Beef – Much More than Steaks – Art Supplies

This is Part 5 of a Multi-Part Series Discussing the Byproducts of Beef.

It may be difficult in the art world to create one’s art without the use of beef byproducts drawing and painting utensils.

The cattle industry permeates many aspects of regular day-to-day life. Without some of the derivatives from the slaughter and use of beef, the art world would find the need to develop viable replacements for tools, charcoals and paints.

Camel hair paint brushes, despite their name are not made from camel hair. Instead, fine paint brushes are generally made from the soft hair found in and around cattle’s ears, and hair from other animals including squirrels, goats, oxen and others.

The fine, soft hairs from these animals make for delicate artist brushes, although some synthetic brushes are now available for those who wish to avoid animal products.

One Green Planet, an organization advocating the vegan lifestyle said on its website, “Paint brushes that are labeled as “camel hair” brushes are not really made from camel at all (not that this would really make them any better). Actually, these brushes are composed of the fine hairs from cow’s ears and tails.

Bone charcoal pencils, as the name implies, is made from the charred bones of cattle.

The Free Dictionary website defines bone char as: a black substance containing char in the form of carbonized bone, sometimes used for black pigment. This may be in the form of artist charcoal or even the black pigment in paint.

True Art Information, a website describing the composition of charcoal and its uses in art states, “Charcoal is an impure form of carbon and is obtained through the incomplete combustion of plant matter, wood, or bone.”

This can be compressed to different densities for varying softness of the bone charcoal pencils.

The char can also continue to be heated to temperatures such as those found in a kiln until it crystalizes into circular molecules. When this occurs, the carbon sheets can easily slide over one another and forms graphite. Much of this graphite becomes the lead for the pencils people use every day.

The beef industry provides food for the masses, but it also provides a large portion of other items used on a daily basis.

Ending the cattle industry would not only force the populace to shift to a vegetarian diet, a vast number of the things people use every day would need to be replaced as well.

Source References Available upon Request.