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All posts by: Elena Test

Paint pigment powder
In: Pigments

Pigment Guide: Mineral, Synthetic, Organic, Inorganic – What All These Mean?

Once, I had a conversation about paints while was doing demo for artists. I mentioned that pigments used in a brand that I was showing had natural and synthetic, as well as organic and inorganic pigments. And when I said “organic” there were 2 opposite reaction among some artists. One was saying “Never buy organic pigments as they have low lightfastness”, while the other exclaimed that “Organic pigments are a great thing as they are natural, pure and safe”. Needless to say that none of the statements is true. 

When we talk about pigments, not dyes, generally we have two big groups: natural and synthetic (man-made).

Natural pigments

And when we say “natural” debates and misunderstanding begin. The phrase “natural pigment” has two meanings. The first one goes to origin of a pigment and literally refers to substances that are derived from natural sources, such as minerals, plants and insects. In other words, natural pigments can be devided into mineral pigments and biological pigments. 

Mineral pigments are the best ones use in terms of their application and archival properties. Earth pigments, such as ochres, umbers, iron oxides are my favourite. They are high in chroma, go inside any binder seamlessly, non-toxic, and provide the highest lightfastness. Although differently treated earth pigments can vary in colour from yellow through red to deep black, providing different transparency index, they don’t have intense yellow, red or blue colours in their arsenal.

And here we go to cadmiums and cobalts, mineral pigments with very strong colours. However, the beauty has its price: cadmiums and cobalts are quite toxic to work with and also a way of extracting and producing of the pigments not always ethical (child labour may be involved). That was a reason, why we, RUSART, are not using cadmiums and cobalts in our paints, with the only exception to turquoise blue that comes from France and from responsible vendors.

On top of all these, cadmiums and cobalts are quite expensive. Some manufactures introduce safer minerals as pigments (we will also do that in 2023). This solves a problem with colour and safety, but not with prices.

Biological pigments is the right term to describe natural pigments derived from plants or animal cells. When used in paints, these pigments will have a N index. For example, NO6 is Natural Orange 6 and stands for Henna, and NB1 is Natural Blue 1, which is Indigo. Plant-based pigments are still in the market, but normally have low lightfastness and mostly replaced by manufactured pigments in paint industry.

The most famous pigment that comes from animals is NY20 – Indian Yellow. It was made from urine of cows that were fed with mango leaves. This pigment is a history now as not allowed anymore and all Indian yellow colours are just hues. Many other biological pigments that are not plant-based got prohibited or restricted for paint-manufacturing.

Synthetic pigments 

Synthetic pigments are man-made and more and more paints are made of them. The most famous ones are ultramarine, phthalo blue and green, hanza yellow, naphthol reds, quinacridones etc. 

Organic and inorganic refers to chemistry and have nothing with “organic food”. Organic pigments contain carbon and hydrogen, while inorganic pigments do not deal with carbon-based substances. 

I personally don’t like organic pigments as they need to have something to stick to to become a true pigment. That’s why they are very popular in paint-making industries now as only a little bit of pigment is needed to create a strong by appearance colours, and all the rest (70-95%) can be just a filler. That’s why RUSART is in search of true pigments that can go with binder without fillers. Our concept of filler-free paints is incompatible with most of organic pigments. For now, we’re mixing them with inorganic pigments to achieve our goals and keep experimenting. 

Inorganic synthetic pigments are very pleasant to work with. They work like natural mineral pigments and provide smooth results without fillers added. These pigments include Ultramarine (PB29), Prussian Blue (PB27) and others. 

We’re still working on our paint formulas that allow us avoid fillers and provide better and genuine experience of colour. 

Oil Paint Fillers
In: Manufacturing

Oil Paint Fillers

What do you really need to know is that oil paints have a lot of fillers. It’s not possible to make thick paints without them, especially for some synthetic pigments (see other articles). Also, some mineral pigments due to their weight separate in oil paints and some agents needed to prevent this (read Why Oil Paints Separate? article).

The main reason why manufactures use fillers is increasing paint’s volume and reducing costs to maximize profits. For example, student grade paints may contain just 3 or 5 percent of pigment by volume (information taken from safety data sheets, when such details were disclosed). However, it is possible to make paints without fillers and achieve richest chroma. 

Anyways, let’s take a look at fillers and what they do as well as how to recognize them in your paints. 

Barium Sulfate (PW21)

And the champion here is Barium Sulfate (PW21). It’s one of the cheapest (10-25 times cheaper than pigments) and most efficient fillers as it increases opacity and adds some weight to a tube making it feel as if it has higher pigment load. Barium Sulfate is a white crystalline odourless solid, naturally occurring as the mineral barite. It’s insoluble in water, so it is safe to use. However, poorly made synthetic Barium Sulfate may have free soluble barium compounds as impurities that are very poisonous. Most paint have synthetic barium sulfate as a filler.

Aluminium Hydroxide (PW24)

For synthetic pigments Aluminium Hydroxide (PW24) is a very common filler. Sometimes it’s not even considered as a filler for such pigments as phthalocyanine blue or green, pyrrole red, and other synthetic pigments that are super strong and need a base. 

Chalk (PW18)

Chalk (PW18) is also a very common filler here. However, this group is very broad that goes from actual chalk to marble dust. Marble dust brings viscosity to oil paints. As its oil absorption is very low (just 10 g per 100 g) it’s added a lot as a thickener and stabilizer.

Kaolin (PW19)

Kaolin, or PW19, is another common filler that is used a lot in oil paints, especially for titanium white and ultramarines. Chemically speaking, Kaolin is Aluminum Silicate Hydroxide, and more practically it’s just a clay. It has a lot of applications in different areas, including cosmetics. Most face masks, for example, have kaolin as a base. For art supplies, gouache paints as well as pastel, primers etc. may include kaoline as well. Generally, it’s a very safe ingredient, but doesn’t add any value to paints, mostly just increasing the volume of paints.

How to choose right canvas
In: Practice

How to choose right canvas for your goals – Part I (Canvas)

When you paint on canvas, the canvas itself is the first thing to take care of. There is no one best canvas for all the goals as all they have different properties and price, but you can always choose something that fits your goals and budget. 

First of all, canvas itself as a fabric. Here we have different options: linen, cotton, polyester and different blends.

Choice here is not straight forward, as always, but generally speaking, the thicker the fabric the more weight it can hold, meaning the more paint and medium you can apply without risk of deformation.

Polyester canvas – when to use?

Polyester or cotton-polyester blends are the cheapest options that you can find even in dollar stores. They are very thin and usually have bigger gaps between threads leading in quality loss. Polyester is technically plastic and can’t absorb anything, meaning sizing and primer may not get a proper binding with the fabric. On top of that this canvas is usually very fragile and rips off easily. So, this kind of canvas is a good choice for children’s paintings, playing with paints or doing exercises and practicing some fast techniques. This kind of canvas is not working for any painting that you want to keep for a longer time.

Cotton or linen canvas?

Cotton and linen canvasses normally is a good choice for professional paintings, provided canvas is thick and properly treated before and after stretching. We’ll talk about that in separate topics. Generally speaking, we’re looking for thick canvas preferably with double thread. That’s something you can check on the back of the canvas (see the pic.).

Double-thread canvas is kind of weaving where one or two threads are doubled. For painting the best option when longitudinal thread is thick and single and weft thread is thin and double. This kind of weaving provides the strongest support, is thick and have smallest gaps between the threads. 

Normally linen canvas is thicker than cotton one, and that’s why more expensive. Not all artists can afford painting on linen. But it’s also not always necessary.

If you’re painting in layering techniques and not using heavy paints, a proper-quality cotton canvas is a very good choice. However, for heavy impasto painting linen canvas will provide a better solution as it’s stronger and more durable.

