Vegan Art Supplies

Choices That Create a Beautiful World

As an artist and creator, I want my art to support a beautiful world. One way that I do this is by choosing to use products that are vegan.

Sadly, animal-based products are incredibly common in art supplies. They sneak their way into art supplies that are used everyday by artists. Here is a detailed list of the types of supplies that I use, and the information that helps inform my art supply decisions.

 

Pigments

Gratefully, the vast majority of pigments used in modern-day paints are either synthetic or natural pigments derived from minerals like iron or titanium dioxide. There are also a few colors that are naturally derived from plants, like sap green.

Unfortunately, some pigments are still used today by modern brands that use animal products. When buying a new tube of paint, I look up the origin of each pigment listed if it is not one that I recognize. Black and red pigments are the worst offenders, although I have found these pigments in tubes of blue, brown and purple paints that mixed with multiple pigments.

  1. Bone, Carbon and Ivory Black (PBK-9): This is by far the most common non-vegan pigments that I encounter. As the name suggests, it is derived from bone char and is commonly used in Payne’s Gray.

  2. Carmine Red (NR-3,4): This is a red pigment derived from blood from cochenille insects. While this pigment is more common in cosmetics, it can be found in modern-day paint.

  3. Less common animal-based pigments: These have been used more historically and include sepia ink from cuttlefish, eggshell white, tyrian purple from snails, mummy brown from actual human remains, and Indian Yellow from urine of cattle.

 

Paint

Aside from the animal-based pigments that can be found in many types of paint, some paint brands themselves may include additional animal products in the body of the paint.

  1. Oil: This is my primary medium, and luckily for me, it tends to be vegan. The binding agent in oil is either linseed or walnut oil. I have only encountered a few brands of animal-based products, and I do not purchase from these brands.

  2. Acrylic: These paints also tend to be vegan since the binding agent is synthetic acrylic.

  3. Watercolor and Gouache: Gum Arabic is the primary binding agent in watercolor and gouache, and it is sourced from the sap of acacia trees. Some watercolor or gouache mediums that use animal-based products can include ox gall liquid, non-vegetable glycerin, gelatin and honey. Some brands use honey, ox gall or gelatin in all of their watercolors or gouache and not just in their mediums. I very carefully select watercolor brands that I know use a base vegan formula.

  4. Tempera and Casein: Egg yolks and casein protein are the main binders used in tempera paints and casein paints.

Even if the brand or medium is typically vegan, I still ensure that the pigments are also vegan.

 

Paper and Canvas

Paper: I know that it is weird to think that paper may not be vegan, but sadly it in incredibly common for professional-grade artists’ paper to not be vegan due to the use of gelatin in the paper sizing. Sizing is a process that makes the paper fibers less absorbent, which is especially important for watercolor paper. Gelatin—the same gelatin found in marshmallows and Jell-O—is made from animal-based collagen. Gratefully, some brands do make high-quality vegan artists paper.

Canvas: Canvas fabric is made from linen or cotton fabric—along with the wood framing used to support the fabric. While modern-day gesso is acrylic and vegan, traditionalists may still use rabbit-skin glue in their gesso formulations.

 

Drawing Supplies

Some pastels, inks, regular graphite pencils, charcoals, color pencils, markers and crayons are vegan. However, some products may animal-based binders or pigments. I always check their ingredients or email the company directly to ensure that they do not use animal -based waxes or oils, shellac or beeswax. Since shellac is especially common in Indian Inks, I use alcohol-based inks as an alternative. I have seen animal-based oils even used in markers and pastels.

 

Brushes

  1. Synthetic Brushes: Many brands specialize in high-quality synthetic brushes which are readily available either online or in any craft store. Many affordable craft brushes are synthetic, although higher-end synthetic sable, camel, and hog brushes are also available.

  2. Natural Hair Brushes: Sadly, brushes made from animal hair are still common. Hair from minks, ferrets or weasels may be labeled as “sable.” Camel, hog, and squirrel hair are common. As with leather and fur worn for clothing, the hair can be gathered on fur farms after the slaughter of animals, as a result of hunting and trapping, or after the slaughter of farm animals used in food production.

 

Glues

Most modern-day glues like Elmer’s are vegan, even though they still use a cow on their logo and advertising.

 

Additional Resources

For additional resources, I highly recommend checking out VeganArtStuff and DoubleCheckVegan. Jackson’s Art Supply also provides excellent resources when selecting art materials.