Mixing cold wax medium and water-mixable paints

Another questions that often comes up is whether it is possible to paint with water soluble paint and cold wax medium..

And Yes, that is possible!

What is water-mixable oil paint?

Water mixable oils are genuine oil paints, formulated with the base of a drying oil. Unlike a traditional oil paint, this drying oil base will have been modified so that it can be mixed with water. An additive is introduced to the oil and works as an emulsifier, allowing small droplets of oil to blend into water to form a stable solution (more info at art supplies.co.uk)

Water soluble oil paints act like real oil paints, they have a long working time, a possibility to blend the colours beautifully and you can use them for all the traditional oil painting techniques, like glazing. They don’t need a solvent to clean up so are perfect if you don’t like the smell of oils or want to avoid solvent in your painting process!

Can they be mixed with cold wax medium?

YES, you can use water-mixable paints, BUT as soon as you mix your water soluble paints with the cold wax medium your paints loose their water mixable properties and can’t be thinned down with water anymore. As your paint is now no longer water mixable, you can use them alternately with traditional oil paints. So water and cold wax don’t mix!

The use of solvent in the cold wax painting process

I hardly use any solvent in my painting process, only when I use the ‘pouring technique’ where I thin down the oil paint with a lot of solvent to pour over a dry background or when I use the ‘solvent reduction technique’ where I use a solvent to scrape back into my layers ( more on these techniques in my online class Getting Started with Cold Wax Medium, which you can check out here)

To clean my tools, my hands, my face (…) I use baby oil and baby wipes which works great!

How do I thin down my paint if I can’t use water?

You don’t have to thin don’t your paint when working with cold wax medium, you can go straight in with your cold wax/oil mix. The rule ‘fat over lean’ that applies to traditional oil paints, does no longer count as soon as you mix in the cold wax so you don’t have to worry about 'lean and fat layers’.

When I glaze over a painting or want to add detail, I simply use less wax and more paint or I thin down my paint with Gamblin solvent free gel or Galkyd lite.

You can find more questions in ‘My 10 most asked questions’ which you can download below,

As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to me and ask me more questions at marinatvb@outlook.com!