Making an oil paint medium is easier than you think. No need to go out and buy expensive pre-made medium. Just mix some oil and thinner. More oil means a slower drying paint, more thinner means a faster drying paint.
Ensure you use Linseed oil as this oil dries the fastest. So when mixing a medium of oil and thinner, Linseed oil should be your first choice. You want to thin out a bit of your oil paint in a separate container then add that into your mixture for each coat you apply. There are many other mediums like Gamsol spirit based which may also help speed up the drying of oils by increasing their viscosity or thickness however these type do tend to thicken your paints overall so be careful how much you use.
But what if you have already started or finished your painting and need it to dry now? This brings me to the next important bit of information about oil paint. That is that oil paints contain oil.
Mind blown right? The thing is oil does not dry, it actually oxidizes when exposed to air. So blowing on it, putting it outside for air or sticking a fan on the front will not help the oil paint dry faster. The process needs to happen slowly in order for the oil paint not to crack and so that the pigments do not break down too much. Although oxidation is what makes your paint dry oil turning into CO2 — carbon dioxide gas , if your painting will be on display for a long time then it would probably benefit from having a slower drying time because of how slow oxidation works.
What type of heat can you apply to make oil in oil paint oxidize faster? Well you can apply heat from any source that provide a constant and controllable heat. Here we are only interested in finding out which method works best by quickly testing them all at low heat.
I have even heard of some artists prematurely aging their oil paintings by placing them in an oven over a low heat. This process can ruin your painting but it will dry out most of the oil in oil paint and will actually make your painting look very old. If all you want to do is dry the oil paint without the added problem of aging then all I can suggest a low heat like a lamp over a few hours.
Try using a hair dryer on low heat and you will need to sit there for a while moving the hair dryer from side to side, up and down. The sun and UV rays will really help oxidize the oil from your oil painting but you may also get some bugs or dust or anything else that can be floating around landing on your painting and being stuck there for eternity.
You can use chemical dryers such as Galkyd or Liquin which will dry your paint in 1 to 3 days but I do stress some caution using these.
Adding a quick-drying color over a slow-drying color can result in cracking. When it comes to canvas and painting surfaces, many beginning artists do not realize that there are other options besides the universal-primed canvas you see in stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby which tend to result in slower drying time for oil paint.
Here is a list of some options:. On of my favorite surfaces to paint on is Lead-primed linen. Painting on a smooth canvas that has been double or triple primed with lead white is a beautiful experience. The surface will slightly cling to the wet paint, which makes it great for wet on wet painting, but it will not stain and it's non-absorbant, so you can wipe wet paint completely off.
Despite it being non-absorbant, oil paint dries much faster on lead-primed linen than it does on universal or regular titanium oil-primed canvas.
Bear in mind that lead is toxic, so be sure not to ingest it in any way. Also, its toxic nature makes it difficult to come by and it's expensive. There are a few manufacturers that make it but it may take some research. Some vendors will say their linen is lead-primed when it's really not, so inquire specifically before buying. Lead white also has a tendency to yellow over time. So don't be surprised if you buy some lead-primed linen and see it's slightly yellow in appearance as compared with titanium-primed surfaces.
Paint will not spread as easily and it soaks in more, but it does dry faster. There are two types of gesso, traditional gesso which is made with rabbit skin glue poor bunnies , and acrylic gesso. Traditional gesso is meant for rigid surfaces due to its brittle nature, so only use it on something stiff like wood panels.
Acrylic gesso is not a true gesso but just an acrylic primer. Glue chalk gesso-primed surfaces have an absorbent surface that will help oil paint dry faster. This process may not speed up the drying time of your oil paint, but it can speed up the entire painting process. Many paintings are built up with a layering process which allows the artist to more easily establish color and value masses from which to work off of.
Rather than using slow-drying oils for the block-in, you can use acrylics that dry in a matter of minutes.