How to choose right canvasFine grained or coarse grained canvas?

There is no one universal recipe here either. Choice of texture depends on your techniques. If you’re working in fine layering and glazing techniques, the smoother the surface the better. Especially that’s very important for portrait painting. So, fine grain and even extra priming would be the right option here.  

For impasto techniques as well as working the involves different pastes, and textures as well as for palette knife painting coarser surface will fit better. The smooth finish is incapable to hold a large amount of paint.

Although, many mediums now can be applied on canvas, we’ll take a closer look at acrylic and oil paint application as the most traditional ones nowadays.

Choosing canvas for acrylic painting

Acrylic paint is quite universal and easy-going, so most of the canvas will work well for acrylic. Choose the material, finish, size and priming that fits your goals for this or that particular painting and enjoy your creative process. Acrylic forms one non-separable layer with primer on canvas, which makes painting process seamless.

Choosing canvas for oil painting

Oil is the most complex medium and requires more skills, knowledge and experience. Here the way how the canvas was treated and primed matters a lot. We’ll have a separate article on this matter too, but for now let’s assume that the canvas is well sized and primed.

Here we have two different kinds of primers that can be used: acrylic or oil. Acrylic primer is universal and can be used for both acrylic and oil. However, to create a better binding with canvas and to prolong the life of finished oil painting (increase time of polymerization) in this case we’d suggest to start the first layer with underpainting that will create a shield between canvas and your actual paintwork.

Acrylic primer normally contains a lot of chalk inside, which is very porous and “drains” oil from painting layer. To prevent this we should create a layer that links acrylic and oil. It should be a painting layer containing  gums inside, that “seals” the pores and crates the perfect adhesion for oil paints.

However, based on my experience, the best primer for oil paints is oil primer. As oil priming doesn’t work for acrylic and also takes much longer time for canvas preparation at manufacturers’ side, less and less of them offer this option. Oil primed canvas has a lot of misuse that also forces manufacturers stop making them.

Oil primed canvas should be treated as an oil painting that is standing alone for a long time. That means if you choose oil primed canvas, treat it with retouching medium first for a proper adhesion.

That’s a very basic information regarding choosing canvas for your painting. In Part II we’ll pay attention to other aspects of canvas, such as support for it. You’ll get answers on the following questions: What is the difference in use of stretched canvas and canvas on board? How do proper stretchers look like?

(c) RUSART

Why oil paints separate
In: Paints

Why oil paints separate?

Most oil paints separate and there are many reasons for that, good and not really. There are few myths around it, that I (Elena Nahum Leroy) am going to start with. I’m working with oil paints as an artist, tester, seller and manufacturer, so I have a good chance to get full oil paints experience from different sides.

Myths about oil paint separation

Myth: Oil paints separate because they are old

Truth: Separation in some oil paints can start as soon as in a few days after they are made. 

 

Myth: Oil paints separate because pigment is heavy and it sinks to the bottom of the tubes

Truth: It’s partially true. Some mineral pigments such as titanium dioxide, cobalts etc. are really heavy and it’s a challenge to keep them “floating” in the oil without “sinking”. However, in a modern paint technologies a lot of pigments are manufactured and in fact much lighter than oil and separation still happens there. 

And now, real reasons…

 

Oil paint separation from deep inside

Oil is a quite complicated medium. I’d say it’s the most sophisticated art medium that I’ve ever used and tried. Apart from most of other mediums, painting in oil requires knowledge of chemistry and painting technologies to succeed. History knows so many examples of oil paintings made even by great and famous artists that were ruined with time because of wrong application. We’ll talk about that too, in other articles. Now, back to the point.

Generally speaking, oil paints have binder (oil), pigments (natural or synthetic), most likely will have fillers, and may have gums, solvent, beeswax or other additives. And separation can be caused by reaction between any of these components. So, even at this point it’s clear that everything is much more complicated than it seemed before. We’ll cover just most common (not all) reasons for separation in oil paints.

Wrong pigment/binder proportion

If you mix pigment with oil that wouldn’t be enough to create good oil paints, because the pigment is not connected to oil yet. We need to apply pressure and physically bind pigment and oil together with a muller (hand-processed) or a roller machine (industrial method). Some pigments require 5 or even 8 cycles to bind with oil properly. And here we have the first reason of separation.

Different pigments have different oil absorption rate. For example, titanium white takes up to 30 g of oil for every 100 g of pigment, while pyrrole red absorbs up to 70 g for every 100 g of pigment. That’s their normal absorption rates. 

However, even the same pigment may have different grit for a reason (read about that in our special topics). And finer pigments require more oil to fill gaps between finer particles to create proper binding and make paints look and feel smooth and even. But absorption rate remains the same, it’s chemistry. So, in fact we have to add more oil than needed and then we have to remove this extra oil. Else, extra oil will separate from the paint with time.

Why oil paints separatePoor grinding

Another very common reason for oil separation is poor grinding. Different pigments require different number of grinding and milling cycles and even if oil-to-pigment proportion is observed well, insufficient time of grinding may cause quite fast separation.

Weight of pigments

Some pigments are much heavier than oil. These include titanium dioxide, cadmiums, cobalts and some mineral pigments extracted from semi-precious stones, such as lapis lazuli or amethyst. With no fillers added they will separate naturally and this doesn’t mean the paints are bad. However, to create a better look, these pigments will be most likely “diluted” with fillers to create smoother consistency that, when properly done, will technically prevent separation.

Why oil paints separateFillers

However ,the leadership in separation causes belongs to fillers. Oil naturally makes colours look brighter that creates a temptation to add a paste, colour it and sell as a tube of oil paints. This temptation goes stronger, when legislation doesn’t  to disclose the full list of ingredients. As a result, some paints (student grade) have just 3-5% pigment load, for example. 

Barium Sulfate is most popular filler for oil paints due to its low cost and physical properties. First of all, it’s very heavy, which makes it the perfect adulterant for oil paints. Due to its weight Barium Sulfate make tubes feel heavier simulating a high pigment load. Also, its oil absorption rate is just 11, meaning for 100g of the powder we’ll need just 11 g of oil to create a good mixture. So, added to synthetic pigments Barium Sulfate will take extra oil and make oil paints look thicker, imitating higher pigment concentration. That’s another thing that buyers love – thick paints.

However, this trick also have a flip side. Barium Sulfate is very heavy and settles down dragging pigment with it and causes separation. 

So, there could be many reasons why oil paints separate and separation is not always a sign of old or poorly made paints. Test paints, compare them and choose the right ones that work better for your goals. Price here is not always the main indicator.

Featured Artist - Almira
In: Artists

Featured Artist: Almira Baimuratova

Almira became our artist in 2016, when she moved to BC. Since then she is purchasing Decola paints for her textile art projects and supports RUSART in social media.

Almira was born and raised in Almaty, Kazakhstan where she attended Almaty University with major in Batik technique. She graduated in 1999 and got her Bachelor of Arts Degree.

After graduation, Almira began teaching art classes, which included Batik technique, as well as oil and watercolour painting. Also, she actively participated in several group and solo art exhibitions where her art was showcased.

Batik art by AlmiraIn 2007 Almira moved to Toronto, ON, where she continued teaching private lessons, creating and exhibiting her artworks.

In 2014 Almira moved to Edmonton, AB and began successfully hosting paint parties. Shortly later Almira moved to BC, being drawn by Vancouver’s natural beauty, where she has been living since then. Almira never stopped painting, teaching and hosting paint parties.

Almira’s speciality is Batik technique (painting on fabric with melted wax, Decola and Javana paints). Following her the advice of her first year university art teacher Olga Batini, PhD in Arts, Almira focused on painting on textiles, including Batik.

