Oil Paint: How to dry faster... [Consider this thread solved: LOCK PLEASE ]

winter_combat_knight

Hey fellas,

Ive got some oil paintings which i need dry by tomorrow. Does anyone have tips on what i can do to increase the drying speed? Note: They have pretty much already been painted.

Szechuanosaurus

SOL

For faster drying oil paintings, you need to use agents while painting that accelerate drying (such as pigments like cobalt) and use less oil (and faster drying oil like linseed) in the under layers than on the upper layers, so the under layers absorb oil from the upper layers.

I think if you try and force the painting to dry quicker, you are likely to suffer cracking from the surface drying faster than the under layers.

Why do they 'need' to be dry by tomorrow? If it's an issue of transportation, you might be able to package them in boxes to keep anything from touching the surface etc.

winter_combat_knight

Szechuanosaurus wrote: »

Why do they 'need' to be dry by tomorrow? If it's an issue of transportation, you might be able to package them in boxes to keep anything from touching the surface etc.

haha. Thats exactly the issue.

bsjezz

there's not a lot you can do - as szechuan says, there are various mediums and oils you can work into the paint while painting to help it dry sooner, but really once it's down you're not going to be able to do much other than wait.

winter_combat_knight

Damn. Pretty much the same answer as over in the AC. I was hoping for some secret technique. Oh well. Cheers anyway.

wakkawa

Set it out in the sun.

saltiness

There are boxes you can buy which allow for easy transportation of wet paintings.

matt has a problem

wakkawa wrote: »

Set it out in the sun.

Or use a hair dryer set on low heat. You run the risk of it cracking of course, but it will dry faster.

Figgy

DO NOT PUT YOUR OIL PAINTING IN THE SUN OR RUN A HAIR DRYER ON IT!

Ok there. Hopefully you see that and do not listen to the posters above me. They know not of what they speak, and you are not going to "likely" fuck up your painting, you are FOR SURE going to fuck up your painting.

Through four years of oil painting classes in uni, I had to suffer taking half-dry work to studio class all the time. It served me right for working at home days before the due date rather than in the enormous, gorgeous studio we were provided with.

Trust me, if old folks with PHDs who have been painting with oils for 50 years don't have a secret method to make oils dry faster after they've already been painting, one doesn't exist!

wakkawa

Figgy wrote: »

DO NOT PUT YOUR OIL PAINTING IN THE SUN OR RUN A HAIR DRYER ON IT!

Ok there. Hopefully you see that and do not listen to the posters above me. They know not of what they speak, and you are not going to "likely" fuck up your painting, you are FOR SURE going to fuck up your painting.

Through four years of oil painting classes in uni, I had to suffer taking half-dry work to studio class all the time. It served me right for working at home days before the due date rather than in the enormous, gorgeous studio we were provided with.

Trust me, if old folks with PHDs who have been painting with oils for 50 years don't have a secret method to make oils dry faster after they've already been painting, one doesn't exist!

Really now.

The sun thing works wonders, did it all the time. You aren't going to ruin anything if it sits out for a couple of hours. How the hell would anyone do landscapes outside if it did?

valeryce

Sorry, no secret techniques I know of. You could try photographing your oil paintings and reprinting them on high quality paper, but getting it dry that fast is impossible.

jpeg

In the future, painting with something like alkyd medium makes it dry in something like 1-3 days as opposed to a million days without it.

winter_combat_knight

Thanks for the suggestions. Figgy, i'll definately have to learn to work on a schedule which allows a couple of dayys for drying. wakkawa, i would have left it in the sun, but in Australia, its been night for the last 12 hours :P So that wasnt an option. I just checked on them. One of them is dry enough for transportation, but the other on (painted on masonite) is gonna be messy. Oh well. Consider solved... i guess.

Figgy

wakkawa wrote: »

Really now.

The sun thing works wonders, did it all the time. You aren't going to ruin anything if it sits out for a couple of hours. How the hell would anyone do landscapes outside if it did?

Working outdoors and sitting a painting in the sun for a few hours to dry are two completely different things.