Use of oil paints

[jsteel]

I was reading an article in International Figure Mag where the artist used oil paint for part of the skin. He stated dont put on your highlights until the oil paint is dry.

Does anyone have any idea how long that would take? He did state that he took some of the linseed oil out of the paint by putting it from the tube onto paper towel for a few minutes but I still have no idea how long oil paint takes to dry. It was probably a very thin layer if that helps.

James

[MAXXxxx]

oil is 'dry' to the touch in a few minutes, but sets in about 24-48 hrs. Before that the thinner in the highlight could rewet and ruin your shades, but at the same time could help blending the colors.

So if doing the HL carefully I'd wait maybe an hour before going in with the HL-s and 'hope' it's set enough to have no problems.

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

I was reading an article in International Figure Mag where the artist used oil paint for part of the skin. He stated dont put on your highlights until the oil paint is dry.

Does anyone have any idea how long that would take? He did state that he took some of the linseed oil out of the paint by putting it from the tube onto paper towel for a few minutes but I still have no idea how long oil paint takes to dry. It was probably a very thin layer if that helps.

James

Oil paint is dry to the touch, depending on the pigment, in 1 hour to one week. The earthy tones dry relatively fast, like your umbers and siennas. Colors like Ultramarine blue and any non lead based white take very long to dry. Cadmium a take forever too. But that is on canvas or board. Traditionally, using oils on minis works like this: apply a small amount to desired area, then brush it out with a flat or old round brush until it is thinned. Then lift up or take off the oil that spread into areas that you do not want. You can do this with a dry brush or paper towel.

The idea is that the oil needs to go on thin so that brush marks don't appear, etc. just like we want our acrylics to be thin so we add water or a medium. One cannot dilute oil with a medium because it becomes too uncontrollable on a tiny mini surface, so instead we apply small dots of pigment here and there and then spread it out and lift off offending areas. Pretend you are painting a face with oils. First, you would apply an acrylic base of the mid tone of the flesh color. Once this dries, you want to shade under the lower lip with oil. You apply a small dot of burnt umber here, then spread it out with an old dry and damaged brush. But you spread it out too much and now your shadow is all over his chin. No worries: simply wipe it off with a paper towel or, for more control, use a clean and dry brush to pick it up off the surface.

There are several ways to make oil paint dry faster. Yes, you can take out a lot of the linseed from the oil by the paper towel method you mention. However, cardboard works better. I am not sure how you would nearly remove the oil paint from a paper towel, but that's a minor consideration I guess. There are also a number of mediums one can add to increase drying time, but really none are necessary. I wouldn't even use the cardboard method because the linseed in the oil paint, unless we are talking cheap oils, won't really cause any concern. Like I said once you spread it thinly enough it dries pretty quick.

I am am not sure of the methods used in the tutorial you mention, so I am not sure why he wants the oil paint to dry before adding highlights. Since the mid tones and base time is done in acrylics, you won't be painting much wet into wet. And if you do, so what? It will blend together as oil paint so beautifully does.

There is a good tutorial on YouTube. Shows a guy using oils to paint a civil war type figure. His face. It's very well produced and he mixes his oils on a paper plate. A quick search should reveal this. Anyway, good luck and I'll check back for follow ons

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Oh also just for the record: traditional oils on traditional grounds take up to a year to fully dry. Most painters will not varnish until 6 months to a year for this reason.