Oil painting RAGE - PLEASE HELP ME!

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Congratulations! That looks a whole lot better than the first set. Nice selection of cool and warm colours. This is really something you can work with. Yes, (good) oilpaints have a distinct smell (linseed) that a lot of people like. I'm glad you got such good advice. Fortunately, most art supply shops are honest and will advise the best option for the customer. Artists are generally decent folk.

Oh, dear. I seem to have gotten myself into a bit of a pickle. I finally had time to try the new oil paints yesterday. I have a tiny apartment and nowhere else to paint, so I just tried it for about an hour (just a copying exercise I found on the internet which convinced me that I will never be a traditional painter, though that doesn't mean I can't have fun with the paints, and at least I learned how to make colors darker or lighter). When I was done, I stuck the finished "painting" and palette and paint thinner jar outside one of the windows (I have double windows so I stuck them in between where they'd be safe inside but not part of the air flow) and opened the other window for a while (making the flat FREEZING) to try to air out any fumes that might be left.

When I woke up this morning, my whole face was swollen. I know that oil paints are not "healthy" and some of the stuff in them is toxic, but this felt more like a strong allergic reaction than some kind of poisoning. Is it likely that I'm allergic to either the linseed oil or something else in the paints? I do have a lot of allergies.

I inspected the art table and I didn't find any exposed paint anywhere. I did still smell the paint though, and decided it must be coming from the paint tubes themselves, which is odd because I couldn't smell them before I opened them for use and they weren't even sealed in any way. I stuck them back in the box and hid them away in the cupboard and opened the windows for another hour (my apartment is becoming a refrigerator), but I still keep catching whiffs of paint. I can't for the life of me figure out where it's coming from. The brushes are totally clean, anything with wet paint on it is blocked by a window, and the tubes are locked away in the cupboard. I must have missed something, but I can't figure out what, and until I do, my eyes keep getting puffy when I come close to the art table. And my apartment is really tiny and pretty much everything is close to the art table, including my computer which I can't really move. : /

I spent all that money on these supplies and now I seem to be allergic. I'm hoping I can at least find somewhere with better ventilation to paint, but I have no idea where that might be.

EDIT: By the way, the paints were the only new thing I used. I didn't open the turpentine bottle or use any other medium. I used a bit of the paint thinner to wash the brush but I've used this before with the other paints without any problems.

i see some good advice among the preceding.

don't let it discourage you, but it took me about 10 years to learn the simple craft.

i would say to spend a whole year just on learning how to mix colors, without regard to what the outcome looks like. as pointed out, oil paints can be different degrees of transparency/opacity; also they differ in hot/cold & a quality that has no real name but chemists call "thixotropic" which is variable viscosity. for example titanium white is so "stiff" it almost can't be used out of the tube...

here is a secret i wish someone had told me: sun-thickened linseed oil. this is the only thinning medium that pleases almost no matter what you do with it, as long as you don't use too much. your paints will dry a little quicker, but blend much more readily & it makes any paint compatible with any other.

another secret: always paint on a dark ground.

the old masters would lay out their entire image in black & white first, then add color afterwards. thus they only had to solve one problem at a time.

this is an art for patient people. spend a lot of time silently staring at your work. there is a point or trancelike state where it suddenly gets easier. learn to recognize this point: it comes when you cease wanting to control your results.

good luck.

Yes, that's possible. It could be the linseed, but some oil paints also contain a small amount of solvent or Balsem of Peru. The latter is notorious for causing allergies. It's the same stuff they put in cosmetics, creams, soap and toothpaste.

Do you know of any easy way to find out what's in the paints? I suppose I could try to contact the manufacturer but I'd need a translator. Ugh, I spent a lot of money on these... : (

Information is on the Umton website, for what it's worth. The pigments are properly listed, as well as the binders.

http://www.umton.cz/index.php?call=slozeni_en

But look at this mysterious sentence

http://www.umton.cz/index.php?call=olej

This 'secret of stabilizer' is unfortunately all too common. Stabilizers sometimes have to be added to some pigments or else the paint becomes stringy, but manufacturers abuse a property of stabilizers for commercial reasons. A stabilizer increases the volume of the paint, much like yeast does in dough. In practice that means the manufacturer can get away with using less pigment, always the most costly ingredient of oil paint.

It´s doubtful that the stabilizer itself is causing your allergic reaction (but not impossible). This sentence gives a clue what might.



If it's not a dispersion, then it is almost certain that there is a solvent of some sort in it. Which one? I doubt they'll tell you. Could be anything. But solvents are the main cause of allergies for oilpaint. They can cause anything from headaches to eczema and swelling.

I'm really sorry for you. I'm allergic to solvents myself and can't use them in my house. Occassionally, I do use regular oilpaints but only in a large, well ventilated studio that is available in my city for anyone who wants to use it. Any chance that there is such a place in Prague?

