Oxidation Rather Than Evaporation
What actually makes oil paint dry. Well, it is oxidation, not evaporation. And it takes time for oxidation to work. It is the chemical process in which two molecules react with each other at room temperature. Yes, oil paint reacts with oxygen.
For example, consider an egg. It can be fried, boiled, or roasted. Each cooking will change the taste of the egg. And all these changes are due to the chemical reaction of the protein in the egg with the heat before being consumed. Similarly, oil paint will react with oxygen to change its state.
That is why changing the technique you use to apply the paint matters a lot.
Another Large Factor On How Long It Takes To Dry Oil-Based Paint Is Your Environment
If you look at the “Binders” section of paint cans, you’ll notice that the quick drying paints contain “Air-Dry Binders”. These are paints that take a short time to dry compared to traditional paints that contain “Aerosol-Base Binders”.
However, if you use paints that contain Aerosol-Base Binders and you don’t like the time it takes to dry, you can try speeding up the process by using an Alternative Binder!
Because oil paint isn’t 100% paint, it lacks the ability to dry by evaporating the water in it. In fact, the water is retained by a smaller amount of “Binder” compounds.
When it comes to body painting, clay based texturizing paints such as Face & Body Paints can be used as a replacement for “Aerosol-Base Binders”. Face & Body Paints are made of different minerals than regular paints. Some of these minerals act as a binding agent in order to hold the pigments in powdered form together to create paint.
Pigment & Oil Ratios Will Vary Across Manufacturers And Tubes
If you are looking at oil paint, this is well beyond the artist stage. This paint takes long to dry, even up to several weeks! So you may not want to be on top of them while working on the masterpiece.
Here are some tips to make it dry sooner:
Texturing the Surface:
The texture of the surface can greatly affect the drying of oil paint. Smooth surfaces dry faster than rough ones. To create texture, use a variety of painting tools such as a palette knife, squeegee, bristle brush, sandpaper, and the like. If the surface will be spray painted or varnished, the drying time of the oil paint will even be quicker.
Thinning the Oil Paint:
Using oil paints straight out of the tube is less ideal compared to thinning the paint for better fill in strokes. The pigments in the paint are heavy and light, making them harder to stir than water. As such, you will definitely have problems applying pigment and oil paint in layers by using a pallet or even a brush. Thinning the paint will allow you to have a little leeway the next time you layer the pigment.
You can also experiment with the thinner to get the right consistency for your application.
Use Solvents To Accelerate Drying Time:
General Guidelines On How Long It Takes Oil Paint To Dry
After you apply acrylic or oil paint to your canvas, you should ask yourself the question: how long oil paint takes to dry?
In order to paint continuously and produce large quantities of art, you should have the right tools and techniques for the job. If you simply want to produce beautiful art you can hang on your wall, you can try several methods to speed up the drying time. How long does it take for oil paint to dry? The simple answer is to make sure that you are using quality paint which has all the essential properties for speeding up the drying process. Here is a guide on how long it takes for oil paint to dry:
{1}. It takes about 5 to 6 hours for oil paint to dry in normal conditions.
{2}. Oil paint takes proportionally longer to set if the room is hot.
{3}. Good quality oil paint takes longer to dry than the cheaper supermarket brands.
{4}. A more opaque paint takes longer to dry than a matte or more transparent paint.
{5}. Colored paint takes longer than a pure hue.
{6}. Water-soluble paints take longer to dry.
{7}. Linseed oil dissolves more quickly than
{8}. If you want to speed up the process, use
Underpainting = ~ 1 Day
Oil paint is often used as an underpainting to allow the artist to better control the final image. The underpainting not only allows the artist better control, but also helps the paint bond to the canvas.
An underpainting takes a long time to dry (3-5 days+). But adding heat and pressure to the canvas can speed up the process.
On the subject of putting oil paint on a hot, humid or windy day, I was surprised myself to discover that as long as the paint is thoroughly thinned, one can paint in the hot sun.
Heat from sun will help the paint to dry faster and the paint thin enough will not cause any problems. Just be sure to protect the exposed paint on your canvas from rain.
Although the painting appears totally dry when you stop painting. Do not pick it up and hang it until it’s truly dry.
If you are lucky to have a particular fast drying paints (like Gamblin’s NuClear, a water-miscible, oil paint), you will attribute their drying speed to the solvent used. But in reality, they’re created by mixing the oil paints with a fast drying oil medium. A solvent such as mineral spirits or petroleum spirits, will speed up the drying time significantly.
