Oil Paint Techniques Using Water-Soluble Oils

The other day I learned something very interesting from a friend, Colette Lacey, I met on FaceBook. she told me about using walnut oil to thin water-soluble oils.

With the walnut oil the paints flowed just as smoothly as regular oils, There was no stickiness when try to blend. In addition, there were no fumes from turpenoid, and I could wash everything up with soap and water. I was painting with all the great benefits of using regular oils without any of the negatives of messy cleanups and fumes that constrict my breathing.

I also found that I only needed a very small amount of the walnut oil to make the paint flow easily. Using the water-miscible linseed oil required a lot more to get past the stickiness before the paint would flow easily. This also tended to make the paint dry slower.

If you want more information from people who use water-soluble oils, here is a link to a forum I am active in:

watersolubleoils.forumotion.com

Just like painting with traditional oils, you must still abide by the "Fat over Lean Rule". This means that if you add more oil to a paint to "thin" it down, it has actually becomes fatter and so you must consider what you are applying it over.

With water soluble oils, you can 'thin' with water, which makes them leaner since there is no fat in water. Thinning it this way, is best used for under painting and early thin layers where it will dry fast and is all ready lean so you can paint over it without so much concern.

Windsor Newton Artisan has a water-mixable-oil Thinner which works really well instead of water. As with water, it also makes the paint leaner and is best used in the early layers.

Because different colors have different drying times, I have written a page in my website which is a good resource for you to use called Oil Paint Drying Times.

A common question asked is if you can paint over a dry oil painting with acrylic paints? The answer is "No". Even though these are water soluble oils, they still contain oil. Just as water would bead up on an oily surface such as a waxed table, so will acrylics bead up on oil paintings.

Can you paint over a dried oil painting with water soluble oils? "No Problem". You are maintaining the Fat over Lean Rule by doing so, but you should put a thin film of walnut oil over the area to help adherence of the new paint layer. If you are not sure, do a small test on a sample painting first before you chance ruining the one you want to work on.

Can you paint oil over acrylics? "Absolutely" . Most pre-primed canvases, or ones you prime yourself, are primed with acrylic gesso. Gesso does have special properties which help the water soluble oils to adhere. More information about gesso can be found on my website,
filarecki.com/gesso.html

If you use acrylic paints for your background and want to paint with oils over parts of it, it is recommended that you put a very thin layer of the oil you use over the entire canvas. Wipe any excess off with a clean cloth but maintain the glaze. This thin oil film will act as a binding agent for better adherence of the water soluble oil to the acrylic under painting.

If you are looking to speed up the drying time of your paintings, there are Fast Drying Mediums which work well. Individual manufacturer have their own mediums. I have used Windsor Newton Artisan Brand fast drying medium. The earlier version of it tended to be very thick and hard to work with, but my understanding is that it has improved.

Brands differ so you should read the label or research them before buying.

Lukas Berlin makes a fast drying medium which is watery and tends to dry very fast. It is also very lean so you have to be careful about trying to follow the fat over lean rule. It is a good choice for under painting since it is lean.

The Windsor Newton Artisan brand contains oil so it is fatter. They state that the drying time is decreased by 50% when using their medium. This would be a good choice for layered painting over the under painting since it is not as lean. As it dried, though it becomes leaner so subsequent layers can be put on.

My choice has been to use Walnut Alkyd by M. Graham which is made from walnut oil and alkyd. Very small amounts make the paints blend easily and are "touch dry" within a day so you can put on another layer of paint. They dry with a fine gloss finish which I really like.

For people with breathing problems, you may have a reaction to the Alkyd so test it out carefully. I find that if i paint using the walnut alkyd over a period of days, indoors, I tend to start wheezing. My solution has been to paint outdoors with it when ever possible, or limit my exposure time so I can tolerate. it.

David Clemons shared this information on our Water-Soluble Oils Forum. He is very knowledgeable in many technical areas so I would recommend that you take a look at his website: dbclemons.com

"To make an egg yolk & oil medium mix equal parts yolk, oil, and water. Break the yolk membrane in a bowl as though making tempera, slowly add the same amount of oil to the yolk while stirring, and then add that same amount of water and stir. Store this in the fridge, or if you want to keep it for longer than a few days add a few drops of white vinegar or a couple drops of clove oil. All these mediums are water soluble and also speed up the drying time."

We all tend to have our own preference but I will explain some of the choices I have been told about or tried for myself.

I use a mixture of brushes.

• My Favorite Brushes
  Winsor Newton makes a fantastic brush called the Eclipse that I have absolutely fallen in love with. It is natural hair made from Russian Black Sable. They describe it as being a "perfect balance between stiff and soft hair...more body than red sable and softer than hog bristle."
  
  I'm really pleased with it because it hold a good chisel edge, blends without brush lines and keeps its shape after cleans up with soap and water.
  
  
• Bristle Brushes
  I like bristle brushes for laying down large areas of color that will be smoothed down later, such as the sky. They are also good for high-texture areas such as foliage and for dabbing in tree leaves. They load with paint well and flare out to produce some very effective leaf patterns. They are also good for adding texture to the foreground of landscapes. I load them with multiple colors and then hold the brush vertically while tapping on the canvas to do this.
  
  An example of multiple loading can be seen in the lower left corner of the fisher boy painting. The slope texture and shadow was a result of randomly loading burnt umber, yellow ochre and white onto the bristle brush at the same time.
  
  I have heard people who are use to regular oils state that they feel the bristle brushes become "mushy." This can be avoided by not using water except for cleaning. Use warm soap and water but do not leave the brush standing in the water. Dry it immediately and place it on it's side to continue drying.
  
  There are some synthetic bristle brushes which I have used and been satisfied with. They tend to be a little less expensive than real bristle and work just as well.


• Synthetic Brushes
  I like synthetic brushes for smoother area. They don't leave the brush ridges as much as the bristle brushes unless you want them there. They wash up well with soap and water and are not so sensitive to standing in water briefly as you clean a bunch of them.
  
  The one thing I did find was that paint builds up in the brush causing the hairs to splay out once dried. When I first started using the WS oils, it didn't dawn on me that I was getting paint build up. Those brushes that had that happen, however, do come in very handy because of the fact that he bristles fan out so much that they can be used to dab texture and color in without big blobs of paint.
  
  To avoid this from happening, I add a little extra walnut oil to the brush before cleaning and work the paint out. Then I clean with warm soap and water. I actually use a commercial brush cleaner for the soapy part because it also conditions the brush after wards. One women said she uses baby oil to do the same thing with good results.