Once you are confident that the colors and values are correct, use oil paint for your final layers. The great thing about this process is that there is less of a change of ghosting, those dull spots that happen when layered oil paints dry. This is especially true if you save the oil for your final layer. You can always put oil-based paint over water-based paint, but never the reverse. So never use oil-primed canvas with this approach and never paint acrylic over oil.
As you can see, there are a number of factors that can influence the drying time of oil paints. So if one of the above approaches is not working, it could be due to another variable. For example: let's say you are painting on an absorbent surface but the paint is taking forever to dry. It may be that the paint is a pigment that normally takes longer to dry such as cadmium. And if that cadmium is made with safflower oil, it will take even longer.
I once used a brand of titanium white that was made strictly with safflower oil. I had a thick stroke of almost pure white paint in one spot on a painting that was supposed to go to a show. I was also storing the painting in our dark, unheated basement during the winter while it dried.
Because of this combination of factors, thick paint, safflower oil, and a cold, dark environment, it literally took over a month before that one spot on the painting dried. Other variables that can affect drying time are the brand of paint used. One brand of cobalt blue may dry faster than another brand, especially if the one brand has a lot of additives. You also need to consider the age of the paint.
If a particular tube of paint has been in a retail storeroom for years and it wasn't sealed airtight, it will probably dry faster since the oxidation process had begun prior to you receiving it; it may also be very stiff. The next time you order that same type, it may be a newer tube that will take longer to dry. The best thing to do is experiment with some of the options listed above until you determine what works best for your painting method, style, and environment.
I hope that helps. One of the most commonly overlooked factors for paint drying times is that not all paint is created equally and different paint colors have different minerals in their pigments. If your artwork commonly uses these then your drying times for your oil paints will tend to be quicker than average and can get you used to your artwork drying much quicker than usual.
The colors that have pigments that tend to dry slower than average include all cadmium variants, most black paints, vandyke brown, vermilion, alizarin crimson, alizarin red, and zinc-based white paints. If you are used to working with colors that dry quicker then switching to these slower than average colors can make you think that something is wrong with your actual paints so keep this in mind but it is simply due to the minerals used in their pigments taking longer to oxidize.
The actual surface that you apply your oil paints can come into play with the expected drying time with some of the more common surfaces taking longer than others. You are able to use something like lead-primed linen to help ensure that your oil paints will dry as quickly as possible but this can increase the costs so we tend to only recommend it for professional level artists.
Although alkyd based priming of the surface you are going to be painting on is another popular option, it can also drastically pump up the costs needed so we tend not to recommend it.
If you are wanting a cheaper solution then you can try to prime your surface with some cheap gesso and it may help to reduce the drying time for your oil paints. That said though, there other factors that come into play and depending on what you are trying to do with your oil painting, this may not be an option for everyone but we just wanted to include it in our list.
If you do decide to give gesso to prime a surface then be sure to follow the instructions on the label as different gesso products can requires slightly different application techniques. As we have mentioned a few times above, heat is not a major factor in the oxidisation process of your oil paints and usually has a minimal effect on the drying time of your artwork.
That said though, there is one single use case where heat may be beneficial and that is if you are in an area that is particularly cold year round as other factors in the oxidisation process will slow down in very cold temperatures. Due to the majority of people who do live in areas that are very cold all year having in-door heating that is able to warm their home, this tends not to be as large of an issue as most would expect.
That said, if you do live in a particularly cold area and have converted your garage or shed into your art studio and it is not link into your home heating system, a small heater may be beneficial. As different heaters work in different ways it is usually better to just put the heater in a safe location in the same room as your artwork and use it to raise the overall temperature of the room rather than aim the heater directly at your artwork.
Again though, this is only a viable way to make your oil paint dry quicker in very particular situations and is not worth it for most of our readers. If your oil based paint is still not drying then there may be an underlying issue that is fundamentally wrong with your painting setup. The most common cause is that people who are used to using other types of paint try to use water as a medium with their oil paint and it all ends up going wrong.
Although water does work well with other types of paint, it should not be mixed with oil paint as oil and water tend not to mix well. If you are a beginner then this could be playing into why your oil paint is taking too long to dry so try to look for sources of water in your process.
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