Chammi, Elinor and Rainy ... thank you for your comments. I switched from Liquitex to the Chroma Atelier Interactive Acrylics more than a year ago and I LOVE them. They do more than allow you more blending time ... they allow you to choose when you want them to dry fast and when you want them to dry slow. You can do both in the same painting. What I do most often is use just a bit of the slow-dry medium when I want to do subtle blending. This will become touch dry in 5 to 30 minutes, ample time for blending but it will be a soft layer. I then coat it with the fast medium/fixer to harden it and I then continue to paint on top of that layer without disturbing the lower layer. So Voila! ... when you want time to blend you can blend. When you want to work faster you can glaze! I haven't used their unlocking formula because I haven't needed it. I use a fine mist sprayer (with distilled water) but I spray the palette when it becomes tacky, not the canvas. To mix colors I use a 3 cup Pyrex glass dish (about 5x7") lined with my home-made stay-wet palettes: four layers of paper towel, topped with parchment paper, stapled in the corners and cut to fit my Pyrex dish. I saturate it with distilled water then sqeeze out the excess. It is not uncommon for me to keep my palette wet for days. I sqeeze small amounts of paint into two pill boxes purchased from Walmart. They are not water tight so between painting sessions I spray the contents with a bit of water, snap the lids closed then store them in a zip-lock bag with a wet paper towel. BTW, I'm using up my Liquitex colors by using them in conjunction with my IA when I need a color that I have not yet purchased in the IA and it has not been a problem. I urge anyone considering the IA's to watch the demos on the Chromaonline.com website. Lots of good information there.
Linear Mode
