Artist oil paint additives

[thebryce]

 I understand that linseed, walnut, safflower, poppy, spike of lavender, clove Oil all cause paint to dry at a progressavly slower pace.  If I only have an hour or two per week day and a few more on the week ends to paint and want to paint a picture of size, is there a certain oil mix that would benefit me?
 

[Maryna]

I use linseed oil, been using it every since I started painting and don't think I will ever switch over to anything else 

[Germa]

Me too, except for the things I want to dry much quicker, I use a quick drying medium for that.
I don't have a brand and don't know the ingredients since it's a medium that my art-store mix by themselves. 

[Harald]

If you add some siccatif to the oil it will speed up the prosess. One band is SENNELIER siccatif de coutrtrai.

[thebryce]

That is good to know for fast or normal dry additives but what if I need to have very slow dry becuse I want to work on a painting for several weeks? Is there an additive mix that would keep my painting from drying to early?

[MaryAnne Long]

The Byrce,

In the oil painting class that I attend, we use Liquin Original exclusively.  It's a 5-week term (2.5 hours one day a week), so we are working on a painting for sometimes as long as 5-weeks.  We use the wet-on-wet technique.

Hope that helps you.

aloha

mal

[MaryAnne Long]

Oh, Bryce, Winsor and Newton is the maker of Liquin Original.  It says on the bottle that it speeds drying and improves gloss.

We also use it as a sealer after the painting has dried.

aloha

mea (waiting for the paint to dry)

[Germa]

I know safflower oil dries slower than linseed oil.

And the different colours have different drying times, burnt umber dries much quicker than b.e. alizarin crimson.

[musika]

Oh, Germa. I have been wondering what that b.e. is for over 5 minutes now. I just realised! It must be the Dutch version of e.g. - for example. (exempli gratia - yes, we still use Latin abbreviations) 

[Germa]

 
You're completely right, it's a Dutch version of e.g.
We say bijvoorbeeld and shorten it to b.v.
I just thought you would do it the same way... and I thought wrong.

Thanks for your help Ray.

In fact, I came back to tell thebryce that it doesn't matter if the paint dries on you. Just take care that you end a painting session without hard borders in the colours, just soften the edges and you can go back to your painting without any problem.

[thebryce]

So does it benefit me by adding a slow dry oil to a fast dry paint so all the paint is drying about the same?

[thebryce]

obviously these mediums were made for some purpose, right?

[Germa]

They are made to make our lives difficult, in the fat over lean method.

In fact, most of the paint I put on my canvasses are straight from the tubes, no medium added. Just for some technics, e.g. painting with a rigger brush, I add a medium.

When I know I cannot finish the painting, and maybe have to leave it for a week or so, I just stop at a 'logic' place or if necessary, I stop at a point that isn't that logic and in those cases I fade out every sharp edge so I can come back in it later without any problems, even when the paint dried on me.

[Leana]

@Steven are you sure that is the entire recipe?  It appears to me that the Venice Turps (which is actually a resin is missing from the recipe)...unless you left it out on purpose 

Here is the full recipe:  10 Parts Odorless Mineral Spirits, 5 parts Stand Oil, 1 part Refined linseed oil, 5 parts Venice Turpentine and 2 parts Oil of cloves.   <--this recipe is for most paints except Titanium white which dries much slower than other pigments...there is slight adjustment to the above recipe to accommodate the slower drying rate of the white. http://www.drawmispaint.com/supplylist

Also note with the above recipe-->  works best with artists oils only containing pigment and linseed oil in the manufacturing process.  When used with paints that contains other oils etc...there is a reaction and the paint becomes sticky much quicker.  Well this is from various artists using the above medium and Mark said only to used oils made up out of pigment and linseed oil

I know the recipe above is a modification from one of Ralph Mayer's recipes ...which came out of a  book called "Artist's Handbook of Materials  Techniques written by Ralph Mayer.


I don't use the above recipe, but what I do to extent the open time period on my paint is this:  when my paint is mixed on my palette or tile (in my case)...I place it in a flatish tupperware container...put the lid on and put it in the freezer.  When I am ready to paint, I just take it out...leave it out with the lid on for about half an hour to an hour to "defrost" (the paint does not freeze, it's just very cold and I don't want any condensation forming on the paint blobs)...then it is as soft and wet as the day before. 

[Steven]

Hmm, Venice Turpentine...  I transposed the list and left out the Venice part...  big mistake!  Glad you caught that Leana, I would have felt terrible if someone had used my "modified" list and am going to delete the post to keep that from occurring!