Need help!

[whirlygirl]

I ordinarily work in oils. I'm a portrait painter, and often coat the final painting with Liquin since I can't wait a year to varnish. I just finished two portraits in water-miscible oils and coated them with Winsor & Newton's Artisan Water Mixable Oil Painting Medium. Mistake! :eek: They will not dry. I put them in the sun for hours and hours, but they're still awfully tacky. Will they ever dry? It's been days, and I have to mail them off soon!

Can anyone help? Also, I couldn't find a web site for Winsor & Newton to ask for help. Is it possible they don't have one??

[Dana Design]

W&N is a partner of WC. You can ask here:

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=494

[stapeliad]

Lots of posts of this nature lately...try removing the alkyd layer with OMS, and don't use water in your Artisan paint or medium.

[stapeliad]

Hi Clare,
OMS is odorless mineral spirits. Paint thinner. :)

[DAK723]

Website:

http://www.winsornewton.com/

Good luck. By the way, it's not usually recommended to substitute a medium (like Liquin) for a varnish. A varnish layer should be removable. Using a medium without any pigment makes it more likely to yellow, too.

You can always use a diluted varnish if you don't have time to wait. A diluted varnish can be applied within a few weeks - some folks say when the painting is touch dry. Unless you paint in thick impasto layers, 6 months is a long time to wait before varnishing - even though that is the default recommendation. If you paint in thin layers, then you can probably varnish in 3 or 4 months.

Here's a link to Gamblin's website where they discuss varnishing a bit more:

http://www.gamblincolors.com/faq/varnish.html#q1

Hope this helps.

Don

[greywolf-art]

I suspect you used the standard painting medium which is the same sort of drying time as linseed oil, for what you are trying to do the fast drying medium would have worked better, though having said that I agree that this is not the best way to work - the Liquin / fast drying medium can yellow with time and there is a good possibility of cracking over time too due to having a hard layer over a soft layer!

but at the end of the day its up to you - if you want to risk it then you have to risk the comebacks when clients come back and complain about problems with your paintings !

Personally I always make sure the client understands about drying times and the need to wait up to 6 months before varnishing then leave it up to them to get the varnishing done (its out of your hands that way and the risks are entirely with the client then)