hello everyone, I always use oil paints but thought I'd try acrylics as I know they dry quicker than oils,BUT i DIDN'T THINK THE PAINT WILL DRY THIS QUICK. I have heard of retarders for acrylics and can only guess that what everyone use, or am I wrong, I was going to do a nice sunset but didnt even have time to start blending. I was also surprised how much thinner the acrylic is compared to oil paints. Anyway, can any of you give me more insight into the world of acrylic painting, such as do you just use the paint or do you use mediums/retarders to slow the drying down. I've got to get round this prob or my other half is gonna have moan for waisting money we havent got on paints I cant handle. Thanks.

Darren,
I use acrylics and nothing but. You get a good selection of heavy body acrylics which are almost as thick as oils. Liquitex heavy body being my choice.

There's also Atelier interactive acrylics which apparently let you blend and work into the paint as much as you want, though i don't work this way. I like the fast drying of acrylic paints as I work in dry layers over dry layers which builds up good texture.

Also WN cryla paints are very thick.

I think the secret is to work fast....very fast in fact. Plus I rarely use any water apart from cleaning the brushes. But that's just my preference.

You could also try Griffin fast drying oils. They're workable all day but dry overnight. Unless you work nightshift then it's the other way round !!!

i use both - acrylics if i want fast drying and oils if i want blending. like brain i use acrylics stairght with barely and water - just for rinsing y brush really. you can thin them like watercolours but thats not how i use them - its great as they dry so quickly by time you've got to last bit of painting where you started is dry. i don't use retarders or anything - never found the need. room temp and indoors/outside temp affects the drying speed too - in winter if i'm in my studio with just the tiny heater they can take hours to dry where in summer the same pic would dry alomst within 30 mins or so.
i use the alkyd oils - quick drying cos i don't have patience to wait days/weeks for drying. that allows me to blend as i wish then finish next day.
appreciate paints for what they are is my way - if you want paints that blend and dry slowly go for oils (or the altelier interactive though i haven't tried them) and appreciate the speed of acrylics.

one thing - always keep your brush in water or clean between uses - if you leave a brush with acrylic on lying beside you for 20 mins then you've lost that brush - once dry its almost impossible to get out. i keep two pots of water - one for using if i want to - though rarely do - and other just for putting brushes in when not using them.
acrylics come in varying thickness from very thin and runny like liquitext ones in pots i have or very think like soft butter. you can add stuff to thicken - i haven't except for plaster for texture or sand and straw etc also for texture - for that they are great. you can use them for a base coat abd finish with oils - always that way round though - oils over acrylics - never acrylics over oil - it won't hold long term and will peel.

Hows it going?
Summer is a difficult time to try acrylics,but they are a great medim to use because they are so versatile.

Hi Darren,

I use to work with oils some years back before bowing down to the versatile acrylic mediums. brianpetrie is definitely right on this one the ultimate secret to blending and achieving the best result with acrylic is painting as fast as possible with little to no use of water. I personally use WN finity series which I have been happy with for many years. It does take some practice on a few old canvases before you get what you're trying to achieve with acrylics. I use to work in oils on a pre-painted canvas with liquid white so blending was a doddle then but acrylics can work the same with practice. I've never used or heard of any acrylic supplements to aid slow drying or blending but that probably because I've failed to educate myself with all those fancy bottles on the shelf of my local art store. I recently commissioned a sunset painting using acrylics so here's some inspiration to get you started, good luck and enjoy.

Fabrizio Van Marciano
http://www.vanmarcianoart.com

Hello Van you have been busy, do you paint to order yourself? or have a possy of painters?

You can obtain the same depth as with oil it is just trial and error just keep practicing.

Hi Darren
I have spent years trying out different acrylics and mediums. My aim was to try and find an acrylic which when dry did not loose too much of its film thickness and did not dry so quickly.
Here are my findings

Acrylics:
If you paint in glazes than the new “artists acrylic “ from winsor and Newton are the best as they are made with a new clear polymer which has no cloudiness when wet and dries with no colour shift
If you paint with thicker paint then I would recommend the ultra thick acrylics from liquitex, these are the thickest acrylics I have tried,( too thick for some people) have little shrinkage and colour shift from wet to dry they are very economical compared to winsor and newton


Mediums:
I haven’t tried the new winsor and Newton mediums yet but I can recommend the liquitex mediums and gels. There slow dry glazing medium is very good almost clear when wet and dries clear. if you like thicker paint then slow dry gel or ultra thick gels are also good. If you glaze then I would try the winsor and Newton glazing medium but as I say I have not tried it.

Liquitex do a product called liquithick which thickens up acrylics and makes feel more oil like. You only need to add very little 10% but no more than 25% I love the stuff

For many years I used a stay wet palette for mixing paints on. It is basically a sheet of blotting paper on which you place a permeable membrane. If you use this method then thoroughly wet both the blotting paper and membrane and then blot most of the water from it so it is just damp or the paint will reduced to liquid acrylic over night. After a couple of days it will start to dry so regularly spray with water by lifting up the membrane and spraying the blotting paper. If you close the lid when you take a break the paint can be kept wet indefinitely.

As I paint thicker and mix large mounds of paint I now tend to use a piece of Perspex and spray it with a spray diffuser mixed with 20% acrylic retarder.
I read somewhere that an unglazed and unsealed ceramic tile can be wet and then used as a palette to keep the paint wet but I have still to try this.

If you use acrylic primed canvas / canvas board I sometimes thoroughly wet this before paint application. Acrylic gesso absorbs water (until the first layer of acrylic has dried) this keeps the first application wet for longer
I often spay the wet acrylic on the canvas with water or my water retarder mixture every couple of minutes, (don’t over spray though) this can keep the paint wet for ages, good for blending

Hope this helps
Paul M


http://www.paulmilner.co.uk/