Acrylic painting in arid conditions - WetCanvas: Online Living for Artists

This topic has 10 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 9 months ago by Bertoni.

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July 8, 2019 at 9:35 pm #475469
Old_hobbyest
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I’ve had a number of occasions to paint with acrylics in areas that have low humidity. I have always used traditional tube acrylics- and fought – with the rapid drying times. Recently I obtained a lot of Open acrylics. So on a recent trip to California, high altitude – 4500 ft -and dew points in the 40s F, I tried the opens. As expected Open does remain Open for a lot longer than traditional acylics. But I did not expect them to be runny. In particular Cobalt blue flowed like water. Tit white was gummy and Perm Yellow separated. These were new 1 oz tubes, the small size ideal for PA.
As expected drying time was extended, but a lot longer than I anticipated. In particular the Phthalo Green was tacky 2+ hrs after I’d finished for the day.
Should I have expected this? What did I do wrong? :confused:
July 9, 2019 at 8:49 am #852539
Jerry Campbell
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I’m wondering if it is worth the struggle to work with acrylics in that environment.
Unless you have a serious aversion, I would suggest using oil colours.
Even oils can set up quickly in hot dry conditions, but are much more controllable than water-based pigments.
July 9, 2019 at 8:53 am #852532
Yorky Administrator Ormskirk
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Dig out the Gouache?

Doug

We must leave our mark on this world
July 9, 2019 at 10:59 am #852535
westcoast_Mike
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40 degrees is really pushing it with acrylics. It doesn’t dry properly much below 50. Switch to oils or another water medium.

Thick skinned and sometimes thick headed, C&C always welcome - Mike

Additional work can be viewed at Mike's site
July 9, 2019 at 11:07 am #852536
Gary Mc (Trikist)
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First, I have long been of fan of your acrylic paintings. I hope that Open Acrylics work for you. I paint in oils, acrylics, gouache, casein and Opens. Opens are my favorites for painting outdoors. BTW, I live at about 4200 feet in fairly dry climate.

Below is my Opens’ Cobalt Blue on a vertical sheet of paper. It is not runny. I certainly believe you and wonder if somehow you have a bad tube. Opens are more fluid than my heavy body paints.

Stickiness is an issue. I can blend an area if I do so immediately. Otherwise, I move about the painting letting areas partially dry. When I come back to a “sticky” part, I apply paint with the brush horizontal to the panel, as I would applying wet on wet paint in oils. There is an irritating learning curve.

I normally use a wet panel carrier. If I can lay a panel in direct sunlight, it will dry faster.

All mediums have their irritating limitations. That goes for Golden Opens. Gary

[ATTACH]867002[/ATTACH]

"Painting is a verb"
July 9, 2019 at 11:17 am #852537
Gary Mc (Trikist)
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40 degrees is really pushing it with acrylics. It doesn’t dry properly much below 50. Switch to oils or another water medium.

Opens do work at lower temps than regular acrylics. Here is a painting I did in early spring at about 40 degrees. I have painted with Opens while it was snowing, though you can not let the snow strike the painting. I am not a great painter and do not own stock in Golden. Still, i find Opens most versatile for my plein air uses. My plein air oils are consistent disasters. Gary

[ATTACH]867003[/ATTACH]

"Painting is a verb"
July 9, 2019 at 3:27 pm #852540
Bartc
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Can’t say anything about cold temps and acrylics, but as to dry conditions, I’ve found the best acrylic to work with is Chroma Atelier INteractive. Unlike Golden, which is a slow drying acrylic that cannot be re-opened, Interactives dry like regular acrylics BUT they can also be kept open with just a water spritz. And their Unlocking Formula will reopen them up to about a week later after drying! They have good consistency, great chroma, and are not any more expensive.
July 9, 2019 at 5:46 pm #852533
~JMW~
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I got a small landscape set of Golden Opens.
I used them both indoors (winter wood stove heating) and outdoors in my unheated studio, they seemed to get sticky quite quickly.. and lost the blending part at that point..
I don’t care for the smell of them either..

Staying with the regular acrylics..

~Joy~
July 20, 2019 at 12:17 am #852538
Old_hobbyest
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Thanx for all the input. But I was not painting at 40F. That was the dew point. Very arid. Thanx, Trikist for your encouragement about Open. The funny thing is that I got a batch of small 1 oz tubes directly from the local rep for Golden after I told him about the rapid drying with standard acrylics at hi altitude and low humidity.
What about other media? I have an allergy to oil vehicles. And if acrylics dry fast gouache and watercolors dry even faster. It’s the evaporation of water at low humidity.
Recently I went back to Open to see if was me or the paint, this time painting at 7 ft above the Gulf at 90F and 60% RH. The white was still like asphalt, the blue was still runny and the yellow still separated. Conclusion? The samples were bad. I reported my findings to the rep a while back. Haven’t heard a word back. So back to dealing with rapid drying tube acrylics. “For free, take. For buy, waste time.”
July 21, 2019 at 6:17 am #852534
vhere
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I was never really a fan of acrylics because of the fast drying but a workshop with Paul Talbot Greaves changed my mind he introduced us to using a medium and matt medium (10mins drying) and flow extender (lovely thin washes and an extra couple of minutes) made the paint do what I wanted and enabled subtle diffused edges etc They might help you?

MY WEBSITE:http://vivienblackburn.com MY BLOG:http://vivienb.blogspot.com/ ETSY for original paintings http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6150568
July 22, 2019 at 4:29 pm #852541
Irlynda
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I love acrylic paint but it’s near impossible where I live on the side of the Edwards Plateau in West Texas. Winter can be -10 F and summer 106 F with very very little humidity. I’ve spent so much money and time trying to extend drying time. I gave up and went back to using oils and watercolor exclusively. My only problem is I literally have pounds of acrylic paints sitting in containers in my studio.

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]irlSmith Art
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