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Drying times ....
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Message
Posted
Drying times can be trying times for some, apparently. I'm mystified however by a frequent complaint on Facebook arty pages that oils are taking so long to dry. For one thing - they're oils: they do take a while. For another, I wish at times that mine would take longer - and I don't even use solvents.
My paint box contains a fair smattering of brands, from Michael Harding to Daler-Rowney, some W & N, a little bit of Rembrandt, a few Jackson's tubes, and a bit of Ken Bromley ... there are probably a few more in there, somewhere. The only mediums I use are Linseed Oil, and - rarely - Stand Oil. Arthritis prevents my working all morning or afternoon on a picture, so it takes me a day or two to finish anything. And my paint tacks over, overnight.... perhaps I notice this more because I don't use very oily ("fat") paint in early layers: so no cadmiums, no Titanium White; in fact, that's probably it!
Yet I see questions on these Facebook pages about speeding up the drying time - with an effort, I restrain myself from saying "use acrylics if you want quick drying"; but I wonder what it is they're doing that causes their paint to stay wet for more than a day or two, i.e. wet enough to make further work difficult.
Posted
Whilst I cannot comment on the drying time of oil paint Robert , I can offer my sympathy re your arthritic hand as a fellow sufferer . It bloody frustrating at times when you want to get on and can’t without inflicting pain on yourself.
As the the drying times I think a lot of people these days expect instant results from everything they try or do, and thereby thats part of the issue for them , old fashioned impatience I think .
Posted
Well if it’s questions or comments on Facebook then I’m not surprised! Any more than the inane comments one reads on Wet Canvas… not to mention the bad and incorrect advice generally dished out!
I try and keep away from both!
Of course oils take an age to dry, if you want instant then use acrylics! Simple as that!
Posted
Yes, I stopped going on Wet Canvas along time ago - from the sound of your comment on it, it hasn't improved! On FB, apart from the amateur-night pages, there are two or three better ones, and a couple of very good ones. Look out Traditional Oil Painting, and Painting Best Practice - both US-run, and quite sound. There are several others for different disciplines - acrylic, watercolour, pastel, gouache: some good, some not. FB is, I admit, something of a swamp - you have to leap nimbly from the sounder tussocks of grass to the next, avoiding the sump in between.
Posted
The mind boggles …a nimble Robert lepping across the tussocks , I visited Wet Canvas a couple of times and decided it wasn’t for me…far too serious and inane. I’m not fond of American videos telling me how to do it they are all too fond of themselves. I get cross and obliterate them with a snarl.
Edited
by Sylvia Evans
Posted
Hi , I first tried a couple of colors & mixed some of my standard paints in to help use them up. Gradually changed completely. They do take a bit of getting used to as the drying time does surprise you a bit until you master the process. I do tend to apply the least amount as I like to do fine detail with some added Liquin fine detail medium to aid the flow.
Posted
Hi Bryan, I’ve got a set of alkyds ( as well as water based oils and trad oils and various mediums). Even if you just use Alkyd white for mixing with trad oils it certainly speeds up the drying time. However, despite this advantage ( and even trad oils become tacky pretty soon)
I don’t favour them over trad oils. I’ll tell you why…depth of colour fine, range of colours more limited but mainly because the end result is more shiny and seems a little “ plastic”. This is obviously because of the resin added to speed up the drying time. I don’t regret trying them but I wouldn’t prefer them. All down to choice I think.
Posted
Hi Marjorie, I tend to agree that the end result is shinier, however, when using Trad oils & thinning down does give you matt areas with glossy un-thinned parts across the canvas.
At least with the Alkyd paints, the whole canvas is more uniform in the sheen. I guess we are now entering the subject of oiling out & whether to varnish your painting. Thanks for your input it is nice as a newbie to finally find a site with human beings that are prepared to comment on your paintings & pass on their knowledge. Best Wishes ...Bryan
Posted
Oiling-out is generally a bad idea - it might provide an overall gloss, but it will certainly also yellow in time. It's only real use is to oil out a sunken passage for overpainting.
The issue of glossy and matte areas is generally corrected with the final varnish; I don't think there's any good way to prevent this unevenness until it's time for the varnish to be applied. The US painter Virgil Elliott suggests avoiding Burnt Umber, as it is - he says - the most common cause of 'sinking-in' - as it happens, I very rarely use Burnt Umber, preferring to mix my darker colours; I don't (fingers crossed) have many problems with sinking-in, but whether that's because I don't use the BU or not, I don't really know. For those interested, he doesn't apply the same cautionary note to Raw Umber.
The colour range in Alkyds is, as Marjorie says, limited - but I don't know that this matters too much if you really investigate colour-mixing - I've absolutely nothing against 'convenience colours', i.e. those that are ready mixed, and use them now and then - but a quick look at the W & N Griffin Alkyd range (few other makers seem to offer them - unless anyone knows better) shows me a good range of basic colours from which just about any other could be mixed. I suspect that, as it were, alkyds would be ideal for those painters whose techniques they most suit - which is, I know, stating the bleedin' obvious but also implies they're not likely to suit everyone. Drying times are not a problem for me, because I like to blend and mix: not everyone does, and for those people - who want a passage to dry thoroughly before going back to it - they might be as near to perfection in use as they're ever going to get.
I have many more reservations about water-miscible oils, but that's for another day.
Edited
by Robert Jones, NAPA