Oil paint printing adventures

[BigmanJames]

Today I am ashamed. Usually I am an eco conscience modernist hippie who prints with water based inks. Today I am a polluting bastard as I printed with oil paints(not inks). I have been printing on canvas lately and just wasn't getting enough application and vivid prints with the waterbased Matsui so went down to the local art pub and scored a nice tube of Van Gogh black oil paint. Forgive me father for I have sinned.

Let me tell you, I finally got the coverage I have been looking for. Perhaps there is plastisol in my future.

The only gripe I have is trying to get the screen clean afterwards. I had some mineral spirits laying around and they did decent, but my hands are now engulfed in black paint stains. A second gripe is the drying time of the paint. It takes a good day or two for the color to be dry enough to print the second screen on.

Any fellow oil paint printers out there who could recommend some tips it would be appreciated.

[jesusvbarraza]

that is just crazy

[Josh Rickun]

gojo pumice soap for your hands - don't smoke with oil painty fingers

[squeegeethree]

I hate to burst your bubble but artist oil paints aren't anymore more bad for the environment then artist acrylics really (oilbased house paint is a different matter). The artist oil paints themselves are basically pigment and burnt (cooked) linseed oil (aka rapeseed oil) which is much healthier/renewable than the petroleum distillates used to make acrylic. Also I really wouldn't work about smoking around artist oils (the thinner is another matter). Go ahead and try to set it on fire with a lighter. It is very hard to ignite.

Your main concern should be with what pigments go into making the colors they can be the toxic part regardless of whether it is oil or wb.

[squeegeethree]

To speed up the drying time buy some Cobalt drier, Japan drier, or Two-way drier.

Start your clean up of your screen using the cheapest vegetable oil you can buy at the supermarket before moving on to mineral spirits. Used the spirits on the screen on a table with a glass or metal top. By doing so you do not waste as much solvent and it does not go down the drain.

Most hand moisturizers clean off oily hands nearly as well as gojo. Unless the moisturized is water based. Look at the ingredients of gojo (which is great btw) it is mostly oil based thinners as well.

[Andymac]

uh, wear gloves during cleanup.....

Cleaning up solvent based materials, I found the less volatile thinners like paint thinner, turpentine, etc mixed with the ink and spread it around. Some nice lacquer thinner (furniture grade, not the cheap shit) doused on a rag, took the paint off quickly and more thoroughly. if you just dab, it doesn't do much.

Also, tape out tight to your image - a thick flood and then a last hard pull will deposit all the ink on the tape. scrape it from there, then pull the tape, then clean the screen - there is hardly anything to clean.

I've been using some less harmfull press washes lately - they are citrus based, and work well. the trick is to use a good absorbant rag, and use a liberal amount of cleaner, and do the tape thing.

ps, try some other inks other than matsui. the reason your ink takes so long to dry is it is not designed for screenprinting, and probably has way too much retarder.

[andydiesel]

Also I really wouldn't work about smoking around artist oils (the thinner is another matter).

Back in the 90's when before I have UV inks and we used nazdar 9700 for all our sticker printing I caught my press cart on fire a bunch of times because i smoked and printed most of the time and always had some thinner spilled somewhere.

thanks god i'm a much cleaner printer now and we don't use solvents.

[Josh Rickun]

i wasn't talking about oil being flammable, i was talking about smoking paint thinner not being all that good for you.

[ricv64]

To speed up the drying time buy some Cobalt drier, Japan drier, or Two-way drier.

I use Colbalt in my medium for oil painting. Be careful a drop is all you need . Japan drier never worked for me . With linseed oil , you must take note of lean to fat or it'll crack .