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Holly
For what it's worth, and for the sake of pure redundancy, I second everything that Marvin has written.
I have a friend who needs to keep her windows closed when she paints, too, and she found that whenever she used alkyds, she got a headache and sometimes felt even sicker than that. Alkyds do have a fairly distinctive and rather unpleasant odor. However, odour isn't everything. Even the OMS (Odourless Mineral Spirits) that Michael mentions give off potentially harmful fumes, it's just that they're odourless. Admittedly, the fumes are not as harmful as are, say, turpentine's. In any event (and I'm sure I don't have to tell you this) all solvents should be used in well-ventilated rooms and the caps should be kept on containers, etc.. I reiterate what Marvin says that one doesn't need solvents at all to paint in oils. And if you don't use them, your brushes seem to last longer. (Then again, there are the great 19th century painters, Lord Leighton and Rosa Bonheur, who were said never to have used anything BUT turpentine in their paints! What's more, Bonheur was convinced that the worst thing for brushes was soap, so she would rinse them out in what we would today call an obsessive-compulsive manner. Agh, who knows! There are advocates and there are detractors for nearly every single aspect of oil painting materials and methods. However, I think that what we are saying here is a fairly widely held and defensible position. Best of all, it has the most historical precedent, despite what a handful of painters may or may not have done in the past.)
Linseed oil is known to form the strongest paint films and it normally takes less time to dry than does walnut oil. The nut oil might be a better choice for late stages in a painting and for lighter coloured passages.
I don't know anything about water miscible oils but I find the very concept to be an unholy union.
Anyway, fear not, you'll love oils.
All the best.
Juan
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