What brand of Water Soluble Oils do you use?

What brand/s do you normally use? Or have you been painting with regular oils, and just use ws for the class?

Callie wrote:

What brand/s do you normally use? Or have you been painting with regular oils, and just use ws for the class?

Hi Callie

I'm not sure if you were asking me or not but I normally, since early last fall anyway, use Artisans. Before that Goldens and about 15 years ago I was using whatever was on sale at the Campus book store. I took a couple of painting classes as an undergrad and while I loved painting with oils the turps etc. gave me debilitating migranes so I switched to acrylics.

My primary medium of choice is natural dyes that's my area of actual expertise and that is what I've focused on the last 15 years or so. I'm now incorporating my natural dyed fabrics, fibers, etc., into my mixed media pieces, I also work in Encaustic.

In August I was asked if I'd be interested in teaching a beginning oils class and was told about the water soluble oils so I bought some Artisans at Hobby Lobby and have been painting like a fiend ever since.

kbaxterpackwood wrote:

In August I was asked if I'd be interested in teaching a beginning oils class and was told about the water soluble oils so I bought some Artisans at Hobby Lobby and have been painting like a fiend ever since.

Hi, I just wanted to welcome you to the forum. I'm glad you are enjoying the WS Oils so much.

I just sent you a Private message (PM) with a copy of the most recent Newsletter from the forum. If you look across the top menu, you will see an option "You have xxx new messages". click on that and you can receive your mail.

Welcome again,

Judy

judyfilarecki wrote:

kbaxterpackwood wrote:

In August I was asked if I'd be interested in teaching a beginning oils class and was told about the water soluble oils so I bought some Artisans at Hobby Lobby and have been painting like a fiend ever since.

Hi, I just wanted to welcome you to the forum. I'm glad you are enjoying the WS Oils so much.

Welcome again,

Judy

Thank you for the welcome Judy

Kimberly

Sorry about the confusion, Kimberly. Yes, I was asking you - I'm always nosy about what materials/methods others are using. It seems quite a few artists have come to ws oils after having used some other medium.
Looking forward to seeing your work, and please check out the "Water Mixable Mix-Up" topic if you'd like to show some of your mixed media pieces, or discuss non ws oil techniques.

Hi Kimberly! I've added Reeves to the poll. I did even know that Reeves had a line of Water Soluble Oils.

Janet wrote:

Hi Kimberly! I've added Reeves to the poll. I did even know that Reeves had a line of Water Soluble Oils.

Is it possible to check more than one type of brand on the poll? I didn't know they made a water soluble either until a week or so ago, talk about a suprise when the center told me that that's what they bought for my students to use.

I've been making samples since the colors are way different than Artisans, Reeves colors are something along the lines of flesh, pink, yellow, and then some of the standard paint colors like cad red, ultramarine blue. It's a strange palette, the white is "mixing white" whatever that is, I'm used to having just Titanium white on my palette.

So yes I'm glad I found out about this and am having time to work with the product and discover any bugs/isms it may have.

Kimberly

I think mixing white is more like zinc white, which you can use a lot more of than titanium white without turning your colours into pastels.

Kimberly, the poll is set up so you can check more than one type of brand.

Tried using primarily Lukas Berlin for painting for my last two paintings and finding them too oily. Back to a full palette of Holbein Duo Aqua.

A very helpful and interesting book is "Brushwork Essentials", by Mark Christopher Weber. After reading this book I switched from traditional oils to water solubles. He helped me to understand about the best ws paints and which brushes he thinks are best. According to him, the Holbein Duo is a professional paint whereas the Artisan is the student grade.

I have the Brushwork Essentials as well and really like it. I prefer the Holbein but I think the brand is more about what people prefer in handling properties. I've seen many fantastic paintings created with the different brands of Water Soluble Oils. I'm still not sure what makes a brand artist grade or not or how exactly it affects the final results but I would be more concerned with lightfastness. I think pigment load is important but only to the degree where it would be noticeable and I haven't seen any major differences from brand to brand.

And I have not personally had the experience myself to compare.

I've tried every brand except for the Weber and Van Gogh. I few things that I discovered for me is stick to one brand because the difference in the way they handle throws me off.

Susan, no matter which brand you choose. I know you'll do great!

Can anyone tell me anything about Lukas WS paints? I love Holbein Duo, but I am wondering how Lukas compares. That's not a Bob Ross paint is it? Are they student or artist grade?

Janet mentioned using Lukas in the beginning of this topic.

