I want to speed up the drying time of my oils

[derek123]

Hi, I am using Daler Rowney Georgian large tubes of student grade paint. I want to speed up the drying time as fast as possible but I don’t want to use cobalt drier or any other poisonous driers. I just tried using res-n-gel thick alkyd medium and I added it a 1:1 ratio with a pile of titanium/zinc white and it is not drying fast at all. I have only let it sit for about 12 hours though maybe less.

Please if anyone can tell me of a fast drier for oils that does not make the paint more liquid, and is non toxic so I can blend with my fingers, and dries in 24 hours preferably,

any help greatly appreciated.

Derek

[Anonymous]

Please if anyone can tell me of a fast drier for oils that does not make the paint more liquid, and is non toxic so I can blend with my fingers, and dries in 24 hours preferably,

since you have ruled out driers and alkyds there is little left but Graham’s walnut alkyd medium and this option, which is the least toxic method to speed drying and will not make your paints more liquid.
Choose and select the colors and brands of paints which dry fast by themselves. I did a thread about this topic and came up with a palette of colors that dries in and of itself in about a day. The white selection will be of most importance since that is normally used more than the other colors.
Here is my list:
Utrecht or Permalba white
Grumbacher yellow ochre
Gamblin Hansa yellow med.
Winsor Newton Bright Red
Utrecht or Rembrandt Ultramarine Blue
Winsor Newton or Utrecht Burnt Sienna
This palette dries in about a day, with a little walnut alkyd, even better.
Smear out test swatches of all of your colors on some wax paper or non absorbent palette. See which colors are very slow drying. Avoid using them or buy from the above list to supplement your fast drying palette.
If you start with slow drying colors like cadmiums then don’t expect to dry fast, maybe even with adding walnut alkyd medium.

[derek123]

i have not ruled out alkyd, only ruled out using alkyd paints. i am currently using resngel medium in 1:1 proportion to oil paints to speed up drying. what do you think about that? it is currently wet and has been for about 12 hours. i am too lazy to buy all the different brands. i want these colors from daler rowney. for my palette from which all other colors come. that i want. mars black, crimson red, yellow ochre, white. that is all. any advice greatly appreciated. i use the big tubes, and they are cheap.

[Anonymous]

the crimson red will probably be a slow drier. I have not used resngel, but 1:1 with most mediums is kind of a lot to add I think.
Oh yeah, you can also place your painting in a very warm environment and this will speed the drying rate considerably.
one other thing that will put an end to it is by just using acrylics instead of oils, or underpaint with acrylic and then final coat in oils, then who cares if it takes a few days, that is what a lot of people do, me too .
don’t be lazy or impatient if you like oils!

[derek123]

i guess i wait and see how fast this layer dries. i would use smaller tubes that have fast dry rates but i paint big and need those cheap daler rowney tubes that are big. if they made alkyd paints as cheap as daler rowney oils i would use that. if they made acrylics as cheap as them i would use that, but my price range is basically stuck at the rowney tubes. so worst case scenario is i wait for it to dry. hahaha. but i have a call in to jerryartorama or whatever, to see if their mixing white is actually ground in alkyd, at least that is what it said on a website, that mixing white is actually white bound in alkyd binder.

[karenlee]

Gamblin has a new solvent-free alkyd gel painting medium that speeds drying time; it comes in a 150ml tube. I have used it and I find it very satisfactory, but it costs more than paint.
I have also used alkyd walnut oil; the difference in drying time compared to plain walnut oil is hardly noticeable…Gamblin alkyd gel is better, maybe because I use more of the Gamblin gel than I would use of the alkyd walnut oil.
Why do you oppose cobalt drier? It’s really the ticket to speed up drying.

[budigart]

Not using “poisonous” material in painting reminded me that painting is full of peril . . . Pthalo blue contains a component of cyanide; turquoise contains arsenic; the cadmiums contain, what else, cadmium, and flake white contains lead.

As for drying without other additives, I’d say to stick with as many earth colors as possible, and switch to a good flake white. I’ve used flake white for more than 30 years, and except for my odd twitch, I’m fine. The trick with all these harmful substances is cleanliness (wash hands before eating), and don’t eat the paint.

[troutbum]

Flake white is PW 1, or Basic Lead Carbonate. Permalba White is PW 6 (titanium dioxide) and PW 4 (zinc oxide) combined. I am not sure that either one holds any advantage. JMHO!
troutbum

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[WFMartin]

To speed the drying time of oil paint, I merely add distilled spirits of Gum Turpentine to my medium recipe. I have found mere Turpentine (used as the solvent in my medium) to be one of the absolute fastest drying additions to a medium that I’ve found, and it is very compatible with oil paint.

When I tone my canvas surface with tinted white oil paint, I use a medium composed of 1 part Stand Oil with 5 parts Turpentine. It begins to set up while I’m applying it, and it dries overnight.

wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

[Gigalot]

Sun-thickened oil contains natural peroxides and it dries faster than any oil. The other way is to put your painting to a hot place. Oil dries 4x faster at a 60 Celsius degree temperature.
The third way is to put your painting on direct sun light.

Personally, I use now solvent free “winter medium” which is Kiwi-colored, copper resinate solution in Sun-thickened oil. Cobalt can turn your oil to a brown color, while copper resinate has an emerald color and, as I hope, it do not change it to brown.

“Winter medium” is good to work at low-ventilated conditions. No volatile components there.

Metallic driers activity rank:
Co > Cr > Mn > Cu > Fe > V > Ni > Ti > Pb = Ca = Ag = Zn > Al > Mg
Ferric and calcium driers can show “Ultra-Highest non-toxic properties”

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