WATER-MIXABLE Oils vs. TRADITIONAL Oil Paints: A Guide
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- Опубликовано: 7 авг 2024
- I have never really seen a comprehensive comparison between water mixable oils and traditional oil paints, so I decided to try to make one! I started out with water-mixable oils on my oil painting journey and still use them today. I feel like they are less intimidating and generally easier to start with, but there’s a lot of debates regarding durability out there, so I wanted to clarify some things for those wanting to get started with either water-mixable oils or traditional oil paints.
In this video, I go over the composition, brands, toxicity, mediums & solvents, drying time, durability and cleanup. I also included the painting process for both of the paints, so you can see them in action and compare the performance. Let me know if there’s something I missed or if you have any questions! ☺️
00:00 Intro
00:36 Composition
01:26 Brands
03:34 Toxicity
06:05 Mediums & Solvents
08:39 Drying Time
09:41 Durability
11:17 Cleanup
12:26 Performance: Painting Demos
16:55 Outro 
Развлечения
You are an EXCELLENT teacher/ presenter. You have a very slight accent, but your English is without flaw (I am an English teacher), and your speaking voice is lovely. I could listen to you all day long! Thank you. I feel as though I’ve learned enough about water mixable oils and traditional oils to begin investing in painting as a hobby. I’m subscribing from Frankfurt, Germany, and I’m American, so even though my German is excellent, I don’t want to spend a fortune on art supplies without being well-informed. I’m very grateful to you.
I'm really sorry for the late reply, but I wanted to let you know that your comment means a lot. Thank you for the kind feedback and welcome to the channel! I'm really glad that you like the content - let me know if there are any topics you want to see covered!
I’ve been using Water mixable oils in my sketchbooks and traditional oils on my canvases.
I also prefer to use water-mixable oils for smaller projects and studies :)
For traditional oil paint, you can use linseed oil as a medium, and safflower oil to clean your brush. That way you stay away from solvents. I’d still recommend to have an air system that helps keep your studio air clean. Thanks for the video
I see, thank you for the advice! I might give the safflower oil trick a try. :)
@@anabellstudio Better. Try the trick of not cleaning your brushes ever again! Just dip them in linseed oil container semi-dirty (just take the most paint from them with paper towel first )
The best container is in a shape of a box, so that you dip the brushes almost horizontally, and even put the lid over them, but you could use normal jar as well. The problem with normal jar is that if the hairs are in vertical/straight position they could deform over their own weight.
I have cut a hole in one side of a ice cream box so I can put the lid on. Also I have tilted the whole box with piece of wood, so I can use less linseed oil - just for the tips of the brushes. Worth putting some weight in the base of the box as well, that way it will be harder to tip over the container by accident.
@@anabellstudio ciao anabel thanks to take the time to confront wmo and oil so deep. was something missing from the internet. On the other side I gotta say you use some amazing top oil brands, would be nice to see if you can maximize the usage of wmo with better solvents, I would be REALLY interested to see the test on what is a watermark of oil painting: The glazing technique! How would differ from WMO(using the best solvent). Thanks great job
With traditional oil i like to go solvent free with using Gamblin solvent free gel and fluid. Both are fast drying so it will dry to touch around 2-3 days, can be longer in colder months. To clean the brushes i use safflower oil and da vinci soap or master brush cleaner.
Nice tips! Thank you for sharing :)
Gambling solent free gel also works with water mixable oils.
Murphy's oil soap also works wonders for cleaning brushes!
Thanks for the demo! I use thinner paint films than you do, overall, so usually the water miscible oils are touch dry within 24 hours, depending on the colour. Titanium takes longer, umbers and others may be dry within a few hours. No faster than regular oils in my experience either. Don't forget that no matter what you thin with, including thinner, if you use too much, you're risking having an unstable paint film because the binder will break down.
I use Talens Cobra and like it very much. Talens also has a painting medium number 100 that emulsifies traditional oils thereby making tradional oils (like Talens van Gogh) water soluble and mixable with water mixable oils.
Agreed! Cobra is awesome.
Where can I get #100 in the US? I can't find it anywhere sadly.
Great video.very informative. Thank you.happy new year
Thank you, and your beautiful painting..❤
Thank you ❤
Thank you! Great review.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you. Very informative.