Stylization with a focus on depicting nature in a decorative way has always appealed to Almira. “Using bright, vibrant colors and contrast in my artworks to communicate happiness, I believe, is my ultimate goal” – that what Almira is saying about her art path.

Although she visualizes her pictures before even beginning painting, Almira enjoys playing with lines, tones and effects to give each piece an original, spontaneous quality. Whether it’s a sketch, oil painting or batik, Almira finds the process just as fulfilling as the finished piece.

Painting in textile by Almira BaimuratovaWeb-site: https://almiraartist.com/

 

least toxic art medium
In: Paints

Interesting Facts About Art Materials

Which medium has the highest pigment load? 

If we are talking about professional grade art supplies where the maximum pigment load achieved, soft pastels will be champions. It doesn’t mean that all pastels have higher pigment concentration, but, assuming zero fillers used, it is so. 

Technically, pastel will have pigment and binder, dried to their optimal stage. That means little pigment particles glued together. The softer the pastel the less “glue” is inside and the higher pigment used.

Some artists even use top-grade pastel to make their own watercolours or fresco paints: pigment load in pastels can achieve more than 97%.

The second place would belong to watercolours, that’s why volume-wise professional watercolours are so expensive. Pigment load here can be as high as 92% by volume.

Then goes oil with 88%, and then acrylic, gouache and other paints and mediums go.

What is the least toxic medium to use?

Generally speaking the safest medium to use is watercolour. Provided they contain no formaldehyde or other harsh chemicals as preservatives (read our article about how watercolours are made) or no cadmium or cobalts as pigments watercolour’s binder has mostly food grade ingredients: such as arabic gum, honey, glycerin, dextrin and corn starch. 

Then casein paints go and the third place belongs to artist-grade solvent-free and alkyd-medium free oil paints. 

Oil pastels or oil sticks are quite safe to use, but they may require solvents for spreading that can be very toxic.

What about acrylic paints, most of them contain ammonia and/or solvent to improve spreading quality. Even though acrylic paints are easy to use and clean, working with them should be performed in a well-ventilated area.

Soft pastels are one of the worst mediums to use, because of the dust. Most mineral pigments can be quite toxic when go to your lungs. Especially those that contain cobalts and cadmiums as well as oxides of heavy metals (titanium, zinc, iron, chromium etc.). Also, artists tend to hold crayons as well as smudge pastel drawings with fingers that create direct contact of pigments and skin. All artist-grade pigments are very fine and can penetrate inside the body through the skin.

Which medium is the oldest one?

The oldest medium seems to be charcoal that we can observe in cave paintings dated back 45,500 years. 

Although watercolour-like paintings were found in southwestern France, dated back to 15,000 BC to 9,000 BC, watercolours that we know require paper as support and arabic gum as a binder. Papyrus was invented in Egypt about 3000 BC, while gum Arabic (or gum acacia) can be traced back to about 2650 BC, when it started to be used in the preparation of inks, watercolors and dyes.

Milk-based casein paints has been used since ancient Egyptian times, roughly 5-6 thousands years ago. They apparently didn’t last long and couldn’t be used in commercial manufacturing. In 1930’s  a new water-based casein paint was developed with the use of synthetic rubber and styrene. 

Painting on wood brought egg tempera to the world. The great Byzantine tradition of tempera painting was developed in Italy in the 13-14th centuries by Giotto. Famous icons were painted in Europe and Russia using egg-tempera. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was replaced by oil. 

Oil paints created absolutely a new era in painting and brought us Jan van Eyck, Leonardo, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and many-many other great artists. However, Europeans were not the first who used oil as painting medium. Caves in Afghanistan, near the Bamiyan buddhas which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, contained even earlier oil paintings, dated to around 650 AD.

zinc white pigment use
In: Pigments

Pigment Guide: Zinc White (PW4)

Colour Index: PW4

Colour Constitution Number: CI 77947

Although Zinc white was known as a pigment since 1782 (more than hundred years before titanium white was discovered), it wasn’t widely used in oil painting until mid-19th century. There were many reasons for that.

First of all, zinc white is not as opaque as its predecessor lead white. Also, it has longer drying time than lead white as it absorbs 1.5 times more oil than lead white.

What is zinc white?

Technically, zinc white is zinc oxide (ZnO). As it’s insoluble in water zinc white is widely used in many industries, beyond paint-manufacturing:

  • cosmetics 
  • food and supplements
  • ointments
  • batteries
  • fire retardants

We are quite sure that you used since white beyond painting, like with baby rash creams or ointments, as well as in mineral sunscreens.

Common names for zinc white

As any other pigment, zinc oxide can be found under different names, and the most common of them is Chinese white. We use mostly Chinese zinc white in watercolour painting as white colour for highlights, and in mixes when we want to add some opacity or make flesh tones.

However, now we can see tendencies of using titanium white even for watercolours, because of lower costs as well as increasing volumes of titanium white manufacturing. Also, gum Arabic titanium white gouache provides better coverage and allows adding stronger white splashes and highlights in watercolour paintings.

Other names of zinc white include:

  • Blanc de Zinc
  • Chinese White
  • Mixing White
  • Permanent White
  • Snow White
  • Transparent Mixing White

Concerns of using zinc white

There are 2 major concerns in using zinc white: environment safety and drawbacks using in oil.

Although zinc white is considered to be non-toxic, you should dispose products containing zinc oxide properly as when drained directly to waters or soils it can be toxic for aquatic eco-systems and environment.

What about using zinc white in oil, some studies show that using plain zinc white may lead to cracking of painting layer. However, if it’s used in mixes with most other pigments, cracking caused by zinc oxide is not proven. That’s one of the reasons why manufactures add zinc white into titanium white for their basic whites. Zinc white provides shorter drying time and smoother consistency, while titanium oxide brings opacity and permanence.

Zinc White Use

We’d suggest using zinc white for watercolour for flesh tones, but for stronger white lines we’d suggest using white from paper or titanium white gouache.

For oil – add some zinc white to achieve soft mixing effect in darker colours as well as for glazing as titanium white gives more haze and spreads less evenly in fine layers.

For acrylic we don’t see any benefits of using zinc white. As normally acrylic emulsion / dispersion takes less pigment than oil or watercolour, even titanium white is not opaque enough for many uses. So, zinc white is kind of expensive filler for acrylic.

Elena Senatorova Featured artist at RUSART
In: Artists

Featured Artist: Elena Senatorova

Meet our featured artist –  Elena Senatorova. She came to RUSART in early 2020, right before the pandemic. Being very familiar with our brands, Elena became a frequent customer and supporter of our small business.

That’s how she describes herself in arts. “In my artwork, the most important to me is to capture the first feelings and emotions, the taste and flavour of a moment with the object. That is how I paint, never losing sight of that vision.”

How everything started

Oi lpIaintig by Elena Senatorova featured artistElena Senatorova was born in Moscow, Russia, but very soon, her family moved to live in Beijing, China, where she grew up. Elena graduated from Beijing Language & Culture University with a Bachelor of Arts and Chinese language, and from Moscow Pedagogical State University with a Bachelor of History. She got married and moved to Canada, worked in fields not related to art. However, a very tragic event in her family changed the whole course of her life.

As a result, she quitted her job and started a path of becoming a professional visual artist. “I was evaluating my life and realized that I wasn’t happy with my carrier. I needed to find the path, which will fulfill my soul again and bring the worthiness and meaning back into my life… The Universe heard me – I started to see human faces of different ages and gender when I closed my eyes… it felt quite weird until I realized what I was supposed to do – I signed up for the introductory course in oils at West Vancouver Community Center.” That was in 2015.

