Home Forums The Learning Center Studio Tips and Framing Painting with gloves

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  • #467667
    MarcF
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        I’m fairly new to painting – but I have a nice studio set up now.
        I’m into oil paint – so – needless to say it’s quite messy.
        I got tired of scrubbing my hands 25 times a day.
        I can’t even open a tube of paint without getting even just a little on my hand. If I forget and start to paint, my hands get covered. I try to be neat but it gets all over the place, and takes lots of scrubbing to remove. And of course the thinners also get all over my skin.

        I was never one for working much with gloves on, but I got these blue “examination gloves” at the local CVS. They’re thicker and better than the latex gloves I had around and started with. So now I have a rule – no painting without gloves. I barely notice that they are on my hands and when I’m done painting and I pull them off, NO SCRUBBING. Just a light wash with regular soft hand soap. My hands were taking such a beating – now they thank me.

        Anyone else? What is your method for protecting your hands and skin? And what about your eyes? My regular glasses are all I’m using. You?

        #764208
        La_
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            ha, you’re a funny one, marc … how is it that you can be So Precise in your designs, paintings, set up, prep, yet so chaotically Messy with the actual paint?!

            i don’t do rubber gloves unless I’m working with ‘oneshot’ [sign painters paint, contains lead]
            and certainly i’ve spilled paint, made messes and wrecked some clothes, but somehow, probably not by just dumb luck, i manage to contain the paint to pallet and canvas.

            something(s) in your routine needs tweaking, apparently.

            la

            _____________________________________________
            When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know Peace

            #764222
            MarcF
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                la You nailed it!
                I plan and detail my work down to the millimeter.
                I have every brush, tube of paint, jar of liquid, palette knife in a specific location, and with a label if necessary.
                At least 75% of the time I spend is about preparation and planning.
                Yet, when I start to paint all that is out the window and I lose myself in “my world”. Whatever I’m working on, be it a guitar piece, a computer program, or a story I’m writing – it takes over.
                When I start painting, within 1/2 hour my brush holder is full of wet brushes and all 4 glass palettes have paint on them.
                And then an hour later I look at what I painted and it’s probably a small area. Hours later – the same small area.

                Then I step back from my easel (adapted from my drawing board) and I look, and think – hey, that’s pretty good right there. I’m going with that.

                #764217
                contumacious
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                    Unlike water based paints, oil paint on your skin can go unnoticed, thus the paint covered brush handle with no clue where it came from. This is because it doesn’t cool your skin from evaporation like acrylics do and doesn’t burn you like encaustic wax does. Wearing gloves makes the accidental spreading of paint all over the place even worse for me.

                    I dislike wearing nitrile gloves so I only wear them with pastels. After oil painting I wash my hands with one of those pumice loaded orange cleaners and a fingernail brush when done. It only takes a few seconds to get all the paint off. I then apply some Lubriderm after washing so I don’t dry my skin out. I plan to try some fine weave cottton or maybe chamois skin gloves some day.

                    #764223
                    MarcF
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                        exactly. I keep noticing little smudges of color here and there around the apartment. Most of the time they just wipe off. If not Windex is pretty good. I play classical guitar – and very expensive ones – in the same room I paint in. A smock (a double smock sometimes) and the nitrile gloves give me a feeling of security there. I don’t really like the gloves but darn it! I can’t open a tube without my hands getting splotchy immediately – for the reasons you said – you don’t know it’s there.

                        #764210
                        Use Her Name
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                            They used to have these thin white cotton gloves, those would be more comfortable than nitrile gloves if you were just painting. In the old days, everyone wore gloves because there were tons of things that got your hands dirty.

                            I work wearing gloves all the time. I go through a box or two of 100 every project.

                            No longer a member of WC. Bye.

                            #764224
                            MarcF
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                                Hey Katy-
                                I won’t paint without gloves anymore. I immediately get paint on my hands, as soon as I even start thinking about painting. I reuse the gloves until they come apart. I “wash” my hands with the gloves on, spraying a little windex on my hands first. Pull em off, blow em out, and they are ready to go again. I don’t know if people realize that getting titanium, zinc, lead, cadmium etc on their skin is not a very good idea. Yes, those heavy metals really are in the paint. And they will be absorbed through the skin without some barrier. I think. I don’t know much about anything but I do think pretty well. I think.

