The Obscure Paint Conundrum: Drying Time

17/03/2014

Blog entry 67:

After undertaking research into painting as I define myself as a painter, I found that the oil paintings I had done at this point in time still have not fully dried. As a practitioner, it is my job to understand how to manipulate my practice and medium to ensure I can meet deadlines and be viable. The fact that oil paint, as I was already aware, dries very slowly, is somewhat of an issue when considering I am to hand my work in for assessment 28/04/2014 a date which in my mind draws ever closer. The question is how am I to resolve this problem?

On one hand I adore working with oil paint due to the overall feel and quality of the paint, but it does not dry quickly enough; and on the other, acrylic paint is not as satisfying to work with due to it drying too quickly.

I originally searched for a way to speed up the drying time of oil paint, but found as I suspected that the nature of oil is to harden/ go off very slowly and from looking at various information pages and forums it seems that the general consensus is that oil paint should not be tampered with and should be expected to dry at its own speed. I did however find an agent known as Liquin which speeds the drying time of oil paint, but its affect varies with the thickness of paint. I intend to try out Liquin, but I need to ensure a more concrete way of working to ensure deadlines can be met.

I have recently been offered a commission by Me&Dee charity founder Maria Hanson after volunteering, to paint a mural for a beach hut (where families can spend precious moments with loved ones when time is short) in Mablethorpe. I feel that this commission could be the beginning of people recognising my work, not to mention that the work is for a highly commendable cause; due to these reasons I intend to use my knowledge of my practice to make the mural the best it can possibly be. Not only is the mural a brilliant opportunity for me to set up the part of my business which will be known as Heavy Duty Illustration: On The Road Commissions, where I will travel as a freelance practitioner to paint murals and fresco type pieces, but this opportunity also allows me to consider my physical practice and use it to inform my field of study for my masters degree.

After spending a copious amount of time researching oil paint, I realised that I was possibly looking at the problem the wrong way around: Instead of speeding up the drying time of oils (which with nothing added can take between weeks and years), but informing my painting by finding a way of slowing down the drying time of acrylic paint (which can take from 5 minutes or less to 2 hours with nothing added): I researched how to slow down acrylic paint and found that with professional acrylics (which are vastly more expensive which could be an issue), up to an hour can be added onto the drying time; with student acrylics, a special agent known as Retarder can be added to thin the paint and slow the drying time, but not to the extent that it would dry very slowly.

I intend in this project to sample each of the three solutions I have considered in this blog entry in my Samples Book, an decide which is best for my practice, assuming that professional acrylics or Retarder might change the feel of the medium to one more suited to my work.