Palette drying too fast

[Chris Saper]

Joan,

Here are some additional thoughts.

1. The tubed earth colors dry fast. You can mix any of the hues from a primary/secondary palette. (I am not shy about cadmiums, so I don't know how helpful this tip will be for a cadmium free palette. Check out Stephen Quiller's color wheel and charts - you don't need to necessarily use cads to make earth colored colors.)

2. Clove oil will retard the drying of everything on your palette.

3. Flake white dries faster than Titanium.

4. Paints ground in Linseed oil dry faster than paints ground in poppyseed or safflower oil, and the slowest drying of all are paints ground in Walnut oil ( M Graham)

5. Some mediums will slow drying time, some will speed it up. Actually there was an article in (I think) last month's (June,2004 probably) Artist or American Artist Magazine on just this topic. I'll try to hunt it down.

I actually use paints and mediums that dry so quickly I routinely scrape off my palette and put out fresh colors by noon each day. If there is a dry passage on my painting, I 'wet' it with some medium or light retouch varnish; then it is not so difficult to paint into a previously painted surface, nor to match the colors well. I think Peggy B uses Poppyseed oil to 'wet" a dry surface. The only time I really re-paint areas (other than to fix mistakes!) is where I need to manage edge transitions.

If anyone has more precise information on this topic, please don't be shy.