Elena’s Art Journey

Elena Senatorova Featured artist at RUSARTSince then, Elena is constantly working on her skills and abilities to capture on canvas the day-by-day experiences and transformations from nature scenes to human faces. Her main medium is oil.

She prefers to work from life, saying “photographic images do not do the justice of the colors and values, plus what is really valuable for me is to capture the first impression of the object, scene, or moment, and that unique connection I have with it. Capture all the above and show it to the viewer. “

What about art vision, Elena chose the self-directed approach with her studies. She is constantly reading numerous publications of professional artists, magazines, blogs, websites, and social media. She took personal and online workshops with the leading artists from Canada, USA, and Russia – Deborah Tilby, Alan Wylie, Maria Josenhans, Justin O’Gilvie & Steve Williams from Canvas Method, Martinho Isidoro Correia from Angels Academy of Arts Florence, Domenique Medici, Daniel J Keys, Michelle Dunaway, Kathy Anderson, Joshua LaRock, Zhaoming Wu, Anton Levin & Nikita Mogilevtsev from Russian Academy of Fine Arts and many more.

Also, she attended the summer school at Angels Academy of Arts in Florence. To learn many different techniques, she studied classical method of painting by executing master copies of William A. Bouguereau, Caravaggio, John Singer Sargent, I. Kramskoi, Claude Monet, Van Gogh, etc.

As an artist who loves working from life, she attends live model sessions, constantly paints outdoors – En Plein Air.

Elena Senatorova Featured artist at RUSARTWhere to find Elena’s works

Please visit Elena’s website – http://www.elenasenatorova.com to view her works.

Follow this featured artist on Instagram @Senatorovaart or on FB to see the day-by-day work and life of the artist.

Titanium White PW6 pigment
In: Pigments

Pigment Guide: Titanium White (PW6)

Let’s take a closer look at pigments that we’re using and what properties they have and how they affect your paintings. 

Colour Index: PW6

Colour Constitution Number: CI 77891

Food colour index: E171

Titanium White As Pigment

Titanium white is one of the most used colours in acrylic and oil as we use it for mixing colours, as is and as a colour extender for some colours. The pigment itself looks like a brilliant white powder that due to its heavy weight and other characteristics reminds extra fine feta cheese by appearance. 

Chemically speaking, it’s just titanium dioxide (TiO2). Mixed with oil or acrylic gives pure opaque white colour with slightly cold undertone. Titanium dioxide has remarkable optical properties, with a very high refractive index close to that of diamond.

White colour is one of the most essential colours in oil and acrylic painting as artists use it a lot for mixing most of the time. An average painting contains over 60% of white, that’s why the right white colour choice is very important.

Titanium White History

Titanium white is quite new type of pigment, compared to many other historical colours, like ochres or umbers. It replaced most other kinds of white only in 1916, when became part of mass production. 

Thanks to titanium white “discovery” oil painting moved from “toxic” medium to a safe one. Before titanium white  was discovered artists widely used lead white that caused mental health and body disease, including cancer. Lead white settles in bones and accumulates with the time,. However, this fact helped historians find Caravaggio’s remains.

Just reminding you a short story of this great artist, who influenced Velazquez, Rembrandt and other famous artists and masters. Entered Rome in his 18-19, he apprenticed some artists, changing them quite fast, learning new things. Sometimes in 7-8 years he started his own career. With a good luck and great talent, Caravaggio worked for some of the most important patrons of the day, including Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani, Cardinal Scipione Borghese and the banker Ottavio Costa. They commissioned a lot paintings and promoted Caravaggio as an artist.

How all these related to lead white? Being a genius artist, Caravaggio had a very unstable temper. Some researchers relate this to lead white exposure. So, after many smaller violent incidents where Caravaggio was involved, it happened that he killed a man during a street fight. He got arrested and as punishment he had leave Rome for good. 

Caravaggio and lead whiteCaravaggio moved from one place to another across Italy, begging pardon and a chance to return to Rome. Eventually, he got granted this right in exchange of all the paintings he ever done. A deal is a deal. But then for some reason (was it just a bad luck accident or a planned action – nobody knows), a ship with all his paintings left to Rome before Caravaggio boarded. So he got stuck in Port’Ercole. After that moment his life and death was a mystery.  And here lead white helped find Caravaggio’s body. In 2010 body remains were identified as Caravaggio’s based on time, locale and lead concentration in bones.

And now, back to titanium white – it was such a relief for painters when a better and safer white was discovered. In oils titanium white is pretty stubborn, when you try to make paint from it. It forms very tacky and heavy clamps that not easy to bring to a smooth paste consistency. That’s why manufacturers often mix titanium white with zinc white or some fillers. And here another story begins…

Titanium White Additives

There are no legal requirements to indicate the full list of ingredients on a label. That’s why titanium white can have many other filling agents inside that may even make a tube feel heavier. So, Titanium white may include:

  • PW3 Basic Lead Sulphate White
  • PW4 Zinc Oxide White
  • PW7 Zinc Sulphide White
  • PW10 Barium Carbonate
  • PW18 Marble Dust or a lower grade chalk composition
  • PW19 Kaolin
  • PW21 Barium Sulfate

Titanium White Manufacturing and Toxicity

What about toxicity, titanium white as is in paints is non-toxic. Its stability caused a very wide range of use beyond art materials. Only 28% of titanium dioxide is used for paints, 10% used for plastic, and about 6% for bleaching paper. The rest 56% belong to other industries, such as food, sun screens, other cosmetics (toothpastes) and other. Ingested, TiO2 has been identified as possibly carcinogenic, but this doesn’t stop manufacturers from using it in food.

Where titanium dioxide is coming from? It’s extracted and processed from natural minerals, either ilmenite, rutile or titanium slag. Titanium pigment is extracted by using either sulphuric acid or chlorine. The rutile contains up to 95% of TiO2, while ilmenite has only 45-60%.

What about the main manufacturers, here market belongs to China. About 2.3 million metric tonnes a year is produced there. That also explains why Chinese paints go much cheaper than ones made in other countries. The second place belongs to South Africa with about 1 million metric tonnes produced. Canada takes the fourth place here (680 thousands) and the USA produces just 100 thousands metric tonnes a year.

Titanium White Properties

And now, finally, practical use. Titanium white is opaque, which is very beneficial when you’re working with light tints or when mixing colours that require great coverage. Some manufactures add titanium white to yellow colours to increase their coverage properties, as well as to many other mixes.

Titanium white also makes wonderful greys and many other tints. Lightfastness is excellent.

Drying time in oil depends on many factors, but generally speaking it dries moderate slowly. Titanium White works well with most oil mediums, containing gums, petroleum products or turpentines. The dry film is thick and flexible, without tendency to cracking.

(c) RUSART

How To Read Paint Labels
In: Paints

How To Read Paint Labels

That’s very important to know what you’re buying and some information about your paints is available on labels:

  • paint name
  • grade
  • pigment used
  • binder
  • lightfastness
  • transparency
  • safety note

Paint name

Although there are many common names for paints we used to see around, there is no standard on how to name a colour. The spectrum contains millions of colours and all they can be named differently. 

Some manufacturers use traditional and most common names, such as cadmium red medium, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue etc. These names stand for pigments used and it’s easy to understand what is inside the tube.

Some names can be unique due to marketing goals or multiple pigment used. For example, Australian Grey or Australian Leaf Light by Art Spectrum or Portland Grays by Gamblin or Raw Umber Leningrad by Nevskaya Palitra. 

Also, the same pigment treated differently can provide a wide verity of hues, shades and transparency level. One of champions in that is PY42 Iron Oxide Yellow ,which has about 100 different names.

Paint grade

Paint grade is also a very questionable category as there is no standards of marking paints student or artist grade. For RUSART, we split paints into 4 categories: children, student, artist and professional. Most manufactures offer 2 categories: student and artist grade.

