Greener choices, Vegan, Vegetarian and Environmentally Friendly Art supplies.

Not that long ago companies did not have traceability in their own supply chains, and they were not proactive about sustainability, thankfully that is changing!

Many companies are now contributing to a healthier planet and developing eco friendly and animal cruelty free strategies to develop their products. More and more eco- friendly 'Green' companies in today's market display logos to enlighten their customers with recognisable logos such the Certified Vegan hearts, FSC Tree, (Forest Stewardship Council), Leaping Bunny logo, Fair Trade, and the Sunflower Vegan Trademark are just a few internationally used and recognisable logos, making shopping for the supplies we need a little bit easier.

However with artists' equipment and materials, it is not as clearly marked out, and many artists are conscientiously looking for vegan, cruelty free and environmentally friendly, sustainably sourced art and design products.

Any product tested on animals, cannot be classed as cruelty free!

Sometimes we unwittingly use art and design equipment, materials and mediums not knowing they contain animal derivatives such as animal hair or charred animal bones or not knowing they have been involved in animal testing!

Hopefully this article will help you to source manufacturers and products that will allow your creative endeavours to blossom, whilst knowing you are using vegan equipment, materials or mediums that do not contain any animal parts, or any animal ingredient, and have not been tested on animals!

Logos that will help you identify environmentally friendly, sustainably sourced materials, vegan and cruelty free products.

Ingredients in products that are animal derived, demystifying some of the commonly used terms in art and design.

Vegan Artists using any pigment based paint will not only have to check that the pigment such as ivory black contains no animal derivatives but that the binder doesn't either!

For example, watercolour paints can contain honey in their binder. Also, ox-gall is used in some watercolour wetting mediums as a dispersant to generally improve the flow of your paint, so vegan artists will have to double check all ingredients listed before embarking on purchasing.

Some paints can be hard to distinguish as they're divided into professional quality, artists quality, paint that contain mostly naturally occurring pigments and so called inexpensive student quality, graduate using both natural, inorganic and synthetic materials. Certain paints retain their traditional age-old formulas and can contain some animal products:

• Rabbit skin Glue is a glue made from the prolonged boiling of animal products, such as skin, bones, connective tissue, it is used in the sizing of canvases.
• Shellac a resin like secretion from the female lac insect, used to give a glossy finish and as a binder in inks, such as Winsor & Newton drawing inks.
• Cochineal comes from various types of lac, scale insects; its secretions are used to make a strong carmine dye. This can appear in paints, ink and even food colouring.
• Bone black (Pbk9) made from the charring of bones to produce very dense black.
• Ox gall a watercolour medium based on the animal protein from gall bladders of cattle, and acts as a paint flow improver.
• Tempera paints use an egg to bind the pigments together, this paint has fantastic longevity and pre-dates oil painting.
• Honey for many uses as a preservative, to increase colour vibrancy and smoothness. All formulations of Sennelier watercolour contain honey.
• Casein is an aqueous painting medium, which is made from milk. It is a fast-drying, durable and permanent medium you will find it in a lot of products.

Cruelty Free, vegan art supplies, not tested on animals! - What the manufacturers have to say:

[Some of the statements below are from leading art supplies manufacturers, always contact the manufacturer if in doubt about any product you wish to use!]

Brian Clegg, vegan statement;

Brian Clegg can inform you that all our products do not contain ingredients from animal origin. The development and production of our products does not involve the use of any animal products. Intermediates and starting substances are of non-animal auxiliaries and there is no chance of cross-contamination with animal products during manufacture.

Faber-Castell brand, art supplies state;

they have not initiated any animal testing on products or materials for 22 years, and do not use casein glue in packaging.