Quote :

I use the Holbein Duo Aqua and Lukas Berlin. I find that they're
very creamy and appear to react better to the addition of water then
some of the other brands. I use 1/2 water and 1/2 linseed oil as my
medium so that's important to me.

She is usually not available over the weekend, but I'm sure she'll get back to you with more information shortly.

Judy

A bit of info from the below site -
http://www.heinzjordan.com/oil_paints.htm

Quote :

Lukas
BERLIN Water Mixable Oil Colour
(Professional Quality)Lukas BERLIN contains only selected
pigments of highest possible ligthfastness in their class. Only pure, modified linseed and sunflower oils in "pharma quality" are used as binders. To enable the mixability with water without influencing the other characteristics of the oil colour like drying time, lightfastnesses and brilliance, Lukas has developed a special procedure of modifying oils that guarantees a nearly water-free and water-resistant (colour) film structure. Lukas BERLIN dries like a real oil colour completely. That makes Lukas BERLIN a real alternative
to traditional oils for the casual and professional painter.
Available in 24 colours in 37 ml and 350 ml tubes.

They are very soft/creamy.

Based on their price, the Lukas Berlin paints are probably student grade, although there is nothing fundamentally wrong with using student grade materials. The basic difference is less pigment in the tube. The Berlin's also do not have real cadmiums, cobalts or cerulean or viridian - using hues instead. Here is a link to a Lukas PDF:

http://www.lukas.eu/WEB_GB/Broschueren/Leaflets/WERB2049_Berlin_GB_Internet.pdf

Don

Thank you all for your helpful links and comments.

Hi Susan! The Lukas Berlin are my second favorite brand of WSOs. As Callie said their not as stiff as the Holbein and I find that you can use water with them just like the Holbein without having problems with them getting sitcky. They work well mixed with the Holbein. I prefer a stiffer paint so when I use the Lukas Berlin it's usually for the thinner darks but I work Alla Prima a lot.

Thanks. I was turned off with WS oil when I first started because of that stickiness. Now that I use the walnut oil I don't experience that at all anymore.
I was able to ask Mark Christopher Weber what he thought and he said:

"Several years ago I bought only one
tube of Lukas
water soluble oils just to try it out. I haven't seen them advertized
for a few
years so assumed they were no longer available. The little I remember
much about
the paint is that it mixed well with water, and I think I recall that
the color load wasn't as good as I was used to with Holbein Duo, but I
think I
recall that Lukas Berlin oils had better body than Winsor Newton Artisan

watersoluble oils. If price is an issue, then Lukas is probably worth a
serious
try."

The price is super good on Jerry's Artarama for them! The only thing is that they do have alot of "hue" paint and I won't use that, but I have made a mental note that I will try Lukas at some point probably.

Hope you all have had a nice weekend, and thanks again for all your comments.

Thank you for sharing your reply from Mark Christopher Weber!

susanms wrote:

Thanks. I was turned off with WS oil when I first started because of that stickiness.

Just curious about what brand you used. It seems to me (although I could be mistaken) that most "stickiness" comments that I have read (on another site) have to do with W&N Artisans. I use water with the Grumbacher Max and have never had any stickiness issues. Just recently I tried the Holbeins with no problems. I am just wondering if the stickiness issue - which many folks who ridicule WMOs use as their argument - is really an issue with any of the other brands. The way the Max and the Holbein handle is indistinguishable from traditional oils, in my opinion.

Don

I used traditional oils but switched to WS's (Holbein Duo) because of not wanting to deal with toxic fumes. I used Artisan Stand oil or Holbein Linseed specifically for WS paint. I didn't like the drag and build up on the painting when I used those. I was not used to that, and the solvents seemed to be causing the stickiness - not the water. I don't like to use much water because of the flatness. Anyway - the problem is now solved for me in using a little water at first and then as I continue to layer and paint I use walnut oil as needed, and there is not anything for me to complain about anymore. I'm a happy painter!

Does anyone here get on Facebook? Jerry's Artarama, found on there, is offering a nice brush set with a $40 purchase of paint. When I check out I see that Lukas Berlin is on sale for $2.99 for a 37ml tube and $7.99 for the 200ml tube. Not bad! For that low price I think I'll take a chance! I love Holbein Duo, but it really is more expensive. If Lukas is truly a professional grade paint I'll be happy. I tried an Artisan yellow and the pigment load was really awful. I don't buy "hue" anymore. Lukas has alot of "hue" paints, so I'm not getting any of them, but they have alot of others too. We'll see! The sale ends today, but their prices remain very low on Lukas Berlin WS's anyway.