The main difference in paint grading is pigment load, quality of pigments used as well as fillers and mediums added.

  1. Children grade. We have a special article about art supplies for children. Generally speaking, the main criterium here is safety. Pigments used here are non-toxic and must have certain certification and labelling. Normally we talk about watercolours here and they contain a lot of dextrin (sugar) and starch instead of more expensive components.
  2. Student grade. Safety is not the main criteria here. Usually these paints lower budget for everyday use and practice. Pigment load normally lays between 3 and 20%. All the rest are fillers and binders. Cobalts and cadmiums are normally hues here, which means not real. Although professional artists prefer to use higher quality brands, student paints are still very helpful for underpainting and sketching due to there lower price.
  3. Artist and professional grade. That’s the main target for professional artists. Binders and pigment load vary, but most paints still contain fillers. If earlier information on pigment load was available in safety data sheets, for now it’s hard to find real numbers. According to our experience, pigment load in artist grade paints is between 15-70%. We will talk about pigment load in a special article.

Pigment used

One of the most important information for colour choice. Paint tube will indicate colour index (CI) that stands for chemical characteristics of pigment used. CI will start with N or P. ’N’ stands for ‘Natural’ and ‘P’ stands for ‘Pigment’. Then a colour identification comes: 

  • Y – Yellow
  • W – White
  • B – Blue
  • Br – Brown
  • Bl – Black
  • R – Red
  • V – violet
  • G – green
  • O – Orange

Index doesn’t show exactly the colour or a colour wheel. For example, PR101 is rather red-brown than bright red or PY42 is ochre but still refers to yellow colours.

Then index itself comes. It’s just a number. You can check pigment index names and their technical characteristics here >>

Transparency

This normally has 3 categories: transparent, semi-transparent and opaque. Usually manufacturers include a symbol – a square. If the square is empty the paint is transparent, if it’s half-filled – semitransparent and if the square is black the paint refers to opaque category.

Lightfastness

Nowadays that term is getting replaced with weather resistance, meaning how much paint will change its colours with time under different conditions: exposure to light, UV, moisture, temperature etc.

Safety note

Working with some pigments may involve some risks. For example, cadmiums and cobalts are known to contribute into cancer development. Emerald green (PG21) is extremely toxic and poisonous. Once used as a rat poison and to preserve wood. It was called a trendy color that killed many in victorian society. 

Some other pigments, such as zinc white, can be harmful for environment and are not supposed to be disposed into water or soil. Paints intended for sale in the USA should have safety warning for such pigments. In Canada paints may or may not contain such warnings.

And some other things that you should keep in mind:

  1. Not all ingredients used in paints will be on the label
  2. Term ‘acrylic emulsion’ or ‘acrylic dispersion’ combines many chemical ingredients, including ammonia and solvents and these ingredients will not be listed separately
  3. Oil paints may contain lead or barium sulphate fillers that will not be shown on the labels either
  4. Manufacturing date is normally absent on paint labels

As you can see, labels can give a lot of information on what’s inside. However, some very important things can be still omitted.

Solopreneur story
In: News

RUSART Story on Go Solo Subkit

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Elena Nahum Leroy, owner of RUSART, located in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada.

What’s your business, and who are your customers?

RUSART is a small art supplies business, family-owned and operated in Canada. We’re not a franchise company with millions of dollars of investments, but we share and contribute much more than any other art studio. We support programs for children in need with our art materials, children with neurodiversity, and art student groups.

And with our professional art supplies, we sponsor professional art associations, art events, and educational programs. Our concept of including art supplies in our shop is different. We’re focused on small business support and “fair trade”, so we’re purchasing art materials from vendors that may not be well-known in Canada. But have a good reputation on local markets and better quality at a price.

As we’re sure that painting should be non-toxic, we’re working on our own RUSART NATURALS product line – paints and mediums for professionals, free from harsh chemicals and fillers. In this product line, we’re implementing new standards of quality, where a full list of ingredients is disclosed. Our customers are professional and emerging artists and art students who appreciate quality art supplies and are open to trying brands beyond overpriced popular brands.

Tell us about yourself

I was born and spent most of my life in St. Petersburg, Russia – a city of artists, beautiful architecture, ballet, music, and other forms of arts. My family was practical, so I had no chance to be exposed to painting or piano, as I really desired, till my 20’s. Instead, I got a Master’s Degree in finances and built a successful career in the investment area. However, in 2004 I started learning academic drawing and painting, and my life turned into MY way.

So, in 2009, when I moved to Canada and settled in Vancouver, I decided to quit finances and devote myself to the arts. That’s how I opened my art studio. It’s never enough when you’re in arts, so I tried and learned almost all mediums in 2D arts, explored jewelry-making, fresco, restoration, hot enameling in jewelry, and many other things. My interests in chemistry and science brought me to a stage when I started formulating my own art supplies.

What’s your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I made a business that I dreamed about: arts with the flexibility to be a mom and spend time with family. This fine balance is the most important part of life, and thanks to my business, it’s achieved.

What’s one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

I think that’s as for most online small businesses – shipping costs. Buyers expect you to be Amazon and ship for free, even a tiny thing, but in fact, every parcel, ever the smallest one, costs us more than $10 to send (the cheapest option with Canada Post). So, lower shipping rates for small packages would be a great thing to have.

What are the top tips you’d give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Before starting, make a good study, especially legal questions. You can’t change them, but they change your business. Be consistent. Only COVID and wars change the world instantly. Everything constructive needs time. Everything is changing, and your business will so never stop learning.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

A lot of people will try to stop you from doing business simply because you’re different. You’ll get huge support from your friends if you decide to take a $50K loan to buy a car but may get zero support if you decide to take a $10K loan to develop your business. So, be brave and follow your own path.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://rusart.ca/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RusartFineArts
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rusart.fine.arts/

Read in on SUBKIT >>

RUSART Naturals Profesional watercolours
In: Manufacturing

What is special about RUSART Naturals handmade watercolours?

RUSART Naturals professional handmade watercolours are a result of years of research and development as well as continuous testing, formulas improvement and working with professional artists.

What is inside watercolours?

A full overview what watercolours are made with you can find in this article: Watercolours – What’s Inside? Let’s stop on the main ingredients that make watercolour genuine and quality.

Generally speaking any watercolour would have the following components:

  • pigments – to colour your artwork
  • binder – to glue pigment powder together and adhere the solution to your paper
  • fillers – to increase the visible volume of paint sold
  • plasticizer – to increase elasticity of a paint and film
  • humidifiers – to prevent paint from over-drying
  • preservatives – to prevent mold growth
  • additives to enhance colours or achieve any other specific goals.

The best paints have more pigment, right amount of binder, plasticizer, humidifiers, and preservatives. These ingredients are essential for any watercolours. Lower grade paints may look the same, but they will have more fillers, tints instead of pigments or low-quality pigments. More information about pigments you can also find in our Knowledge Base.

What is special about RUSART Naturals watercolours?

We released our first watercolours in Sep 2020. More colours are coming up as soon as testing process is finished. And for now we’re happy to offer our soft, semi-dry watercolours for professional artists.

