I’m able to paint pretty much solvent free as it is, especially since I discovered that the proper way to thin the consistency of the paint on the palette is with oil, not solvent. (Note: we ought to keep stressing this point here for newbies, b/c I’ve been painting for quite a while but only recently was introduced to this very important point). I use oil to clean my brushes during a session for the most part, and when I use spike lavender, it’s drop by tiny drop using a glass dropper. So I’m not concerned about the problems mentioned here anyway, since the amount is so small. But the real problem presents itself at the very beginning of a painting, when I really want to be able to paint very, very loosely – and in a highly correctable manner – to do a preliminary block in. It just doesn’t seem to work for me without solvent, and unless I have a ton of time to finish the piece all alla prima, using oil in the preliminary parts violates the FoL (Fat-over-Lean) principle. Spike lavender oil doesn’t work here because it’s solvent effect is strong but it’s drying rate is fairly slow.
much.

I don’t want to dismiss your preferred method of painting, but I think at some point you might want to try to begin your paintings in a less “thin” manner. That, I’m afraid to say, may be the trade off when working solvent free.

Possible things to try. You can use oil as your medium throughout the painting as long as you use the same amount or more in each layer. In this way you are still following fat over lean, so to speak, because fat over fat is OK. The problem when working with oil alone is that too much oil can be problematic as well. Gamblin recommends:

Use caution when using oil painting mediums that are 100% oil. When used in excess and applied too thickly they will have problems drying and may wrinkle in the process. Oil only mediums should only be used in small amounts- 5-20% in mixture with oil colors.

For many years I worked with no medium, so it possible to block in your composition without thinning the paint too much or at all. I’m not saying it is as easy, but can be done.

WMOs would still be my recommendation for working solvent free as you can thin with water for a lean block-in. But, again, it is not recommended to thin WMOs to a wash-like consistency. But I think blocking-in can be done with a minimal amount of water to thin WMOs.

It would be nice it was possible to work solvent free with absolutely no compromises, but that may not be a realistic possibility.

Don

Recently I use acrylic paint for that. Student grade acrylic is completely free of heavy metals (except iron and some minor amount of copper) and rich of polymer content. I can dilute it with water and I found such practice to be exceptionally useful for me. Everything, that contemporary artist want to do with oil paint, can be easily done with acrylic. You can accomplish any kind of underpaintings with acrylic paint. More over, using acrylic paint, you do not need to follow all those crazy and aggressive fat-over-lean limitations.

I may try that, but I would prefer to be able to continue painting after a loose block in. Somewhere during the process the acrylic has to have time to dry, and although it dries pretty fast, I’d be hesitant to immediately begin an oil layer over a just-finished acrylic layer. Also, my landscape painting instructor from last quarter taught the “wipe out” method of beginning a painting. In it, you put a thin-ish layer of paint all over the canvas and then wipe most of it off. Then, you go back and sort of sketch with a rag, dipped in a tiny bit of OMS, wrapped around your finger. You don’t create lines but instead wipe out the lighter valued shapes. I don’t think I could ever do that with acrylic, since it dries way too quickly.

Still, I haven’t really tried doing an entire underpainting in acrylic. It’s different than what I have in mind but I can see there would be benefits. I’ll have to try it.

Then, you go back and sort of sketch with a rag, dipped in a tiny bit of OMS, wrapped around your finger. You don’t create lines but instead wipe out the lighter valued shapes.

Same technique one might use in charcoal. Lift out the highlights.

It’s far more of a matter of wanting to do it than needing to do it.

You can easily finish a charcoal drawing without wiping away highlights, just like you can oil paint without ever wiping off anything.

The reason I never wipe away anything in oil paint with a rag is the same reason I don’t do it with charcoal, it’s messy and unhealthy. With charcoal you breathe in charcoal dust, with oil you are holding onto a solvent dipped rag. It’s one thing to paint with solvent, it’s quite another to start using rags dipped in solvent to paint with.

Not to mention dipping rags in solvent creates a potential fire hazard.

If I really need to remove some paint I’ll use my painting knife and go over it with thicker paint.

And wiping away paint only works well with a very flat non-absorbent surface. It works well on a super fine linen canvas that is heavily sealed. It doesn’t work well at all on a coarse cotton canvas with some absorbency.

Annie, I have been using this approach lately.

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Something to keep in mind is that if you let the painting dry to the touch (not tacky at all) after the alla prima work is done, you can apply further glazing layers as usual without having to follow “fat over lean” rules. This is because the under layers do not matter, they are no longer fat or not, they are dry enough and far enough ahead in the curing process than any further layers you add. If you are concerned, just add a bit of oil to your paint for your glaze or new layer and keep going. Of course if you are wanting to paint on top of a tacky surface, either oil out gently or add a touch of oil to your paint piles to continue.

Mario, yes you can use oil for clean up, personally I use walnut oil for cleaning my brushes. I wipe the brush out as well as I can with a paper towel, then swish it in the oil and then wipe that on a clean spot on the palette, wipe out excess on paper towel again then repeat until there is no more color coming out, then wash up with soap and water (when I need the brush perfectly clean, like at the end of a session). The whole process now takes me about 5 minutes to do, including washing with soap and water. The more you do it the faster you become (also depends on the brush size a bit).

You are most welcome Mario. It always boggles my mind how oil painting has somehow become synonymous with toxicity, when in fact I have had much more issues with acrylics and the unusual fumes they exhibit than I have ever had with oils. Of course, even when I do use a solvent it is diluted with oil and covered except when I go to get a single drop to put into a pile of paint or to be wiped into an area with a brush to use as a couch. That is rare though and used only when I need a little bite into the existing paint surface.

The easiest thing you can do to improve the safety of your studio is to stop washing brushes in solvent

Hehe!