Product Article: Artisan - The Artist-Friendly Oil Colour

In the world of art materials, the modern day artist thinks in the general terms of oil colour, water colour and acrylics.  But when it comes to water-mixable oils, there are still some artists who have yet to be convinced about its benefits as hesitation occurs around the idea of successfully mixing oil with water.

The history of oil & water in painting

Historically colours containing oil and water have in fact existed since prehistoric times. For example, Egg Tempera is an oil in water emulsion and egg tempera mixed with oil colour has been in use by artists for 500 years.  No one seems to mention this! 

More recently drying oils were added to casein (milk based) paints to improve water resistance and the first US paint patent was issued in 1865 and covered a paint containing milk, resin and linseed oil. Oils gradually became the major component and the paints became oil emulsions rather than casein paints. 

Oils were later replaced by alkyds for more rapid drying. Such paints were used at the 1938 New York World Fair and the San Francisco Golden Gate Exposition. Since the late 1950’s emulsified linseed oil house paints (for use with water) have been marketed and only declined with the introduction of synthetic polymer emulsions such as vinyls and acrylics, known as household emulsion.

Why paint with water mixable oils?

Artisan (Winsor & Newton’s range of water mixable oils) is particularly good for:

• Oil painters who are sensitive to, or simply want to avoid exposure to solvents such as white spirit (mineral spirits) or turpentine.
• Students and teachers in schools and colleges where the use of oil colour is prohibited because of the solvents.
• Artists working in shared studio space where the build up of solvent levels could lead to a harmful concentration of vapours and a generally an unpleasant odour.
• Artists who work within a small home environment and wish to reduce the odour of oil painting.
• For travel, all Artisan products (Colour & Mediums) can be transported on aeroplanes (subject to the agreement of the airline).

Understanding the difference between 'Water Soluble' vs. 'Water Mixable' for an oil colour

Firstly there is a misconception that Artisan is soluble in water – it is not.  Linseed oil is not soluble in water and never will be. In a water soluble system the binder is dissolved in water and the paint remains water sensitive.  Once the water evaporates a continuous film binds the pigment to the support.  The closest product for the artist in this category would be Artists’ Water Colour.
 

• Artisan is not a water-dispersible coating, as there is no water present. Such systems contain water soluble components to stabilise the suspended binder. Such paints which include acrylic emulsions contain water soluble components which remain in the dried film, this is not continuous and remains to a certain extent permeable.  Artists’ Acrylics are in this category.  
  
  
• Artisan colours are strictly speaking water-reducible, the colour in the tube contains no water, the water is added by the artist. Water reducible paints contain conventional solvent reducible components, such as linseed oil, but the presence of components which are compatible with both water and oil enable them to be thinned with water.  The result with Artisan is a colour which looks and appears like traditional oils but as it uses water is inevitably compared to water based paints.

• It’s important to stress that there is no water in the tube colour, simply water mixable linseed oil.  The binder has been modified to accept water.  The modified vehicle (linseed oil and/or safflower oil) allows the colour to accept water and retain all of the other characteristics of conventional oil colour.
  
  
• Artisan is not a water colour or an emulsion and as a consequence it does not tolerate large quantities of water such as would be used in a water colour wash.  Instead it must be thinned carefully and cautiously, mixing thoroughly each addition. Excessive amounts of water will cause the colour to break up on the palette.  It’s also worth bearing in mind that it is similarly not advisable to excessively thin conventional oil colour with solvents.  Although the observed effect may not be as apparent, overthinning the paint film will still have a considerable affect on the stability of the paint film. 
   

Why Artisan should be complemented with its own mediums

As water is added some colours will lighten in tone.  This is due to an emulsion being formed.  The colour will return to its original hue as the water evaporates. This colour change is reduced by the use of mediums in addition to water.  The colour remains wet and workable after the evaporation of the water, like a conventional oil colour.

To avoid this issue Artisan can be thinned with Artisan Thinner. This can be use as you would use a solvent, such as turps, during your painting session. It has a more oily feel to it when compared to water alone and will not lighten any of the colours in the Artisan range.

Artisan like any conventional oil paint dries by oxidation and paintings in this medium may take a little longer to dry initially than conventional oils, as the solvent may evaporate more quickly in the latter.  However, in the medium to long term Artisan paintings appear to dry in the same way as conventional ones. As with conventional oils, depending on the pigments, different colours will dry at different speeds. We can expect Artisan to take between 2-12 days to become touch dry. 

Using Artisan Water Mixable Fast Drying Medium will speed up the drying of the colour by approximately 50%.