  • High-quality pigments. Most pigments in RUSART watercolours are mineral, tested with time by generation of artists. With technical progress some pigments get replaced with synthetic ones (like it happened to ultramarine, for example) and we have them too. We’re also testing our own pigment manufacturing that coming up in 2022-2023.
  • We buy pigments from responsible vendors, so no children or unfair labour was involved. This ethical problem exists for some pigments sourced from Africa (mostly red and blue cadmiums) and China.
  • For our watercolour paints we use only natural ingredients: water, arabic gum, pure glycerin, natural BC honey and essential oils. No formaldehydes or other harsh chemicals.
  • RUSART watercolours have absolutely zero fillers. We’re not cheating our clients and don’t increase volume of paints to make you pay more fore the less amount of paints. Some paints look softer than expected as they require the amount of binder added and particles don’t bind together with less amount of binder. We didn’t add any fillers to make appearance better. Instead, we’re working on adding other pigments that help us achieve our goal. Every next batch will look better and better.
  • Maximum pigment volume concentration: 50-90%. Some pigments take more binder, while the others take less. We let pigment take as much binder as it needs for the best performance.
  • Our binder is also different. As we’re a small manufacturer we can control every little step. We create arabic gum varnish at certain temperature and certain conditions. Usually bigger manufacturers just dissolve gum arabic with water.

Other benefits of RUSART watercolours for artists

  • We make our paints in small batches, so you’re always buying fresh
  • Each RUSART Naturals watercolour jar contains 5ml of paints. Normal size of a full pan is 2.5 ml.
  • Our watercolours are portioned in convenient little pots with twist caps that keep watercolours moist and clean.
  • Made by an artist, Elena Nahum Leroy, for artists
  • Made in Canada, from mostly local raw materials. Buying from us, you’re supporting 10+ more Canadian small businesses. 
  • We’re working on reducing plastic in our packagings, as we did for many other our products.

 

In: News

Watercolours – What’s Inside?

Watercolour paints have much longer history than oil and, of course, acrylics. It appeared in China in the 2nd century AD, when paper was invented, because no paper no watercolour painting.

As any paint watercolours consist of pigment, binders and other ingredients. Let’s take a closer look at them.

Pigments for watercolours

Although pigments are kind of universal for many kinds of paints, not all of them work well for watercolours. 

Normally, mineral pigments bind well with Arabic gum (watercolour binder), but most synthetic pigments require special attention. Synthetic pigments, such as phthalo blue and green, naphthols,  quinacridones, hanza, pyrrole, benzimidazolone and others tend to be finer than their mineral cousins. With water added these pigments form lumps that very hard to break into a smooth paste. That’s why manufacturers have to add more fillers and extenders to create a reliable homogeneous paste. 

Also, most synthetic pigments need a base to stick to and it’s not that easy to find information what was used as a base for a certain paint. That’s why performance may differ from brand to brand.

More information about different kinds of pigments and their use we’ll post in our News and Article section.

Watercolour Binder

Arabic gum is a traditional binder for watercolours. It’s a natural gum made from sap of certain kinds of acacia trees. Those trees are harvested in Sudan and throughout the Sahel, from Senegal to Somalia.

Arabic gum is a very safe ingredient and has a broad use in food industries. For example, bakers add it as a thickener to icing, fillings as well as to soft gums and candy. For RUSART Naturals watercolours, we buy food grade arabic gum to make sure it’s pure.

Some people think that honey is another kind of binder used for watercolours. That’s not true. Honey is a never-drying agent so watercolours based on honey will remain sticky and never form a smooth film. 

However, some manufacturers do ass honey in watercolours to keep paints moist and soft. Here we come – humectants.

Humectants and Plasticizers for Watercolours

Watercolour pains based on Arabic gum only will get dry within quite short time. They will look like a piece of chalk that’s hard to use. To keep paints soft (even for watercolours in pans), we have to add humectants, such as honey, glycerine, methyl cellulose, or corn syrup. 

These agents prevent paints from excessive dryness and increase flow. 

Preservatives

As you can see, watercolours have a lot of natural ingredients inside that in contact with water may start growing mold. Especially that’s important for watercolours in tubes, that keep moist for longer time. 

To prevent growing mold we need preservatives. Normally, manufacturers use formaldehydes or phenols to keep paints fresh. Another olden way to fight mold is using essential oils. That’s more expensive, but a safer way that we use in our RUSART watercolours.

Fillers in Watercolours

If you think that’s the least important part in the paints, you’re terribly wrong. Yes, for artists fillers is something they’d rather avoid (when possible) to keep colours clear and vibrant. However, pigments are expensive, market is competitive and only specialists or really professional artists will notice a difference. So fillers are technically the main ingredient for most student and artist grade watercolours. Professional watercolours normally have lower level of fillers.

Also, some pigments cannot been used without fillers because they don’t get the right consistence and need a base to for smooth texture. However, for most mineral pigments fillers are not necessary.

Manufactures use many chemicals as fillers. For watercolours the most common ones are dextrin (and other cheap sugars), chalk, clays, barium sulphates. Normally, these ingredients are not listed on the labels.

Oil Painting Essentials how to choose oil painting supplies
In: Practice

Oil Painting Essentials

All oil painters have their own lists of oil painting essentials for everyday work. There are many tools, mediums, brushes and many colours available so it’s very easy to get lost. Especially, for beginners. 

On top of that oil paints are quite expensive and not everyone can afford buying more supplies than really needed. Let’s see what you’ll really need to start and what can wait till a better moment. Below you can find some recommendations based on our practice and experience. It may be different from what other artists think and use as all artists are different and have heir own preferences.

Different techniques require different brands of oil paints

  1. Alla Prima. Technique implying working wet-on-wet and finishing a painting during one approach. Most impressionists and a lot of contemporary artists use this technique. For this technique you need good selection of basic colours, especially reds and yellows. Student grade colours have lower pigment load as well as may have some white inside those colours that can “melt” and provide some muddy look. Your choice should be focused on opaque paints that provide pure colours. So, you’ll need artist and professional brands of oil paints, such as (from our shop) Gamblin, Master Class, Old Holland, Dartecor, Art Spectrum and other brands.
  2. Flat technique doesn’t require too much paint to use and you can make few layers one on top another to enhance the colours. You’ll need to mix colours though, but not in big quantities. So, for underpainting casual brands (Ladoga, Rosa Gallery etc.) would work well, and for top layers – professional ones (MasterClass, Gamblin, Art Spectrum etc.). 
  3. Impasto. Here you’ll need thick paints and probably you’d be interested in saving 🙂 The thickest but still not too expensive brand is Art Spectrum. The other brand with very high viscosity is Old Holland, but it may be too pricey for bulk use. One of the options is using wax-based medium that created texture, but wax has it’s own drawbacks that will be discussed in other articles.
  4. Glazing and multi-layering. Here you need minimum fillers and maximum pigment load, so use professional brands only, such as Old Holland or Dartecor.

Different techniques require different oil colours choice

  1. Old Masters’ techniques imply a lot of glazing and working with transparent, but still intense, colours. They usually used monochrome underpainting in combination of white and earthy colours and then many glazing layers with transparent paints. That’s how their painting shine and make an impression of glass between two realities. So, here you’ll need titanium white, burnt and raw sienna, raw umber, ochres, and transparent yellows (hanza yellow, Indian yellow etc.), reds (alizarin crimson, pyrrole red etc.), blues (ultramarine and maybe some phthalo shades), greens (nicosia green, phthalo green), and earthy kids of mars. 
  2. Landscapes. Opaque colours are important here, so choose red, yellow, and orange cadmiums, oxide chromium for green, blue and turquoise cobalts, titanium white, and a variety of earthy colours. It’s also good to have good purple, such as cadmium purple, for accents and shadows.
  3. Portrait. Your choice will be pretty much the same as the Old Master’s techniques plus some opaque colours, depending on your style.
  4. Still lives and flowers. Bright and opaque colours are must have. You’ll need more kids of yellow (cadmium yellow lemon, medium and deep, Indian yellow, hanza yellow), reds (cadmium red, alizarin crimson, quinacridones), pink and magenta colours (quinacridone rose, magenta, cadmium purple), good blues (ultramarine, phthalo, cobalts), green (chromium oxide, phthalo, cobalt), and purple (ultramarine violet, cadmium purple). You’ll also need titanium white and good selection on earthy colours (yellow and golden ochre, burnt sienna, burnt or raw umber etc.). 
  5. Abstract. Here everything depends on the style, but definitely a lot of titanium white and opaque colours we discussed above.

