Am I Gonna Die From Brush Licking?

[Lizzy Lovecraft]

So, I've been building my painting skills over the past several month.  Trying more and more advanced techniques.  (I miss the days of base/wash/dry brush...)  But like everything I do, I have fallen into a bad habit.  I've started practicing "two-brush blending", and I find more often than not, my second brush is being wet not in the rinse cup, but in my mouth...

Is this dangerous?  I'm assuming acrylic is non-toxic, and I'm hoping the medium is, too, but it's not like there's an ingredients label on the .4 oz bottles....  Is there any brush-lickers out there that have been doing it for a long time and seen no adverse effects?  Or should I find a way to break this habit now!?!

[Fetid Strumpet]

Find a way to break the habit.

[Bengt]

No.

[Nymie_the_Pooh]

Most of the hobby paints are fine. I don't lick my brushes because I don't want to have the muscle memory and pick up a different type of paint later. Acrylic is technically non-toxic, but they also do not figure those numbers based on years of consuming tiny amounts, and it also does not take into account what pigments are used. A lot of artist acrylics will use materials that are known to be not so good for the human body for pigment in the paint for example. The other reason I do not lick brushes is because saliva has a lot of different stuff in it and paint can mold. Paint  mold is super rare, but it happens more than illnesses traced back to brush licking.

[Tawg]

Breaking the habit probably isn't a bad idea, but I do it.

I typically rinse the brush completely, and lick it to a finer point before drawing paint and applying it.  But I imagine I am ingesting at least some of my craft supplies in the process, even if I am washing the brush just before I lick it each time.

And I don't lick it every time, but whenever I notice the tip is getting more out of hand than I want I tend to resort to my tongue as the solution.  I am certain I could do the same by another means, but oh well.

Better than air-brushing without proper ventilation, I'm willing to bet.

[Doctor Dave]

I've been licking the tip (or mouth pointing, to give it a more technical name) for about 28 years, with no major ill effects except difficult to explain funny coloured lips.  One of the things I have noticed over the years of GW paint range changes is that the flavour has gotten worse.

[Stark]

Mwahaha!))) brush-lickers! That's brilliant!))
I'll add it to my signature and fb-status 

[Nemi]

But you already died, Lizzy. It's why you're a rezzer!

 

So brush-licking should be just fine.

[lusciousmccabe]

Some paints have heavy metals in them (like some green paints containing cadmium). They should be labeled as such if they were produced anywhere with reasonable health and safety standards.

You definitely want to avoid ingesting those. You'd probably need to consume a fair amount of paint to actually poison yourself, but anything with cancer and severe birth defects on the hazard list is worth staying away from.

I occasionally lick a clean brush if the point's going, so I replaced my cadmium containing paints for that reason. 

[daniello_s]

If you get cheap paints from China then you re fine. A bit of lead is good for you

[BloodBought]

Since I can't summon forum members from cross-forums... I'll instead reference this post by a forum member over at the Reaper Minis forums, Pingo.  Just so you have context, Pingo is a professional artist for a number of years and is actually someone who has done extensive research at least regarding Reaper paints and what some of the components it contains are for just exactly this purpose.

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/63829-omg-what-is-in-my-mouth/?p=1203797