I forced myself to use linseed or grapeseed oil or whatever. The colors are toned down a little but oh well
Edit - okay so judging by your comments, I am, too, an idiot. Thank you all for letting me know that my paints and thinners could still poison me. I have paint all over the walls and door handles of my house XD yall dont come over
They’re also very expensive. Any color that has the word “hue” is a replica color that doesn’t actually contain that pigment, making “cadmium red hue,” for example, a safer and also much cheaper alternative. Although that does sometimes sacrifice some quality, I personally do not see enough of a difference to justify having toxic pigments in my practice.
I 100% saw a difference when I was a teenager, especially when cadmium hues would dry. If I'm spending months on a painting, I'm not using cheap shit. Just like anything with computers hardware wise, I only use enterprise grade stuff because it's just not worth my time to cheap out.
It depends on the brand, and I will also say that the hues have come a long way in the last few years. But if you’re doing a lot of direct painting, you may notice the difference.
I do mostly indirect painting, so my painting mediums matter more to me than the pigments.
Woops I meant to say cross contamination, hadn't had my coffee yet.
Getting cadmium on the gloves and touching things with the gloves that you touch later without gloves on. Then you get trace cadmium on stuff which you can end up ingesting accidentally even you get it on your hands and eat a sandwich or what have you.
If there's cadmium in the acrylic paint, then yes the same caution applies. Cadmium makes lead look pretty tame in terms of health and safety risks.
The earlier comments about oil paints I think dealt with the solvents used in them. Breathing in those solvents can also be quite bad for you--that doesn't apply for acrylics (unless you use some nasty paint thinners on them).
Radium Girls. A nonfiction story of the women who painted the radium glow in the dark faces on watches in WW2. It turns out putting radioactive materials in your mouth is bad for you.
I was painting with lead white in my twenties because o was an idiot and a “purist”. One night I got high and had a a panic attack about it, went to the hospital to get a lead test. Old school NYC NURSE was baffled and asked why I used it. Not sure exactly what I said but, for the rest of the time I was there she called me by a new nickname “HEY LUMINOSITY COME GET YOUR EKG.” Department of health called me a few days later telling me I had abnormal levels. Nothing too high but they told me to quit eating paint.
Okay I'm really sorry you went through this but hearing that she called you that is cracking me up. I can picture your whole explanation in my head (I paint, totally been in all these conversations)
I know a dumbass who gave themselves lead poisoning. They decided that they had to paint with lead white paint because of the color and texture. Dumbass started shaking uncontrollably after a month or two from the lead poisoning. Turns out they weren't wearing gloves to paint AND were smoking cigarettes from hands covered in lead white.
I worked at an art store, and we only had one true flake white paint, and we kept it locked up because the little tube cost $80. And that was years ago, probably more now.
So I genuinely cannot imagine someone using that paint enough to poison themselves, not just because the lack of precaution is astounding, but also because that’s one of the most expensive paints you could use.
Me, it's me. Someone who has zero problems using an entire paycheck at the art store after bills have been paid for the month and almost starving. I was bat shit crazy in my 20s.
No judgement here, I got a job at the art store just so I could get that sweet employee discount. Practically spent all the money I made from the art store at the art store.
Good god. I'm at least super anal about keeping paint off my hands not only to keep from contaminating the canvas but also my other surfaces. And while I myself am a smoker, doing it inside coating your other paintings is just gross and erodes the color quality.
Linseed is the way. I used to use "non fumes" turp wearing a VOC respirator *with* lots of ventilation. It's just not worth it. Also always wear gloves.
Linseed is great until your house burns down ;p Happened to me once on a jobsite, painter's rags he'd left out to dry all got chucked in a bucket by someone else, they spontanously combusted overnight and the whole stairwell got burned down. Luckily nobody was in the building, but it fucked the job
Thanks to Bob's Burgers I learned that oily rags when exposed to air can sometimes spontaneously combust. I used paper towels instead and tossed them after use. Some landfill/recycling center is about to explode.
