Vegan Art Supplies

Updated: September 13, 2020

Vegan art supplies can be hard to find, so I want to make it easier with this list.

What’s not vegan about art supplies?

Art supplies have traditionally used many ingredients from slaughtered or trapped animals. For example, paints, mediums, and even papers may contain bone char, gelatin, ox gall, rabbit collagen, eggs, carmine, and shellac. Natural paintbrushes are made from the hair of sables, pigs, and squirrels.

Many higher end art supply companies use animal ingredients because these companies have been around in some cases for hundreds of years and use traditional recipes. But traditional doesn’t necessarily mean better. As you’ll see in this list, vegan art supplies are available in both student and professional grades.

A good artist can make do with whatever tools are available.

It’s up to all of us who believe that animals shouldn’t suffer so we can express ourselves, to use our consumer power to support vegan products, and to effect change. Not only can we make sure we only purchase vegan art supplies, but we can also contact companies and let them know there’s consumer demand.

Here’s the thing.

A lot of companies I’ve contacted aren’t sure whether their products are vegan. But as more and more customers have called or e-mailed with questions, these companies have started to look into their supply chains to check, was something tested on animals, was something refined with animal ingredients, etc.

The supplies on this list, to the best of my knowledge, contain no animal products and were not tested on animals. I’m gradually adding footnotes to the source of information for how I know a product is vegan. Due to the nature of changing formulas, I can’t guarantee that this list is 100% accurate, but if you’re interested in a certain product, you can scroll to the bottom of the page to see how recent the communication was from that brand, and judge for yourself.

I urge you to contact art supply brands to double check vegan status, or just let them know you’re looking for vegan products and don’t stand for vague answers.

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Vegan Art Supplies: Jump to different sections on this page.

VEGAN ART SUPPLIES

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I hope you found this list of vegan art supplies helpful.

REFERENCES – brands listed in alphabetical order.