Overpainting =~ 3 to 12 days
This is what you have to do when you want to lay down some fresh paint on top of a partially “dry” canvas. This technique is called overpainting and is used to build up layers of paint with distinct results.
The completion of oil painting is the ideal result of the drying process, although there are some right ways to speed it up. The recommended time for oil paint to dry is 3 to 12 days. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to wait 3 to 12 days to start your next painting project.
Overpainting is one surefire way to speed up the drying process. In fact, some artists have reported using this method successfully in as little as 3 to 6 hours. The fast drying of overpaint results in a more committed and committed painting.
Laying down a coat of paint on top of a partially dry painting allows the artist to work with more freedom and speed. Oil paint is not as affected by time as acrylic paint, although the thinner the paint application, the faster it will dry.
List Of Popular Oil Paint Drying Times
The duration an oil painting takes to dry, depends upon how you paint. If you work with thin layers of color and use a combination of wet and dry brushstrokes, then your painting will dry faster than if you paint thick impastos of color and make mostly smooth, soft brushstrokes.
The drying time also depends on the thickness or viscosity of your paint and if you use heat. The lower the viscosity and the larger the surface covered, the faster it will dry.
Various drying times are given by different experimenters. The following list is a compendium of the most popular timeline observations (often grouped in days and weeks).
If a particular artist doesn’t appear on the list, I suggest to look at the chapters Comparing Oil Paint Amounts and Why Does an Oil Painting Take So Long To Dry? to correct your painting style.
Fat Over Lean – Meet Slow Over Fast
If we look at chemistry in terms of physics, there is the concept of a phase change. This is when the composition of matter changes from one phase to another. For example, water ice “”s becoming liquid water and then becoming water vapor (steam) and becoming water steam.
So, with oil paint, we can say that we have oils with lighter and heavier pigments and binders. The lightest are in the top layers and thickest are last. The thicker oil binds the paints together and makes them drying resistant. This is called slow over fast.
Now, the secret to the long drying oil painting comes not from using a lot of slow oil but by being lean in oil.
Tips To Speed Up Drying Times Of Oil Paint And Improve Workflow
Oil paint dries in layers. Every layer is contained in the following layer, so that when you apply colours together over one another, they do not yield the effect you might want.
Therefore, you should never apply layers right on top of the dried layer. The right way is to apply the layer you want, and then wait for it to dry.
However, the drying times can be very long if you do not do anything about it.
Oil paint dries within 12-24h depending on the temperature (the hotter it is, the faster it dries) and the thickness of the layer. It can take up to over a week if coatings are very thick.
Increase the temperature
It is well known that temperature affects drying time. If the temperature is high, oils dry faster.
Increase the quantity of linseed oil
If linseed oil is the only oil in the mixture, it takes the longest to dry because it is more difficult to dry. If you are in a hurry, you can add a thinner oil to your paint.
Hold the lid
After mixing your paint, it is recommended to store it in a cupboard with a lid. The lid holds the trapped heat inside the cupboard and accelerates the drying.
Decrease the thickness of your oil paint layers
Thicker oil paint layers dry slower than thinner ones do.
Fast Drying Solutions
Whether you are an amateur or professional oil painter, attempts to speed drying time will be inevitable. No matter how carefully you apply the paint, it's always going to take a lot of time to dry to a level where you can stack it next to other paintings.
Let's face it, oil paint is just a pain to deal with in certain circumstances. You've got to be extra careful with the paint. For example, if you intend to paint on concrete or asphalt, you certainly need to coat the painting surface with a protective layer.
This extra precaution is not only for protecting the surface but also to avoid the paint from getting flaky or cracked while it dries. The main reason for paint flaking or cracking is due to the paint drying too fast or unevenly to its protective surface.
To prevent this from happening, the most common suggestions include:
Keep your painting in a room with very little airflow Keep your studio temperature cool
Doing the above will definitely help speed the drying process but often to your own convenience. But if you need to paint in a location where these suggestions don't make sense then, read on for some simple and proven solutions.
Liquin and Galkyd
It is always a challenge to try to paint on wet oil paints. So you can use two products to speed up the drying process. They are Liquin and Galkyd. You can use them both for oil painting. However, they serve different purposes. Liquin is used for wetting the paints while Galkyd is used for making the oil paint thin.
Liquin is an excellent product that speeds up the drying time of oil paints by thinning out the oils. It has solvents which speed up the drying time of oil paints. It helps prevent brush strokes and increases flow. It also improve