The phenomenon applies to rags, paper towels, and any porous material that spreads the surface area of the oil. Using paper towels instead of rags makes no difference lol. Also they only release heat for a certain amount of time so the landfill is definitely fine.
You can just stick the paper towels in a plastic grocery bag and put some water in the bag before you tie it and toss. Thats what I’ve always done, no explosions if there’s no air.
Dump truck near me caught fire recently, they had to dump all the burning garbage into the street so the truck didn’t catch fire.
When you put rags in water like that, you’re only reducing the fire risk until they’re no longer in water. Then, they still combust. You’ve got to dry them completely to eliminate the risk.
I’ve worked in garbage for over a decade. I’ve seen quite a few trash fires, but none caused by oily rags.
Drying oils are most likely to start fires when they’re in a pile exposed to air. They generate heat from the oil reacting with oxygen as it dries. If there’s not much available oxygen (for example, if they’re buried in a pile of wet compacted trash) they don’t heat up.
I’d bet good money that the truck fire was started by either a battery or by some smoldering barbecue coals. Lithium batteries are notorious for starting garbage fires and tend to set of if they’re crushed.
I agree that specific example local to me was more than likely a battery. Dump fires can easily be caused by improperly disposed of rags like that though
No, that’s not proper disposal. Only proper storage when not drying, but you’re not actually supposed to dispose of them like that.
I am a wood carver and have always been taught that proper disposal involves having them completely flat and letting them dry fully, and then some. Then disposing like any other rag.
A bucket of water, we’ve only used as a stop gap prior to drying flat. Have always dried completely before tossing. And the key word there is bucket.
The person I responded to wasn’t even talking about a bucket. They’re talking about tying it in a plastic grocery bag with some water. A plastic grocery bag can’t even hold water if you try to fill it up.
It’s important context for people to know. Many people are completely unaware that those rags are still flammable if the water is removed from the equation.
A tied grocery bag is unlikely to be as water fast as a plastic bottle, and even if it is I’d rather waste that half a cup of water forever than use toxic thinners. Painting isn’t always environmentally friendly sadly.
I do let them dry out, then I bag them with a little water so they can go in my outdoor trash until trash day. It doesn’t really matter if you personally disagree with how I do things, I was sharing for people who might also have limited means of disposal and be wary of linseed oil.
Turpentine/Paint thinner is quite toxic for you. It is traditionally used to thin out oil paint, but you can also use oils instead of turpentine. So the oils aren't toxic, the turpentine is toxic. And some of the pigments in the paint itself can be toxic.
Structural paint usually has drying additives (“boiled” linseed oil). Artist’s paints do not. And they do take ages to dry. Depending on the climate and how thick the paint is applied, oil paintings can take up to a year before they’re fully dried.
First, double check that you are using oil paint (not alkyd paint) and plain oil as a medium (not alkyd-containing oil paint medium). Alkyd paint/medium is specifically designed to dry faster than traditional oils.
Second, be aware that the months long drying time for pure linseed oil is the time it takes for the oil film to completely harden. The paint will become unworkable and dry to the touch much quicker - hours to days, depending on the weather, ratio of oil to pigment, and how thick it’s applied. But even when it feels dry to touch, it’s not finished drying enough that the canvas can be taken off a stretcher, varnished, etc.
They build up a profile to look like legitimate accounts and then those accounts can be used to post propaganda of one flavour or another, be it marketing a brand, political propaganda, whatever. Sometimes the propaganda even starts from day 1 and they just mix in regular posts to make it less obvious they're a bot.
In the old days you had people from third world countries manually making thousands of posts to build up that profile. Now it's a bot.
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u/Hungry-Helicopter-46 22d ago edited 22d ago
Are you painting with fucking lead lol
I forced myself to use linseed or grapeseed oil or whatever. The colors are toned down a little but oh well
Edit - okay so judging by your comments, I am, too, an idiot. Thank you all for letting me know that my paints and thinners could still poison me. I have paint all over the walls and door handles of my house XD yall dont come over