What factors need to be considered when selecting a solvent?
Solvents can be assessed in three ways; performance, price and their hazardous nature. i] Performance – it is important that any solvent used for painting purposes evaporates totally, leaving no residue. A residue is likely to discolour the paint and can leave an indefinitely tacky paint film. Solvents for painting must be artists’ quality to avoid these problems. Artists’ turpentine evaporates slowly and produces viscous mixtures. White spirit evaporates more quickly and produces more ‘watery’ mixtures. Sansodor [low odour solvent] evaporates slowly and produces viscous mixtures. Although many artists may argue that turpentine makes a more controllable colour, a low quality turpentine will be inferior to white spirit. Turpentine substitute is a very low quality solvent which is only suitable for cleaning brushes. ii] Price – English Distilled Turpentine and Sansodor are equally priced with white spirit in the region of ¼ of that price. iii] Hazardous nature – all solvents are potentia