Different techniques require different brush choice

  1. Impasto. For this technique you’ll need a brush that holds a lot of paint. Natural hog bristle brushes preferably with shorter hair for more controllable application would work the best.
  2. Glazing. Your focus will be soft brushes. Everything depends on particular technique, but most likely you’ll need to have a couple of kolinsky sable brushes in your collection. 
  3. Flat. Synthetic brushes would work best of all. Some of them are softer, while the others stiffer – choose what matches your hands. Hog bristle may be too stiff and kolinsky or squirrel may seem too soft. 

Do I need palette knife?

You may or may not use palette knives for painting, but we still recommend to have one medium size metal palette knife for mixing colours and cleaning your palette or scraping paints from your painting in case of failure.

What kind of palette to choose?

For oil painting you’ll need a flat palette. Everything else is a matter of taste: oval, rectangular, plywood, wooden, glass, plastic, wax paper or foil… Many choices are available now.

Do I need oil mediums?

You’ll definitely need painting oil (linseed or another one depending on properties you want to achieve). All other mediums are extra. Read more about different mediums in our knowledge base.

How to choose support?

We always recommend to begin with primed and stretched canvas for oil painting. However other options are always possible. We’ll explain the difference between different types of canvas and how to choose a good one in our articles.

What is a budget?

It’s possible to make a very small trial set for oil painting under $100, but if you want full size tubes and brushes that last longer, your budget for basic kit will be between $150-200. It can go higher, of course, if you buy top-quality paints and larger size of canvas. For some brands, a brush can cost you $70+ or a tube of paints – $100+ (such as Lapis Lazuli). 

(c) RUSART

Elvira Kravenkova
In: Artists

Featured Artist: Elvira Kravenkova

Elvira Kravenkova (FB: https://www.facebook.com/ekravenkova) became part of RUSART team in 2017 as an art teacher and art instructor of special courses. Now, Elvira is still with us testing our products and helping us improve our formulas.

Elvira’s background

Elvira Kravenkova is a Russian-born Canadian artist, based in BC.

Elvira’s painting style is still influenced by traditions of Russian realism and impressionism; the styles she loves.

In the early 1990s, she started to exhibit her paintings as an emerging artist in Moscow, Russia.

In 1998, Elvira relocated to Canada where she continued her art education with amazing artists and instructors. Learning from Anatoli Badriashvilli (Badri) at his studio and Mandy Boursicot(Classical Realism Atelier) enhanced Elvira’s progress in graphics and painting.

Elvira’s career

Elvira teaches in her studio and was invited to instruct students on fundamentals of drawing and painting and Human Anatomy at private art school in Vancouver.

Since 2013 she is a Member of The Federation of Canadian Artists.

Since September 2013 she became a member of The Vancouver Life Drawing Society.

Elvira started to show her artworks again since 2013. Since then she participated in many Canadian and International shows, including juried shows, where she’s got several International Awards.

Her works are in private collections in Australia, Canada, the USA, Italy and Russia.

You can find Elvira’s works in 33 Contemporary gallery on Artsy  , in Federation of Canadian Artists gallery as well as in Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art (WMOCA), Wausau, WI.


Lean more how to become our featured artist >>

Support Canadian artists
In: News

RUSART is proudly supporting Federation of Canadian Artists

Every year Federation of Canadian Artists offers educational programs for public and RUSART was happy to support artists and their retreat this year.

The Retreat is the Federation of Canadian Artist’s largest educational and social event of the year. Even though 2021 is still a pandemic year, FCA managed to make it happen.

The 2021 Retreat took place at 70 Mile House, British Columbia where we will be residing at the Flying U, Canada’s oldest continually running ranch. Participants experienced some of the most beautiful plein air painting locations Northern BC has to offer!

Support Canadian artists In the company of four Master Instructors (Janice Robertson, Maria Josenhans, Kit Bell and Ann Willsie) artists spent 6 days creating, developing and polishing art skills, while painting en plein air.

All participants received gifts, samples and gift cards from RUSART.

Supporting artists is very important to RUSART and we’re planning to keep working together with FCA, as for many years.

water based paints and water soluble paints
In: Manufacturing

Why water-based paints are not water-based

Now we can see more and more labels saying “water-based paint” or “water-based varnish” or “water-based medium”. In fact, only few kinds of products can be truly called “water-based”. Let’s look inside “water based paints” meaning.

Why company use “water-based” for their labels?

All these comes from the times when acrylic paints started to appear on the art supplies market and when a massive campaign against oil painting began. Wherever possible acrylic paint advocates poured a bucket of dirt on oil painting manufactures claiming that oil paints are toxic, not safe, and acrylic paints are much better, because they are water-based. Then the market was roughly split into “toxic oil-based” products and “safe water-based” ones with the big lie started.

Now manufacturers have many reasons to call more and more products “water-based” because:

  • “water” means natural and “water-based” attracts customers
  • “water-based” is a clear statement and easy to understand
  • labelling paints as “water-based” is a simple way to stay apart from alcohol- and oil-based ones.

Water-based vs water-soluble paints

A true meaning of “water-base” is a mixture or solution of pigment, dye or tint in water. We use these fluids for tinting plaster, paper, gesso or primer and other mediums. You can find tints at our shop too.

Manufacturers also use pigments dissolved in water for fresco painting, where wall plaster serves as a binder. For any other cases we need a binder to “glue” pigment particles together and keep them attached to a support, such as paper, canvas, wood etc. Binder is a base for any paint. So, water based paint meaning is very narrow. And talking about “water-based” paints we should rather say “water soluble” paints.

Water soluble paints include a very wide range of products:

  • watercolours (based on Arabic gum)
  • acrylic paints (based on acrylic dispersion or emulsion )
  • Latex paints (based on acrylic resin)
  • Water-soluble ink (based on acrylic dispersion)
  • Gouache (based on Arabic gum or acrylic dispersion)
  • PVAc tempera paints (based on poly vinyl acetate)
  • Casein paints (based on casein and oil)
  • Finger paints (based on dextrin, starch and other sugar-glue binders)

As you see, a spectrum of “water-based” paints is very wide and it doesn’t always mean “water plus pigment only” pair.

Potential other ingredients for water-soluble paints

Depending on kind of paint and its intent to use paints will have some other components beyond just binder:

  • Fillers – to make a tube look bigger and replace expensive components like pigments
  • Enhancers – to make paints spread easier, enrich colours or achieve other properties, like opacity/transparency, increase viscosity, add gloss or matt finish, reduce or increase drying time and other
  • Preservatives – to prevent mold growing and extend shelf life
  • Humectants – to prevent paints from drying 

And here we can find some harmless components, such as honey, clays, marble dust, corn syrup, starches, dextrin, essential oils, resins, silica, glycerine etc. 

On top of those paints most likely will contain one or more of those: isopropyl alcohol, white spirits, solvents, ammonia, formalin, phthalates, xylene and other.

Always check list of ingredients, especially if work indoors. Manufacture safety data sheets do not disclose all information.

You can read more about different ingredients of paints and how they contribute into your art and your health in our knowledge base. And get updates to your email with our newsletter.

Non-toxic art supplies for children: safety
In: Manufacturing

Art Supplies for Children: Safety First

When we buy art supplies for children, the first thing we think about is safety. With this in mind we search for “nontoxic” labeled on art and craft supplies for children and easily find it! Let’s learn more what this label really means.

What “nontoxic art and craft supplies for children” mean?