Thank you! Glad it was useful :)
I tried them a few times when traveling in Europe; they are ok but seemed a bit weak as to pigment, but good enough to use since I don't use other media any more for paintings especially landscapes. I did use acrylics for studio painting, but they don't work as well for plein air landscapes being a quick drying medium. I used Max Oils by Grumbacher for the mixables. Other manufactures make them too but have not tried them, since I use traditional oils all the time now, and if painting outdoors the solvents are not a problem if I use the odorless ones. And, of course, the fresh air helps. Hearing the birds helps too, but I don't know how they affect my work!! LOL. They might be a good choice to use for travel and where solvents may be a problem on planes and boats, and/or its availability in small towns abroad.
I personally don't enjoy water mixable oils. They don't feel as good as traditional oils. They feel goopey and less creamy and they get awfully tacky. I love my traditional oils, and I don't use solvents. I have some mediums from the solvent free line from Gamblin and some sennelier green for oil.
Also for some reason, all my cobra paint tubes have leaked their linseed oil so It made a huge mess. With my regular oils it didn't happen among all the brands I have. I don't know why it could be.
The spontaneous combustion for oil painters I think is overly exaggerated. It would only happen with rags soaked in linseed oil and that rarely happens if you are an oil painter, unless you paint in giant canvases and you like to oil them out. Which would put you in the same page as someone who works with wood. If you do soak rags or paper in linseed oil precaution is needed.
I once stumbled upon a video about trying to create spontaneous combustion with linseed oil and they used a ton of completely soaked rags in a bin and I think it took several hours to even start smoking, so I don't think a regular oil painter would have a problem.
Interesting, some of my Cobra paints also leaked their oil out, and in general they sometimes have a bit of excess oil when you first use them. Also not sure why this happens. It usually stops after you "break them in" a little.
Thank you for sharing your experience with linseed oil and combustion! I agree that you can definitely avoid it combusting randomly when you take the appropriate precautions.
Linseed oil is very rare for self combustion for oil painting. Most rags that combust are from rags SOAKED in linseed oil when oiling wood.
That's very good to know! I never had it happen to me, but I heard about the accidents.
Thank you, your voice is very nice to listen to lol
Both oils are great. Traditional has great color tones but toxic fumes can be a problem. Water based eliminates that hypothesis but still even water based oils contain toxic properties as well. I prefer the water based. It is easier to clean up when you are done.
Definitely agree with water-mixable oils being easier to clean. Neither is completely non-toxic, so it's important to stay cautious
If there are no toxic pigments, there is no toxicity. As you mentioned, avoid the cadmium, cobalt, etc… most of the Cobras have a non toxic AP seal.
Regarding the drag of the watermixable oil paintings, I use linseed oil while painting as a "thinner" and I find that helps a lot. I makes the paint smoother and I can cover twice as much with the same amount of paint.
It can work great for some techniques, but usually you don’t want to use too much oil at the beginning of the painting process because it can complicate things and mess with the drying process a little
is linseed oil a solvent?
@@leslieg3581 No, linseed oil is a medium, but a natural one. If you buy the regular linseed oil for painting, it's as safe as your cooking oil, although still wouldn't recommend drinking it. Linseed oil is made from flax, sunflower oil is made from sunflowers, i.e. different plant, but the same process. The being said, you should be careful that you get the regular or sun-thickened linseed oil, as there are thigs like boiled linseed oil, where they use dangerous processes to make them or add additives you don't want to breathe.
I just moved from traditional oils to water mixable, due to smell of Liquin. I use mostly Cobra Artists. I also have Georgian and Holbein Duo Aqua. While I liked Georgian traditional oils, water mixable aren't that good. Duo Aqua a little expensive, lovely colours but consistency is not my cup of tea. Also smell is different. About Artisan, I had the same experience with them. Nice video. I also use Sennelier cleaner and can recommend Bristle Magic: amazing to clean brushes.
Thank you for sharing your tips and experience :)
I can leave my traditional oil palette for few days and use it. With water mixable oils it's dry afer 24h and unusable anymore. I need to scrape it and make new splashes. Also apart from Cobra and Artisan there is also Holbein Aqua Duo - most premium of all water mixable oils, but they are so expensive that it starts to defeat the purpose (at this price I prefer Michael Hardings)
Thanks for sharing your experience! Unfortunately, it's very hard to get Holbein Aqua Duo where I live, so I make do with what I have. To be honest, in my experience, water-mixable oils remain pretty wet even after 2 or 3 days. I guess it depends on medium usage and how thin or thick you paint.