I do know of one studio, though I only ever went there once for a gallery showing by a friend of mine. It's called DIY Praha. I'll have to ask her about using the place for painting. I imagine you have to pay some sort of rent or fee to use the space, but if it's not expensive (and I can't imagine it would be, the place is a dump) it might be okay. It's completely unheated and uninsulated though, which will make it tough in the winter (and we've already had snow).

You said you use water-soluble oils, right? Do they tend to be expensive? Maybe I can see about finding some of those. Although it will have to be a while before I can invest much more money in this. I'm finally buying the headphones and music player I need to survive public transportation, and am also asking my boss to reduce my working hours (what I'm doing now is simply more than I can handle), which will mean a smaller paycheck.

Thanks again for the information. I'm glad you knew what to look for on that web site - I would have had no idea what that meant! I get pretty bad eczema from all my allergies (and I have many), and I definitely had swelling in my face after one use of the paints. I guess I'd better not try to use those paints again at home.

They're about the same price as standard oils.

Lucas - Berlin = student grade (4,50 euro per 37 ml. tube)
Winsor & Newton - Artisan = between student and artist grade (~ 7 euro per 37 ml. tube)
Royal Talens - Cobra = artist grade (~ 10 euro per 40 ml. tube)

This is a painting I'm currently working on with W & N Artisan



There's also a Japanese brand that seems to be cheap and good, but I haven't seen it over here, so I don't know if it's sold in Europe at all.

Talens uses a different procedure to make the oil mixable with water (emulsion - a technique used by the early Flemish masters such as Jan van Eijck). Lucas and Winsor & Newton use a modified (oxydized) linseed oil. None of them have any harmful solvents in them.

Keep in mind that the solvent is water, so you can't use these paints on regular paper. Canvas paper or board coated with a gesso or acrylic paint is OK though. The new synthetic brushes you have are perfect for water mixable oil. No need to buy the sables or squirrels, the water will only ruin them.

Waitaminute... did you say the paints had an intruiging smell? Does it resemble the scent of a pine tree? Linseed has a nice smell, but not very powerful. It's somewhat like cooking oil with a vague hint of burlap.

The smell of my paints is not strong at all. When I first bought them I opened them and sniffed directly from the tube and noticed that they actually had an interesting odor, unlike the ones I was using before which had no odor at all. After I recapped the tube I didn't smell it again until I started painting with them... But then I couldn't get rid of the smell. Presumably there is a bit of paint somewhere that I didn't notice and steadily gave off fumes for at least a day. Anyway since I put the box of paints in the cupboard and aired out the apartment one more time I haven't smelled it again. I have to admit that while at first it was intriguing, after I had the reaction to it it became an alarming smell. Sort of like lilacs, which I'm severely allergic to. The first time I smelled them they were lovely, and then my face swelled up and I couldn't breathe, and now every time I smell them (even if it's just a scented candle or something) it smells like death and panic. So when I was catching a whiff of the oils after I had cleaned up (and after I had a reaction) it just smelled like dangerous chemicals and swollen eyes, though it didn't to begin with.

In any case, I'm not sure I can describe the smell accurately, especially not without pulling out the tubes and smelling again, which I'm (understandably I think) hesitant to do. I don't really remember exactly how it smelled when I first sniffed them. Just that it was a new and interesting smell. I don't think it resembled pine at all. Probably more like cooking oil and burlap, like you said.

I suppose I can stop at my local art shop and see if they stock any water-soluble oils. On the other hand, maybe I should find someone who paints with them and try out some first to make sure it's not the oil itself I'm allergic to. Definitely no sense in throwing money away on more allergens!

I wrote to my friend who has the connection to the studio to ask if there's any charge to use it and all that. She's notorious for not checking her online messages though, so it may be a while before I get an answer. Come to think of it, I wonder if she has any water-soluble oils...

Nice painting, by the way! When I'm reasonably convinced my "practice" painting is dry, I'll snap a picture and post it. It's atrocious, but I think that's mostly because the cat interrupted me and set me off on a semi-meltdown and instead of being sensible and setting it aside until I was ready to work again, I tried to just "push through" and get it over with, so it's a bit of a mess. I didn't learn much about blending (other than that it's flipping difficult) but I did learn a bit about mixing colors, which is better than nothing!

It's not a bad idea to lay down the values in monochrome first, and glaze colour over it, but it is a myth that the 'old masters' did this, brought into the world by Joseph Sheppard. The techniques of these old masters were as varied as the techniques of modern oilpainters.

The most common 16th/17th century (and later!) technique is what you can still see in my painting. A 'dead paint layer' (flat colour), laying out the base colours, that is then gradually worked up with shading, highlights and glazings for the main subject, but virtually left in dead paint for the background (aerial perspective) Prime example: the Mona Lisa.


But if you're happy with the Sheppard technique, then keep doing it!