Liquitex brand, art supplies state;

"Whilst we can confirm that chemically the majority of Liquitex raw materials do not contain any animal derivatives, we cannot confirm that the raw materials we purchase for the manufacturing process do not come in contact with animal derivatives, due to the fact that we do not have full visibility of their supply chain. And whilst we do not test on animals, Liquitex products are not certified as vegan at this time. We are currently in the process of gathering data on the supply chain of all our formulations in order to be able to address this. (More info here)

Winsor and Newton brand, art supplies state;

None of their products are tested on animals, but some of their products contain animal derived ingredients. (More info here)

Please note: Cotman Watercolours are all Vegan apart from the following colours: Ivory Black, Raw Umber & Viridian.

Daler-Rowney brand of art supplies state;

None of their products are tested on animals.

The following Daler Rowney paints do not contain animal products or by-products: 

• All Artists Oil colours with the exception of Ivory Black and Blue Black.
• All Georgian Oil Colours with the exception of Ivory Black, Prussian Blue and Cerulean Hue.
• All Cryla and Cryla Flow colours with the exception of Ivory Black.
• All System 3 colours with the exception of Raw Sienna.

Golden brand, art supplies state;

"No, we don't test our products on animals. However many of the raw materials we use have been tested on animals. This is because regulations require that the potential toxicity of chemical substances be determined in order to help safeguard consumers and the environment. The good news is that Europe is leading the world in requiring that companies make such data available to everyone in order to prevent the need for duplicate testing. Because we operate in the global marketplace, our supply chain is positively impacted by this change and we support this philosophy as compared to historical practices."

Do GOLDEN products contain animal ingredients?

Generally not. However, Bone Black pigment IS made from carbonised cattle bones. The following products contain Bone Black pigment:

Bone Black, Jenkins Green, Neutral Grey 2, Neutral Grey 3, Neutral Grey 4, Neutral Grey 5, Neutral Grey 6, Neutral Grey 7, Neutral Grey 8, Prussian Blue Hue, Terre Verte Hue, FLUID Bone Black, FLUID Jenkins Green, FLUID Prussian Blue Hue, MATTE FLUID Jenkins Green, MATTE Bone Black, MATTE Jenkins Green, HLA Bone Black, OPEN Bone Black, OPEN Jenkins Green. (More info here)

Here's a few vegan friendly art products.

Vegan charcoal and coloured blocks;

• Derwent Charcoal XL Blocks
• Derwent Charcoal Pencils
• Derwent Tinted Charcoal Individual Pencils
• Derwent Tinted Charcoal pencil Sets
• Derwent Charcoal Set
• Derwent Inktense Bloacks - Metal Tin Sets
• Derwent Inktense individual blocks
• Winsor & Newton Vine and Willow charcoal

Vegan mediums, sealer and gesso;

• Golden QOR watercolour medium is a synthetic OX Gall. A synthetic wetting agent that improves the flow of watercolour paint.
• Golden GAC100 Acrylic Polymer Sealer synthetic sizing
• Liquitex Gesso

Vegan papers and environmentally friendly substrates!

Watercolour paper is often sized; which means it is coated in a gelatine based glue to make the sheets less porous, and more workable for example Saunders Waterford paper. Good quality watercolour paper that is not sized is very hard to find. Instead you could use eco - friendly sketch pads and sketchbooks, such as a highly sustainable bamboo pad and a 100% recycled drawing pad, or heavyweight cartridge paper.

• Hahnemühle Bamboo Carnet de Voyage - 265gsm (125lb) 15.3cm x 25cm (6.0" x 9.8")
• Fabriano Tela Oil paper
• Fabriano Watercolour paper Artisticodoes not contain animal products, externally and internally sized with a gelatin-free sizing, ideal for watercolour, gouache, acrylic, ink charcoal and graphite
• ARTdiscount FSC certificated sustainably sourced wooden panels
• Canson Moulin du Roy Watercolour Paper is acid free and sized with starch
• Strathmore Papers use plant based and synthetic sizing in the manufacturing process. (excluding their 500 Series Gemini watercolour Paper)

Vegan artists brushes

If you want to move away from these try instead to look for synthetic bristles, they tend to be nylon or polyester and have improved in quality over the years. They are very durable and will work with all paint types. All (except the Poundland special) should be labelled accordingly. Synthetic brush filaments can have a very similar appearance to natural bristles; some are dyed and baked to make them softer and more absorbent. This is known as Taklon.

