Brainstorming a viable replacement for acrylic art paint

I have an old acrylic paint set like we get for kids. 24 colours, tiny tubes, but pretty good quality for the set (better than winsor and newton student grade).

I ran out of raw sienna first and replaced with w&n student grade which is less nice.  I'm likely to use up some more earth colours soon, and my heart is reluctant to buy more.

Why not acrylic?

There are a lot of ecological and health reasons not to use acrylic paint which is pretty much plastic soup with solvents and preservatives of dubious reputation.  It is possibly the most harmful artist paint around, despite the mythology.  I could talk about clogged drains and all sorts of other issues.  But mostly, the smell triggers memories and it's not good for me to use acrylic artist paints.

The other thing I dislike is how plasticity the colours look, and the shine it gets.  It takes skill beyond my own to get it looking nice.

What are some viable solutions?   The first thing to figure out is why acrylic paint is recommended so much and what I use it for.

Colours I use the most include (aka, the ones I need to replace)
Raw sienna
Burnt sienna
Raw umber
Burnt umber
Yellow ochre
Vermillion
White
Black (mars would be best)

I want a replacement to do these traditional earth colours well.


What I use it for so far?

-Making signs that need to be outside
-tinting acrylic gesso
-painting Marquette (miniature models for setting sceens to paint)
- painting on unprimed air dry clay


What qualities do acrylic paint have that the replacement needs?

- fast drying is useful.  Not essential, but good
- can go on lots of different surfaces
- often go on surface without priming first
- cheap!
- quick and easy to use a small amount
- not sure what else goes here, but I suspect it's a long list.

Just brainstorming what options are out there.  It's possible if the idea doesn't work for me at this time, it might help others find quality, eco-friendly, safe artist paint

I'm going to start with oil paint.   This is what I use the most.

The advantage is it's extremely safe for human and planet as it mostly uses flaxseed or walnut oil and pigment.  Solvent and other gick are purely optional and unnecessary. (Unlike acrylic where these toxic substances are included in the paint)

And the natural colours look natural to me.  

Disadvantages
- surface needs to be prepped in such a way that both protects surface from oil and paint from surface
- long drying times
- can't mix with acrylic gesso

There are ways around these, often using variations of the same stuff that makes me dislike acrylic.  

Another advantage is that oil paint, when treated well, will probably outlive acrylic.

Conclusion, oil paint can replace acrylics in some situations

On air dry clay, a clay that can be reactivate with water, gouach isn't doing great.  Each layer reactivated the clay and turned chalky.

With acrylic, the first layer activated the clay and mixed with it a bit.  Painting this alternates wash and dry brushing, starting with a watery wash.  After the first coat dried, I had very little trouble with it.

There are a couple of protein based paints that might fill this gap.  I don't know the spelling.   One is like case-seen and the other temp-er-ah.  They don't reactivate when the next layer goes on.

Another option is a sealer to prime the clay, but I have yet to find one that I like.

As a side note, the acrylic is too shiny and looks artificial even with the correct colours.

casein

That's the word I'm looking for.   Casein paint is often used by the artist James Gurney, especially for underpainting as it has many of the qualities of gouache, but is water resistant when freshly dry, curing to waterproof.

It's an old style paint and would somtimes be used in fresco painting (secoando style or something like that...my fresco obsession will start in a year or two, i suspect).  So casein has some permanence in shelterd outside situations.

an Instagram video about casein paint that comes in a tube.


From the little I know about casein so far, it has the potential to be a viable substitute for acrylic paint.

I'm unable to find any in my art store that carries it near me.  I did find a 6 colour set that would be the perfect colours for me, but at a crazy expencive price.

I'll keep looking and learning about casein paint.  It is possibly related to milk paint as the name sounds a lot like the protine binder thingy in milk.  I can also buy powder to make casein paint.  But I hesitate because I'm lazy and when I use acrylic paint, I use only a small amount at a time.  

So far I know about casein paint as a replacement for artist acrylic paint

Benifits
Matte
Fast drying
Colours look good to me

Less good
Hard to get
Crazy-expencive
Or time consuming and wasteful if making myself

More about casein paint, an example of using it, and some of the history (predates the domestication of animals).  It also seems to have other advantages over acrylic in that the brushes are easier to clean and there is a wider window between dried and cured.

One of the boxes of art stuff I got from a thrift shop has enamel paint.  I know nothing about this except it's sometimes used for scale model making.

Is enamel paint better or worse than acrylic for health and environment?

I was beginning to think, maybe just buy more acrylic paint, spend a few dollars more for the bioplastic kind.

Then I started painting today.  The smell triggers me so bad!  

No.

No more.

No more acrylic paint for me.

I need a viable alternative.

redit discussion on eco friendly diorama supplies

For paint you can use a walnut oil based oil paint (takes forever to dry), casein (milk) paint, tempura (egg) instead of a polymer based paint.

Interesting!

What's mod podge made from?  It's used to prime air dry clay before painting.   Do you think it would protect it from oil paint?  And protect the paint from the surface being too absorbing?