I enjoy painting with oils. They’re my favorite of the painting mediums, by far, though I actually use acrylics more often, since they dry faster and work better for the abstract style I’ve been painting in recently. Another major drawback with oil paints is the solvents necessary for thinning and clean up. When I was in college, that wasn’t a big issue since I mostly painted in the art building. But once I graduated I no longer had a separate space for painting. I didn’t want the solvents and their fumes I my apartment!

For a while, I tried working with acrylics and with water colors, but I just didn’t enjoy them as much. I really dislike working in watercolor, for some reason. I have very few watercolor pieces floating around out there, though there are a few. Eventually, I broke down and got a small set of water-mixable oil paints to try out.

I didn’t have very high expectations, I admit, but I was pleasantly surprised. They worked well enough, though the color range was a little limited in the brand I was using. I started with Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Mixable Oil Colors, since it was readily available in the major arts and crafts stores like Michaels and JoAnn’s. I’ve since found some other brands and have expanded the range of colors I have on hand. I’m definitely not loyal to one brand over another—I have quite a mix of brands in my box of paints!

I love that they still smell like oil paints—I love that linseed oil smell. But what I Really love is that I can clean up with soap and water. No harsh, unhealthy solvents needed. You can thin them to an extent with water, though I typically don’t unless I’m applying a thin color wash over the canvas to tone down the bright white color before I start painting. I don’t like the texture of the paints when they’re thinned with water so I typically use linseed oil to thin them if needed. Definitely make sure you’re using one of the linseed oils that are specifically made for water-mixable oil paints though.

I haven’t tried out too many of the mediums that go with the water-mixable oils. I use the linseed oil, certainly and I’ve tried the Winsor and Newton Fast Drying Medium (I HATED it, by the way. It’s like thick, sticky honey and made the paints impossible for me to work with. You may have a different experience though, so give it a try if you’re interested). I’m not really much of a medium user with oil paints. Acrylics, on the other hand…

I’ve also noticed that some brands work better in different colors—like, brand X has better blues but brand Y has better reds. I’ll try to do a post sometime soon comparing some of the colors from different brands. Some brands also have a texture I like better than another brand. Again, this tends to vary a bit by color. For instance, I really dislike the texture of Winsor and Newton’s Titanium White. I’m still trying whites from other brands, but so far the Lucas Berlin white is working well for me.

Some people don’t like that some of the pigments used in water-mixable oils tend to be considered lower or student-grade pigments. Not that the quality is bad; quite the opposite, in my experience. But they typically use ‘hues’ like cadmium red hue, instead of true cadmium red. Granted, I’d rather not use cadmium-based paints anyway. All in all, I’ll take the safer, non-toxic version, thanks!

I haven’t been able to find out how exactly the paints have been modified so that water can be used with them. I’m a bit of nerd, so that would be super interesting information to me! Mostly I just find a one sentence explanation about how the oil has been “modified” to be compatible with water. Not nearly enough information to satisfy me. I want to know details! Chemical structures, that sort of thing. Granted, I might be the only one who wants to know that level of detail…

The manufacturers claim that once the water has evaporated off, which happens very quickly, the paints cure and age just like traditional oil paints. I haven’t noticed any difference in the traditional oil versus water-mixable oil paintings I’ve done, but I don’t have any really long term data—my traditional oil paintings are only about 20 years or so old and the water-mixable oil ones are even younger. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

Overall, I really like water-mixable oil paints. They’re safer and easier to clean up than traditional oils paints. I have no problem using them inside my home and they still have that ‘oil paint’ smell. There’s a bit of variation between brands as far as the colors and the textures, so some experimentation is necessary to find your ideal paints. I’d also like more technical details about the paints and how they were modified. I suppose that might be proprietary information; I don’t know.

Have you tried water-mixable oils? What did you think? Do you like them? What do you see as their strengths and weaknesses? If you haven’t tried them, why not?

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