I am 73 with no art background. I have tried watercolour but I just don’t seem to be able to get to grips with it no matter what the subject. I bought a set of W&N Artisan water mixable oil paint and I am really enjoying using them. OK, I am not creating decent paintings but I am at least creating things I will keep rather than put in the bin. I do like the original oils as they have a better colour range and more options in the mediums but, for now, the limits imposed on me with the Artisan paints and mediums (I just have the thinner and quick drying medium which I have yet to use) actually leave me painting rather than just buying more and more paints. Thank you for this video and I really like the look of what your channel contains.
Thank you for the comment! You're absolutely right - while the exploration of different art supplies is great, it's important to have a medium that you're comfortable with and can always fall back on. I'm glad to hear that my videos were useful to you, and good luck with your art journey! 😊
I agree about the transparent watercolors, the require much more planning than I'm willing to do, especially as a plein air landscape painter when time is of the essence and you have to get going, no time to make a decent and detailed drawing, for example; and they dry fast, especially here in the southwest USA. Don't know why so many people start painting with watercolors, they are the most difficult medium to master in my opinion. Oils are forgiving, and if you mess up you can wipe out and start over, or maybe paint over a "bin worthy" painting later, LOL! I do like acrylics for studio detailed work, like animals; fur and feathers can be made ultra realistic with them. : )
@@ronschlorff7089 I will be trying acrylic as well as a secondary medium. My watercolours however, have gone into that deep draw marked ‘maybe for later’ 🤣
Hiii I have soma questions about oil painting and I would really apreciate it if you answered. i have been using traditional oils with liquin as my medium. I was wondering how dangerous it is because although toxic, it is more of a gel and not a solvent that emits harmful vapors. Also there is a poppy oil by winsor and newton that seems safe but it does contain drying agents and I dont know if thats something to worry about. So I decided to get linseed oil but I got the watermixable version instead🤣. And i was wonderng if that is ok to use with traditional oils.
🙏for sharing and I Will definitely try sennelier non toxic Oil paint mediums 🩵🦋
I have never had a problem with intermixing water mixable oil mediums of different brands and I have used schmincke medium w which changes traditional oils into water mixable oil paints
I see! Thank you for sharing your experience
Hey, I'm a 3rd year painting student in uni, my 2-year college had a small art program so our painting studio didnt have enough ventilation, so we used water-soluble oils. I transferred to a 4-year uni and now i have to learn how to paint with 'real' oils. I have done a few test paintings, and the feel is very different from the water-solubles. My main frustration is that I am having trouble transitioning from basically only using gamsol for most of the painting, and then maybe a touch of cobras glazing liquid, to not really having a similar experience when doing the same thing with my traditional oils. do you have any tips for a smoother transition when moving from water-soluble to traditional oils? My prof doesnt know much about water-soluble paint so it is like we are both speaking different languages :( I have been using gamsol for my lean and walnut for my fat, we have to work fairly large, 36x48inches for most of the semester, so i dont want to waste expensive oils.
Hello I’ve been using this paints fir few year’s and once you get used to them it’s nice and clean - healthy…..using lensed oil does slow up the drying process that I can confirm.
Thank you for sharing your experience ☺️
I wonder if you have tried to use Chelsea Lavender cleaners and mediums? I have been told that you can use Chelsea with all oil paints! I have only used water for cleanup with the water soluble oil paints. Odorless does not mean non-toxic! Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Thank you.
Thank you for the question and the kind words! I haven't actually used Chelsea Lavender products, although they seem good. They're not really available where I live, I'm afraid.
"Odorless does not mean non-toxic!" - 100% agreed!
I have lavender spike oil (not sure of the brand) but boy did it clean oil based paint off our brushes and skin quickly and easily and smelled great! We were using an oil based primer for our porch but I assume it would work just a great for art oil paintings. 🎨
Two other brands of water mixable oils are Daniel Smith Water Soluble OIls and Grumbacher Max.
Thank you for adding them to the list - unfortunately, they don’t sell them around here, but I hope I can get my hands on them one day! 🤠
⁉️❓❓❓Can you paint acrylic over water mixable oil paint? I have an old painting that I never finished that it was with this type of oil paint. I’d like and preferred to paint over it with acrylic and finish the painting. I have used an acrylic varnish over the entire painting as an acrylic surface.. is this possible?