                                #764218
                                bongo
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                                    Gloves keep paint off your hands but NOT things you touch – it’s not going to keep paint off brush handles, light switches, etc. I paint (very messy) with acrylics but don’t wear gloves. I have big hands and gloves never seem to fit
                                    – I also need my fingers free to blend edges etc. I don’t use cadmium or lead based paints. I wash my hands about every twenty minutes or so, and that seems to help.

                                    Light switches, brush hands, faucets, door handles have paint on them. So be it. I buy long sleeve t-shirts – two sizes too big – at the thrift store and put those over my clothes when I paint – throw them away when they get too narly — but still manage to get paint on my clothes.

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                                    STUDIOBONGO

                                    #764221
                                    Dorrart
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                                        I’m a very neat painter, even though I currently have a loose style.

                                        However, I also have done large scale set painting, a 26 foot by 16 foot wall that I had to paint in a day or two with house paints and a 4″ brush. The house paints would get wet from water trapped in the ferrule and roll back down my on my hands as I was working extremely fast to complete the background wall which was often a setting for the high school’s drama production.

                                        I would use a trick to keep my hands clean without excessive scrubbing needed. First before any painting you wash your hands and dry them, then you take liquid soap and rub it into your hands, get it under your nails; work it in good like putting on hand lotion. Let it dry on your hands. This forms a flexible barrier making it possible to remove paint, clear coat, grease, etc by just washing your hands again. It works great. Only catch is, if you get your hands too wet, you need to wash them then reapply the liquid soap.

                                        I use the trick for working on cars, woodwork finishing, house painting, anything that I suspect will get on my hands. I don’t do it for my acrylic paintings, because, as I said, I am generally a very neat painter.

                                        - David

                                        "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." --Picasso

                                        #764225
                                        MarcF
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                                            I’m neat about most everything but not painting.
                                            My tubes have paint on them. If I just pick up 1 tube and put it down, I have to wash my hands. And it’s oil paint. I tried keeping the tubes clean – wiping them off with paper towels. This also gets my hands (or gloves) full of paint, and i wind up spending more time wiping paint off tubes and hands than I spend, putting it on canvas.
                                            There are blotches of color all over my apartment. A spot of whiteish gray here, brown there, etc. I noticed a white smudge on my wife’s sweater, about shoulder level. She was unaware of it. I looked down my “exhibition hall” (my foyer) and found a painting I did, with white paint about shoulder level – looked a little smudged. I’m not touching it. My wife doesn’t care anyway so I’m a lucky guy. But I care! As I said, I am a neat FREAK! I hate when just one item is out of place in my studio. But it seems to me that paint was designed to get all over the place. I might try the pre-soap treatment – but really the gloves don’t bother me very much and I do feel like I’m protecting my skin, which gets very dry and flaky out here in the dry desert of Albuquerque.

                                            #764219
                                            bongo
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                                                Great tip thanks!
                                                What I’ve found for me that works best, painting with acrylics, is to wash my hands often during the painting process. The problem is NOT the dried paint on my hands but the little bits that get on and stay wet, then transfer to other surfaces – including the painting.

                                                But I will try this when doing other chores for sure!

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                                                #764215

                                                I wear a reusable glove on my left hand that holds a paper towel and nothing on my right. I use as little toxic materials as possible (substitute cadmiums) … I just really need to use my hand on the paint surface as that is part of my technique!

                                                #764220
                                                bhindi
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                                                    I wear nitrile gloves. Absolutely need it because I also cook and handle food a lot. I don’t want to take any risk of any paint residue getting into my meals.

                                                    #764214
                                                    Colorado_Ed
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                                                        I use nitrile gloves all the time, I can’t imagine not using them.

                                                        A little bit of talcum powder on the hands before I “suit up” helps.

                                                        "The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." Neil deGrasse Tyson

                                                        My blog: http://ejsherman.blogspot.com/
                                                        Instagram: edward_sherman

                                                        #764216
                                                        Lauresa
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                                                            I use a barrier cream like Gloves in a Bottle as often during the day as I can remember to apply it. I buy grey nitrile gloves from costco and use them religiously for setting out paint and for cleaning up. I think 400 gloves for $20. I reuse the gloves until they fall apart. I also use them when I am painting if my hands are torn up or if I am using a lot of solvent in my painting process, or using tools that are super messy.

                                                            The biggest problem I have besides my hands always being very dry and sore is getting paint on frames. I like to pop the painting in a frame as it gets close to being done. I usually end up with paint on the frame and on my freshly washed hands!

                                                            Laura

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