The Vegan Watercolor Artist
The vegan society defines veganism as:
“a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.”
So why might watercolor painting be problematic for vegans? Three important things you'll need to paint in watercolor are:
· paper
· paint
· brushes
For vegans the above three things can present problems.
First let’s look at brushes: these are often made of natural hair, for example sable or squirrel because these materials can hold lots of water and can be shaped to a point. The hair probably comes from farms where animals are kept in small cages or trapped in the wild. There are synthetic alternatives which can be as good as natural hair. Good art stores and websites will clearly indicate if the brushes are natural, synthetic or hybrid.
Different paint brands can also present problems: Sennelier and Jackson’s use honey, Schmincke and Winsor & Newton use ox gall. Daniel Smith uses synthetic chemicals so it is vegan friendly. In terms of actual pigments used in paints, PBk 9 uses cattle bones.
The best watercolor papers are one hundred percent cotton however they can also be problematic for vegans because watercolor paper is usually sized. This means the paper has a type of glue added, this glue can contain gelatin. The sizing is added to slow the process of the water and pigment sinking into the paper, this makes wet in wet and washes possible. For example Arches watercolor paper uses animal based sizing. Some brands use vegetable based or synthetic sizing.
So it is possible to be a vegan watercolorist, it just requires a little research to find brands that don’t use animal products in their art supplies.
