You can make liquid white without linseed oil by swapping in safflower oil, walnut oil, or poppy seed oil as your base. The recipe stays the same: mix one part titanium white oil paint with one part oil and one part solvent (odorless mineral spirits or turpentine), then adjust until you reach a thin, gravy-like consistency. The substitute oil changes the drying time and yellowing behavior, but the technique works the same way on the canvas.
Why Skip Linseed Oil?
Linseed oil is the traditional base for liquid white because it dries fastest among common painting oils, typically becoming touch-dry in a few days for thin layers. The trade-off is yellowing. Linseed oil can develop a noticeable amber tint over time, especially in paintings stored away from light. For a product designed to keep your canvas bright and white as a foundation for wet-on-wet painting, that yellowing defeats the purpose.
Some painters also avoid linseed oil due to nut allergies (it’s derived from flax, not nuts, but walnut oil obviously is a concern for those with tree nut allergies) or simply because they want the cleanest possible whites and light colors in their work.
Best Oil Substitutes
Safflower Oil
Safflower oil is the most straightforward linseed replacement for liquid white. It resists yellowing significantly better than linseed oil, which is exactly what you want under light-value paint layers. Many commercial titanium white paints are already made with safflower oil for this reason. Make sure you use safflower oil sold specifically for oil painting, not the cooking variety, since artist-grade safflower oil is refined to polymerize properly and form a stable paint film.
The downside is slower drying. Where linseed oil becomes touch-dry in days, safflower oil can stay wet for a week or more. For wet-on-wet technique this is actually fine, since you want that base layer to remain workable while you paint into it. It only becomes a concern if you need the painting to dry quickly afterward.
Walnut Oil
Walnut oil sits between linseed and safflower in both drying time and yellowing resistance. It yellows less than linseed while forming a paint film that some artists consider more archival than safflower. Artist Laurel McBrine has described walnut oil as an excellent substitute that creates a stronger paint film than thinning with solvents alone. It also has a pleasant, mild smell compared to linseed oil.
Walnut oil works well as a liquid white base, though it dries slowly. Like safflower, it can remain wet for weeks in thicker applications. If you have a tree nut allergy, this one is obviously off the table.
Poppy Seed Oil
Poppy seed oil stays the clearest of all common drying oils, making it a favorite for whites and pale tints where color purity matters most. If minimizing yellowing is your top priority, poppy seed oil is the best choice. It’s the slowest drying option, though, so your paintings will need extra patience before they’re fully cured. The paint film it forms is also slightly more brittle than linseed or walnut, so it’s best reserved for upper layers or thin applications like a liquid white base coat rather than thick structural layers.
The Basic Recipe
Start with equal parts of three ingredients:
- 1 part titanium white oil paint (tube paint, not alkyd)
- 1 part drying oil (safflower, walnut, or poppy seed, artist grade)
- 1 part solvent (odorless mineral spirits or turpentine)
Mix thoroughly until smooth. You’re aiming for a consistency noticeably thinner than tube paint. Think warm gravy: it should flow easily off a palette knife but still have enough body to coat the canvas in a thin, even layer. If it feels too thick, add a small amount of solvent. If it’s so thin it runs down a tilted canvas, add more paint.
Some painters double the solvent for an even leaner, faster-drying mixture. A leaner mix dries faster because there’s proportionally less oil, but it also produces a thinner film on the canvas. For wet-on-wet work in the Bob Ross style, the standard 1:1:1 ratio is a reliable starting point.
Solvent-Free Option
If you want to avoid solvents entirely, you can make liquid white with just titanium white and your chosen oil. Use roughly a 1:1 ratio of paint to oil, then adjust. Without solvent, the mixture will be slightly thicker and fattier, and it will take longer to dry. But it eliminates fumes from your workspace, which matters if you paint in a small room or have chemical sensitivities. Some artists prefer this approach, using walnut oil both as a medium and as a brush cleaner during painting sessions.
Alkyd-Based Alternatives
If slow drying is your main frustration with non-linseed oils, alkyd mediums offer a workaround. Alkyd titanium white (such as Griffin Alkyd Titanium White) dries much faster than traditional oil paint, often overnight. You can thin it with a small amount of your preferred oil to reach liquid white consistency.
The catch is compatibility. Alkyd paint contains synthetic resin, and mixing it with additional oils changes the fat-over-lean balance of your painting. If you’re layering traditional oil paints on top of an alkyd liquid white base, that generally works fine since the fast-drying alkyd layer underneath cures before the slower layers above. Just avoid putting slow-drying oil layers underneath alkyd layers, which can cause cracking as the paint cures at different rates.
Getting the Consistency Right
The most common mistake is making the mixture too thick. Liquid white should coat the canvas so thinly that it’s almost translucent. When you spread it across your canvas with a large brush or palette knife, you should see a faint sheen but not an opaque white layer. If the canvas looks like it’s been painted white, you’ve applied too much.
Test your batch by dipping a palette knife and lifting it out. The mixture should slide off smoothly, not cling in a thick glob. On the canvas, it should spread easily with light pressure. The whole point of liquid white is to create a slick, wet surface that lets you blend colors directly on the canvas. If it’s too thick, your brush will drag instead of glide.
Storage and Shelf Life
Store your liquid white in a sealed glass jar with as little air space as possible. Drying oils cure through contact with oxygen, so minimizing the air gap above the liquid slows down skinning. Some painters press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the mixture before sealing the lid.
Safflower and walnut oil mixtures are slightly more prone to developing a skin on top than linseed-based versions, simply because they’re exposed to the same oxygen but don’t polymerize as aggressively. If a thin skin does form, peel it off and stir before your next session. The mixture underneath will still be usable. A well-sealed jar of liquid white typically stays workable for several months, though walnut oil can eventually go rancid if stored in warm conditions for extended periods.