Guter Vergleich Danke. Darf ich fragen welche Staffelei (Dunkrlbraun) sie verwenden? Es ist eine gute Grösse finde ich. LG
What about "Schmincke Medium W" ?
It supposed to turn any regular/traditional oil paint into a water mixable paint.
Do you have any experience/tips for using it?
Very good question! I have tried Schmincke's Medium W, but I feel like I should. I got a lot of questions for this video, so I'll probably have to make a second part, and I'll try to include it there :)
Hi. First: thanks so much for this! question: can I wash water soluable brushes in any sink? Can the water used during painting be put down the drain?
yes, water soluble oils are completely non-toxic. if you add any solvents though, i would wear gloves and wipe off any solventy-paint on your brush onto a rag (paper towel or fabric scraps, throw away when too solvent-y, do not wash).
@welcomecataclysm this answers your question as well
Just use Linseed oil for your medium, you don't need anything else. Personally, I'm learning to paint straight from the tube, if you want the paint to spread easy just use more paint. This is the best for archival painting and for health...
I also mostly use oil straight out of the tube, but I rely on paint thinner for the underpainting/sketch
How new are these water-mixable oil paints?
As in, which paint brand was first with this, and which year did they release their product?
"They were first manufactured in the 1980ies " I need to watch the full video first :)
Hello, I am very interested in watermixable oil paints, I saw that the artist Camilla D'errico uses Aqua Duo oil paints from Holbein (water mixable oils), but she uses the Golden Satin Glazing Medium for acrylics, and the titanium white of Golden, fluid acrylic... That would make a world of possibilities for me, so I am investigating how it is possible to use and somehow mix the acrylic world with the oil world, Camilla's works are beautiful and there are no problems with the material she uses, so if anyone Here, if you know more about that topic, I would be grateful if you mentioned it :)
Hi! Unfortunately, I can't easily get hold of Holbein's Aqua Duo series where I live, so I can't speak for them, though I heard that they're good. It's an interesting idea though - to "the acrylic world with the oil world" - I should definitely look into to what extent that would me possible :)
Schmincke Medium W will make traditional oils water soluble so cleanup is easy.
Thank you, I never heard of it! And Schminke is very easy to get here too
Is it okay to clean the brushes and let them go down the sink? I thought with all oils we wouldn't want the pigments mixing with the water supply?
I have the same considerations with acrylic. You can wipe as much access off with a paper towel and discard. Then pour the rinse water into kitty litter and discard.
Can you use water-mixable oils on an oil-primed surface? Thank you for this video
Yes, absolutely! They can be used like normal oils in all cases.
It's still the same oils, like linseed, safflower, or walnut mixed with polysorbate 20.
Thank you - I didn't know the exact compound that's used as the emulsifier! Might do some research on it.
Titan arts from spain are a great brand too
Thank you for the recommendation!
Моя ❤
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Is water mixable linseed oil (for example artisan) also as risky in reagrd to inflammation as undillutable linseed oil? I mean, they burn ok, but normal linseed oild is kind of self-combusting :O. As the molecular structure is broken down to make them mixable with water, maybe that influences the fire hazard?
Very good question! To be honest, I only have the normal painting medium by Cobra and still haven’t gotten my hands on a water-mixable linseed oil. However, I found this safety data sheet on W&N website, and it looks like their water-mixable linseed oil retains its combustibility 😬 the-bank.azurewebsites.net/download/29912
Don't clean your brushes, wipe them with a cotton clothes and dip them in massage oil. They will last much longer and the oil keeps them soft...
Interesting, I didn't think about massage oil. Thanks for the advice!
Like Jojoba oil?
Do not use solvents Just use Linseed oil with your traditional oil paints and you will have no problem with toxicity
Forget about water mixable oil paint. Use mineral oil to clean your brushes and chose nontoxic pigments in your oil colors.
Never use soap and water it will ruin your brushes.
They does not look worth a try
there is something arrogant to think that in 50 years someone is still going to want to look at your painting
Agree 😂 but we can hope!
What a rude comment. 50 years pass so fast…..
What a rude comment smfh
Can easily have a painting that gets passed down through her family’s generations
Why is that arrogant? It's not an expectation, but I think it is something an artist should strive for. I mean, where would the history of art be now if we didn't have artists who were "arrogant" enough to try and create something which would last?