.
I think that it was true for previous versions of wmo because I've also heard a similar opinions. And I haven't tried other paints. So I can't say for all of them but I didn't have any problems with these exact ones ❤️
Да, водорастворимые краски это тема. Сам давно уже на них перешел, конечный результат тот же, а геморроя с мытьем и т.д. меньше. Попробовал аналог от winsor, все бы ни чего, но оказалось что при высыхании масла, поверхность картин становилась страшно липучей. Потом узнал что в winsor, добавляют какой-то компонент, из-за этого при высыхании они становятся липкими. У кобры такой проблемы нет.
I've only tried Winsor & Newton and Cobra. W&N tends to be thick and dry and it takes time to mix with water to a good consistency. I add Liquin Original to them instead. The Cobra brand is really nice and creamy and a bit of water is all you need. For those who are sensitive to oil paint odour, water-mixables DO have an odour (though not as strong as working with oils). The drying time for water-mixables is a real plus. I have several paintings in constant rotation. Yes, you can clean your brushes to a certain extent with water but you still need to clean them with something that's going to cut the oil. I use both The Masters brush cleaner as well as Dawn dish soap.
Oh, then I'm so happy that the paints I've tried the first turned out to be the best! I wouldn't give them a second chance if they were thick and dry 😄
The Winsor & Newtons are the smeller of the two. I have both and Prefer the cobras, there just so creamy
Thanks for all that good information, Zarina! My long term goal is to use oil paint but if I don’t have to deal with the solvents and other liquids and just water. These paints seem like the way to go. By the way, your are such an attractive artist! Thanks again!
That's great! These paints will definitely be a perfect match for you!
Thank you 😀
Fantastic painting!😍👍
Thank you ❤️
This is a very informative video! Thank you so much for sharing. And your art is so so beautiful ❤️
Thank you so much for watching 😊
I haven't painted for a while and got the itch again recently. Thanks to your video I decided to try some water based oil paints. One interesting thing I discovered was a medium by Schmincke called Medium W. You can mix it with ordinary oil paints to make them water miscible too. I haven't tried it, it sounds too good to be true... But quite a lot of people seem to like it. I still have lots of my old oil paints so I will probably try it soon :). thanks for the excellent video.
PS. I have a Russian wife so it was fun to listen to you, you have an expressive face with funny little quirks and a really cute dog :).
I've read about it, too! Sadly, it's not available where I live.
Thank you 😂
Thank you for this great video! I have some oil paints but I never use them because of the smell! An installation to suck the air away would be helpful against the smell, but that is not cheap.. I'll hope to try out some cobra paints soon and start painting again :) I also thought they were developed for teaching oil -paint classes in high schools, because traditional oil paint was not allowed because of the toxicity. Thanks again!
As far as I know, they were developed a bit earlier than traditional oils were banned completely. So they weren't popular at that moment. The ban gave them the recognition they deserved.
Thank you so much for watching! ❤️
Cobra makes a medium that when added to any traditional oil paint, turns it into a water soluable oil paint.
Thanks for your video. Didn´t you find that the paint dont flow very well only with water? That it was kind of sticky? I am new to wmo and find them difficult to work with since I always paint with acrylics. Also I am worried on wasting too much paint and end up with very thin layers or some messy thick mass on my board with muddy colours. :(
Thanks so much for this.
You are very beautiful and very kind. Hi to your dog from Turkey.... I am an allergic person and ı use water-mixable oils (Georgian and artisan) but two of them also smell like traditional ones, especially Georgian is a very bad smell. I can't use Cobra cause it is hard to find in Turkey but ı finally bought 6 cobra paint colors by chance, ı can try with 6 colors. I found it very different ı can't tell how, the texture of my paintings are not fluid and thin, ıf ı use more water ıt can look like watercolors. I will try thinner (just for water mixable oils) and some mediums. If you want to look, i can show you. Very very thanks!
Thank you for the video! My eyebrows flew to the ceiling when I saw water mixable oil paint at the store, and I've been pretty snooty about trying them, but now I really want to! It looks like they'd be great to take to traveling (when Coronavirus hopefully goes away). Your dog is really cute!!
Yes! Snooty! That’s a perfect word to describe what I felt towards them.
Oh, I miss traveling so much.
Thank you 😄
your samoyed is so pretty
I always look forward to your videos 💕 so helpful
I'm so glad! 😊
brava, really good. ps what a beautiful voice. ps2 a lot of people complain about glazing with wmo, could you show how it works?
