Thanks a lot for this article. I’m just about to start painting with oil and am very excited. However, i am doing it in a small room in my home. I’m going to open the window and also use a face mask because i’m using cadmiums and am a bit nervous. Is that enough for ventilation?

My other question is that i’m going to be using Refined Linseed Oil as a medium. I understand about rags, but will anything else possibly combust? Such as the painting itself? Or brushes? Or left out paints (i plan to cover the palette up w/ plastic wrap to re-use them later.) I think you said it wouldn’t unless in a trash can, etc. Maybe these are stupid questions but i would rather not put my family or myself at risk and am trying to take all the necessary safety precautions w/out freaking out so much that i don’t paint at all….thanks in advance!!

Best,
Heather

Thanks for the fast reply. I have read more about oil-painting without using any solvent and I had bought linseed oil and purified poppy oil too, hoping that I can avoid turpentines as much as possible. Im sure that there is advantage of using solvent but I guess starting without solvent is not that bad either. I just wanna have fun doing oil painting!

Cheers!

So long as you have good ventilation, I don’t see why not. Some people are sensitive to the smell of drying oils; if you get headaches or other symptoms, you might need to change your approach.

Thanks!

Thanks for the useful info.

Ammonia helps keep the acrylic polymers fluid, and formaldehyde is used a a preservative (water based emulsions can make happy homes for bacteria/mold…even if plastic based).

As to why water based “latex” house paints smell more, its mainly because you end up using so much more to cover huge surface areas. There are some extra things in the acrylic paint for houses (mainly anti-fungal additives) which may also contribute.

If you get a good layer of artist acrylics on a big canvas, you will certainly notice the smell then. Not quite the same odor as house paint, but similar.

I agree that if you have trouble maintaining consistent studio safety habits, you should be extra careful in deciding which materials you will work with.

I’m afraid that I don’t know much about latex house paint. There a number of ways to make “acrylic” paints, so one type is not necessarily comparable to another.

Thank you for the helpful information about painting without solvents using linseed oil. I am going to try this and experiment with egg tempera under-painting. I am trying to piece your advice together with other research on pigments. I guess the main question for myself is, how much risk do you want to take and how careful can you trust yourself to be? (I sometimes forget which cup has coffee and which one has watercolor water!) It is very bewildering to read about the toxicity of pigments, and then read their health labeling which sometimes claims “non-toxic.” What pigments are used by crayola and in poster paints for children? Do high quality water colors use the same chemical pigments as oil paint?
I am also a house-painter and have recently been doing a lot of web research on the safety of paints, acrylic emulsions and VOCs and all that. It is really bewildering because obviously some VOCs are fine and occur naturally, and some are not. I have yet to discover what exactly is hazardous about acrylic polymer emulsion even though I know it is (I don’t always feel good after painting all day…). My question about acrylics is this: commerical paints smell bad (VOCs) and are environmental hazards; Why do artists’ acrylics have no odor? Are they made without the harmful chemicals? Do they also have VOCs or are they just toxic by ingestion? Thanks.

Bethany

You're right. We're just going to disagree on this one.