Sablene is a fully synthetic, vegan version of Sable, fashioned from brand new synthetic filaments which mimic many of the properties that nature created. Pro Arte have taken a variety of these new filaments and blended them into brushes that now emulate both the look and the feel of sable like never before. For Sable lovers this is a breakthrough, for synthetic lovers these go to a new level and for animal lovers and vegans this is paradise!

• Pro Arte Series D Bristlene Oil Brushes (W16) - Set of 5
• Pro Arte Series D Bristlene Oil Brushes - Filbert
• Pro Arte Sablene Brushes - One Stroke - Series 111 - Individuals
• ARTdiscount Artists Value Profile Brushes - Round
• Pro Arte Sablene Brush Set - W14 

Brushes that ARE sourced from natural animal hair;

• Sable
• Kolinsky
• Squirrel
• Badger
• Camel Hair
• Goat
• Hog

 

Vegan Pencils

Some pencils contain beeswax or casein glue (an adhesive binder based on animal proteins). Vegan pencils include Faber Castell Polychromos, these artist quality colour pencils are comprised mostly of plant based vegetable oil and high quality pigments. They're extremely popular with professionals and adult colouring book enthusiasts alike for their smooth colour and light-fastness.

Derwent also offer great ranges in pencils that are suitable for vegans and vegetarians:

• All Coloursoft pencils - soft, bright and blendable.
• All Inktense pencils - vibrant and water soluble for pen and ink effects.
• All Graphitint pencils - water soluble graphite in tonal colours.
• All Art Bars - wax based, high pigment watercolour bars.
• All Aquatone pencils
• All Metallics pencils
• All Graphitone pencils
• All Pastel pencil and Pastel blocks - slightly chalky, powdery and blendable.
• All Charcoal Pencils and XL Charcoal Blocks - rich and easily blendable,
• Derwent Graphic pencils in the following grades only B, HB, F, H, H3, H4, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H9

• Faber-Castell Polychromos and Albrecht Durer products contain no animal ingredients, using inorganic and synthetic materials. 

Considered Vegan, acrylic, oil, inks and watercolour paints:

• Winsor & Newton products that do not contain animal derived ingredients: Calligraphy Inks, Poster Paint, Artists' Soft Pastels, Finity Acrylic Colour, except Ivory Black and Paynes Grey , Galeria Flow Formula Acrylic Colour, except Ivory Black and Paynes Grey.
• Golden Acrylic paintapart from paint containing Bone black!
• Daler Rowney state that none of their products are tested on animals. However, the following Daler Rowney paints do not contain animal products or by-products:
• All Artist Oil Colours are vegan with the exception of Ivory Black and Blue Black.
• All Georgian Oil Colours are vegan with the exception of Ivory Black, Prussian Green and Cerulean Hue.
• All Cryla and Cryla Flow colours are vegan with the exception of Ivory Black.
• All System 3 colours are vegan with the exception of Raw Sienna.
• Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolours are all Vegan apart from the following colours: Ivory Black, Raw Umber & Viridian.
• Daler Rowney Pearlescent liquid Acrylic Ink are considered vegan
• Daler Rowney FW Artists Inks are considered vegan
• Brian Clegg products, all Brian Clegg art supplies, paints, inks, markers, oil pastels and adhesives are vegan.
• Dr. Ph. Martins Watercolour Dye (ink)are Vegan.
• Viviva Colorsheets Metallic Set are Vegan.

Considered Vegan glues

• All UHU products guarantee; "We Care is Bolton Groups sustainability plan which we have adopted as Bolton Adhesives. It is based on three pillars: SOURCING, for the sustainable procurement and use of natural resources and raw materials. PRODUCING, for the sustainability of our products and our plants. PEOPLE, for the well-being of our people and support of the community." (More info here)  

• Mod Podge
• PVA

See our entire collection of vegan art supplies here