I’ve heard similar opinions, too! Some artists complain that it has kind of a soapy look/feel. I didn’t have such problems yet. Maybe I need to try more colors 😄
Thank you so much!
Nice intro. I think my problem with them was that I kept trying to use oiling out techniques with their mediums and it just never worked well.
I can’t say anything about the oiling out process yet but I’ll definitely update the video after trying all mediums ❤️
And I fell in love with lavender spike with linseed 😁 but I really like your style and expertise so look forward to future posts on these. It’s be cool it they work
What type of brushes do you use for cobra paints? Natural hog hair or synthetic?
What do you use to mix your paint with water to get the right flow and coverage? And do you still not use the medium? If so for what do you use it?
Thank you for your review ☺️
You’re welcome ❤️
Thanks for your video! my experiments lead me to believe that they don't contain much pigment. I wanted to like them, but even their Cobra Artist line is just about as good as the Art creation (the lowest quality traditional oil paint from the same company). It would be nice to use them and not use aggressive solvents but it felt like a struggle to mix some colors because of the pigment load and possibly additives.
Which colors were problematic for you? I have a feeling that browns and blacks are very nice. I’ve recently tried to work with yellows (cad yellow and lemon) and it feels that they are not as intense as Rembrandt ones 🤔 I need to continue my research.
It helped me so much!
thank you so so so much ☺️
Glad it helped! ❤️
Very informative.
Hi.What kind of brushes i can use with these kind of water oil paint?
Adorable
may be ND filter or polarizer on lens will help reduce the shine on painting
Thank you for the recommendation! I’ll definitely check them ❤️
I love your doggo! omg
Thank you 😄
How you learn about human anatomy or when you get your references? Like in the painting of the two hands with a light inside
I've been watching a lot of videos about anatomy and did drawings and paintings. It's all about practice and being conscious about what you do.
I'm almost always create my own references.
awesome, Im buying this oils, I read it also with artist, Steven Rosati ! AWESOME very helpful!!!
Yay! I'm happy to hear that!
Danke
You're so beautiful! I love your eyes
Thank you so much ☺️
thanks very informative
Glad it was helpful!
Oooh look at the baby~
Seems paradoxical, i mean oil and water don't mix so how...??
You should ask a conservator about the longevity of the water mixable oils. They haven't been around so long, so we don't know how they will age.
Advice was given, was you can't mix the normal oils with water soluble oils and thus if you switch to one of the other during the painting you should stay with that. So, start with the water soluble and finish with normal oils, and definitely no water soluble layers over the normal oils because one will crack the other.
Thank you for informative overview of their performance and handling. Like you, I have hundreds of € worth of normal oils, so I'm committed. But as for the smell, that's one of the things I enjoy about oils. =)
I'll definitely do that because it's an important question!
Hm, that's an interesting theme because the manufacturer says that there is no problem mixing both. What you mention is a technique similar to oils over acrylics.
I absolutely love the smell of oils. That was the number one reason why I chose them over acrylics. However, there is a big difference between smelling oils (and solvents) while you work and living in this smell (eating, sleeping, etc.).
@@zarinasart just like oils over acrylics, it is only logical that with the water based oils drying faster that these should be the lower layers and traditional oils which dry slower over the top.
I live in my studio, so I'm surrounded by the smells all of the time. However, when it comes to the solvents, those belong outside.
Oh, I’m sorry if I misled you! I mentioned that I’ve read somewhere that the drying time is between acrylics and oils but in reality it’s not. These exact paints are drying as slow as oils. And for burnt umber even slower. I should have stated that more clearly in the video.
And of course it depends on the amount of water that an artist use. I was using just a tiny bit because these paints are already very soft.
@@zarinasart hmmm.... ok. I was going off advice a friend who worked in an art supply store gave me. But, I have a friend who is a professional art conservator who has worked for the likes of Christies and the Vienna Art History Museum. I'll check in with her also. I could report back to you about that if you like.
It's interesting that you have found the drying times are similar. Yes, I guess like oils, the various pigments affect the reactiveness of the drying time.
Please add the subtitles
I've just added English, Spanish and Russian subtitles.
still don't get the myth about water mixable oils being inferior... it ONLY means that you can clean your brush with water... the rest ist the same, isn't it? you use mediums as always... end of story :)
I actually feel like these paints have quite the distinct smell, but ill take that over lung cancer at 40
I think it depends on what to compare them with. Have you tried oil paints that were less smelly? I need to try them 😄