All art supplies for children by retailers located in the USA and Canada must undergo through third party tested certification for toxicity. However, term “toxic” is limited by ingredients that cause “adverse chronic health effects” and “acute and/or chronic health hazard”. 

One of the most common organization that certifies products internationally is Art & Creative Materials Institute, Inc. (ACMI). Their certification split products into two categories:

  1. The AP (Approved Product) – art materials that are safe and that are certified by a medical expert to contain no materials in sufficient quantities to be toxic or injurious to people or to cause acute or chronic health problems..
  2. The CL (Cautionary Labeling) Seal – products that are certified to be properly labeled for any known health risks and with information on the safe and proper use of these materials. The CL seal is not allowed on any children’s materials.

Safety labels for art supplies ACMI

Everything sounds very good and if you look at AP label you can safely use it for children, of for yourself. We thought the same way before we realized some other things… We found AP label on paints (especially sets) containing cadmiums, cobalts, ammonia, formalin, ethylene glycol and other chemicals. If paints with some of these chemicals are to be sold in California, they may have special “warning” labelling. 

Where to find more information?

Normally, all art supplies should accompany with Manufacture’s Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), where composition and chemicals have to be disclosed. However, most manufacturers keep a list of ingredients secret and MSDS contain only general information, like “no hazard known”.  

For example, the biggest supplier of children art materials in North America, Crayola, doesn’t show ingredients at all. We even can’t tell what kind of pigments are there and what they use to prevent paints from growing mold. You can find MSDS here: https://www.crayola.ca/about-us/crayola-msds.aspx 

There are many reasons why manufacturers hide ingredients, from literally hiding something to just protecting themselves from competitors. RUSART finds this practice dishonest and as children may use paints and other supplies in many ways, including licking and painting on their skin, knowing a full list of components is very important.

Why knowing ingredients of paints IS important?

Nontoxic is not always nontoxic

First of all, term “toxic” is much broader than standards determine. Even ASTM D-4236, the standard practice of labeling art materials for chronic health hazards, is saying that “1.8 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.” 

That means, even if you see a label “conformed to ASTM D-4236”, you and yourself are in charge of use of the product. That’s your responsibility if something goes wrong.

Misuse can occur

Secondly, all art and craft paints are assumed to be used properly. So, paints – for painting on paper (or other listed support), pencils – for drawing and paper etc. But what if your child accidentally ingests paints? And that’s a very common paint “misuse”.

A lot of paints for children contain dextrin and corn starch as a filler, so paints may taste yummy for them to lick. As a white colour or as a filler companies use titanium or zinc oxides. Titanium oxide is quite safe chemical (read more in our knowledge base), but zinc oxide when ingested may cause some unwanted effects.

Cadmiums and cobalts usually are not an issue for kids paints for economical reasons. These pigments are so expensive, that manufactures would never use them for children.

Hidden chemicals

Another big issue is formalin, which is a very commonly used preservative in paints. In some countries, such as EU and Russia, it’s legally prohibited to use it in paint-manufacturing. But it’s not prohibited to sell paints containing formalin. That’s why, when you buy non-toxic paints from China, no one can guarantee they have no formalin. Similar issue you can find with phthalates.

Allergies

And, what’s very important, that’s even paints come out absolutely non-toxic, they still can cause allergies. And knowing a list of ingredients helps a lot. Paints for children may contain wheat, honey, and other allergens. These ingredients are essential for natural paints but should be avoided with those who has certain allergies.

Conclusion

  • Non-toxic label doesn’t guarantee that a products is really “non-toxic”
  • Check with MSDS
  • Choose art materials that disclose lists of ingredients
  • Stay informed with RUSART Newsletter
John Aitken - how everything started
In: Artists

Meet our supporter: John Aitken

John became RUSART’s customer in 2018, when RUSART shop was much smaller and represented mostly manufacturers from Russia. John was always open to try new products, from artist’s and professional point of view. 

In 2020, during the first COVID-19 lockdown, when all non-essential businesses got closed, Elena, RUSART Owner, started working on oil painting mediums, watercolour paints and oil paint recipes. John was (and still is) one of the main testers of experiments outcomes. His professional feedback, support, and reliable honest advice helped Elena more than a lot.

Elena is very grateful for John’s input and contribution in her product lines development. 

What “Being an Artist” Means for John

Apart from crafts, which should move towards being “perfect”, art at its most basic is “making special”, but not perfect. For John, art is the special that comes with a perverted ways of seeing. 

“I’ve always seen things… in ways others may not. But it’s not just personal catharsis. It’s an intersection that mediates my minds and a viewer. It’s also a compulsion.  The world is awash in art. But I need make my art  to feel like..to cut thru the shit.”

The Science of Arts

Apart many other artists, John came to art from science.  And as such he felt, as he said “humbled by technically gifted maker”. He often felt he was making his stuff to better feel for “real” artists and not presume to be one himself.

And it’s hard these days, as art as an art and art as a business are different. As history shows, good art may not bring any rewards for years or decades. Or it may even never happen. There were and are so many really talented artists whose names we’ve never heard, but they deserve that.  

John joined an artist run centre. “In a hard spot of life finding a home. – he said. – ”Come stay with me..you are one of us” screw galleries, critics. When some says that it resonates always.”

John as an Artist

John made conceptual art, designed furniture, made a lot of photography, sound art, books. He sees that as his retirement fun game of high end business that he affords himself: the Churchill’s aspect of playing with paint, and have the money to explore pigments, think of pigments and history. 

So, for Join painting is not about the results; it’s about The thinking, intent, the doing.

“Most painters fade with age..as I do…but it’s not like singing or playing an instrument…I can fool myself and fake it..without hurting anyone!”

Most artists will fade, but let’s shine today to inspire the others tomorrow! 

In: Artists

Featured Artist: Rose Kamma Morrison

Rose Kamma Morrison is a Canadian BC-based artist with an interesting artists’ path and a very strong personality. Elena, RUSART’s owner, “met” Rose online in 2020, right after COVID-19 pandemic started. Elena made her first samples of paints and Rose responded to volunteer call to test her paints. Since then Rose inspires Elena with her strong personality and uneasy artist’s path.

“My horizon is broader than my tunnel vision.”  – Rose Kamma Morrison

Rose was diagnosed at 16 with Usher’s Syndrome (deaf/blind) has taught her to look, feel and create. She has an interest in all things outdoors.

Rose is happiest when enjoying the experience of running, hiking, rock climbing, swimming, skiing, kayaking and traveling. Living on the West Coast of Canada, the mountains, byways, forest, ocean and lakes have become her playground. When away from these outdoor pursuits, Rose loses herself in the world of her arts, using watercolour, pencil, ink, mix media and photography.

Featured Artist: Rose Kamma Morrison During her school years, Rose took advantage of all art classes becoming familiar with different mediums and later taking art courses at a local College.
 She refused to allow Usher’s Syndrome to define her; she would rather express beauty in her art, this is how she views her world.

Before retiring,  Rose was an Interior Decorator/Paint Consultant.  Her greatest achievement is raising her beautiful daughter, Emily. She is with a wonderful man, Chris Morrison, who is the pillar of her strength and supports her in all things she’s doing.  He taught her all things are possible.  “My love and friend”. –  Rose says.

Rose is always thankful to her mother who refused to believe that she should be in an institution. It is because of her Rose flourished. And because of her dad, Rose has the passion for the outdoors, sports and sense of adventure.  All these people are the reason for who Rose is today.

Featured Artist: Moon Night and Tree Rose MorrisonWith continuing loss of vision it has taught her a lot about grief.  Grieving can be interpreted  in artistic form, however abstract or surreal loss may feel, it is unique to all and all to experience.

You can find Rose’s works on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RTKMorrison/ or on Instagram: @rosetkmo

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