The slow drying rate of oils and Artisan gives time for components like water to evaporate.  By controlling the evaporation rate through formulation it is possible to prevent film formation occurring before the water has evaporated so that it does not become trapped in the film.  The components which aid the water mixibility are also volatile so they also do not remain in the film.  All Artisan colours have been tested from the tube with and without the addition of each of the mediums, with and without water and at different thicknesses. Samples have been painted out on canvas and examined over several years without any indication that water had been trapped in the film. Samples with and without water show no differences in film behaviour.
 

Using Artisan with conventional oil mediums

Artisan can be mixed with conventional oil colours and conventional mediums, however it is important to consider the following factors:

• If using conventional mediums, the resultant mixture will be progressively less water mixable.
  
• When layering colour, i.e. an Artisan layer underneath or on top of a conventional oil colour layer, this can be done, although we would not recommend it, as you may create problems by mixing two media.  This particularly applies if you are using Artisan underneath conventional oil colour. For example if using a lot of water, the water could get trapped in the film if it is not given enough time to evaporate.  We would therefore advise that you do not mix the colours in this way.
  
• Choosing Mediums can become a problem for each type of colour if you want to make sure that you are keeping to the 'fat over lean' rule.  

Artisan has its own seven specially formulated mediums: 

Artisan Water Mixable Linseed Oil –reduces the consistency and improves flow of Artisan oil colours.  It also increases gloss and transparency.

Artisan Water Mixable Safflower Oil –reduces the consistency and improves flow of Artisan oil colours.  It also increases gloss and transparency. It lighter than the Linseed Oil so is good to use with white and light colour such as pale blues. It does however dry slower than the Linseed Oil.

Artisan Thinner - It also provides a more oily consistency which is preferred by some painters and as it does not form an emulsion wth the colour there is less colour change than there would be when using water.
Thinner can be combined with Artisan oils to make your own mediums. To ensure that you avoid over thinning the colour, Thinners should be combined with any Artisan medium for very dilute uses.

Artisan Water Mixable Fast Drying Medium – This is a fast drying medium which improves the flow and speeds the drying of the oil colours, smoothes brushwork and increases gloss and transparency.  It is excellent for glazing and producing fine detail and is resistant to yellowing.  It speeds the drying by about 50%.

Artisan Water Mixable Painting Medium – This medium thins the consistency of Artisan oil colours and aids fine detail work.  It also improves the flow and wetting of the colour.  It dries slowly to a flexible film and is good for “oiling out”.  Oiling out is the application of an oil medium to a painting which has sunk, or lost its oil layer to the layer underneath.

Artisan Water Mixable Stand Oil – The flow and levelling of Artisan oil colours is improved by using Stand Oil.  It is excellent for glazing and producing fine detail as it smooths brushwork.  Stand Oil is slow drying.

Artisan Water Mixable Impasto Medium – This is an impasto and texturing medium for use with Artisan oil colours.  Mix thoroughly into the colour, and for thick impasto, build up the texture in several layers allowing each layer to dry first.  This medium speeds the drying of the colours by about 50%.

Many conventional oil painters mix linseed oil and solvent together whilst painting with conventional oils. You can add water to Artisan Linseed Oil or Stand Oil to make your own mediums.  However, we have found in our tests that the specially formulated Artisan Painting Medium and Fast Drying Medium out perform mixtures of oil and water. 

As Artisan is an oil colour the ‘fat over lean’ or ‘flexible over less flexible’ rule applies when painting in more than one layer.  This means you should always have a little more oil or medium in each subsequent layer.  This may be by reducing solvent (water) or increasing medium.

Priming for Artisan Water Mixable Oil Colour

As Artisan is an oil colour, you need to prime the surface of your support before you begin painting to avoid the oil colour sinking into the support.

As water has a higher surface tension than conventional solvents, this can make wetting of some surfaces more difficult. Acrylic primed canvases are probably therefore more suitable for Artisan than oil or alkyd primers.  We would recommend a ready primed Artists’ quality canvas or alternatively if you want to prepare and prime your own canvas you can use Winsor & Newton Acrylic Gesso Primer which will provide you with a white ground.  If you would prefer a clear or coloured ground you can use Clear Gesso Base which can be used alone or tinted with acrylic colour.

Varnishing Water Mixable Oil Colour

There is also a full range of three varnishes and varnish remover along with a complete range of brushes to complement the Artisan range.

In summary the main benefit to the artist is that you use water as your solvent instead of turpentine or white spirit (mineral spirits) to clean up and thin your colour when painting.  Thanks to our expert chemists, Artisan handles like a genuine oil colour, just using water instead and Artisan mediums ensure all oil colour techniques can be achieved.