Acrylic Retarder
- Thread starter Margo
- Start date
U
U4-Welcome
Guest
Couldn\'t you add some more water ? The problem I had with retarder is that I never found the right proportions. Either the paint still dried super fast, or it turned all oily. That was with the Vallejo exender, btw.
U
U4-Welcome
Guest
I read that Tammy didn\'t use retarder and that her paints dried up (once applied on the mini) in about 2 minutes. I have no clue how she does this, for me it\'s almost instant. Anyway, if it weren\'t for her I would say that wet-blending is just about impossible without retarder.
Then again what do I know about wet-blending ? lol
Then again what do I know about wet-blending ? lol
U
U4-Welcome
Guest
But how ? ??? Seriously, my paints dry in literally five seconds once I\'ve applied them, and they are fairly diluted. I could never do wet blending : by the time I dip my brush in the second color and lay it down next to the first, the first color is already completely dry.
Seems like layering will remain my best friend for a while. lol
Seems like layering will remain my best friend for a while. lol
airhead
Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
Retarder is not the same as reducer.
Retarders are to slow the \"set\" time of paints and are generally maxed at 10% retarder/90% paint.
Reducers (airbrush medium, glazing meduim, water, future, etc.) are to \"thin\" the pigment to binder ratio. Generally lots more reducer can be used. Normally 50% reducer/50% paint but even 90% reducer/10% paint is possible with good reducers. Now for the kicker, most reducers will retard the dry time.
That said, I use Liqutex or Createx airbrush medium as a reducer and add a dab (1 oz. to 12 oz. bottle) of liquitex retarder.
I am looking to try the glazing meduim. This sounds like the perfect stuff for making washes from. In watercolor painting, glazes are VERY thin paints layered up to acheave a great depth of colors.
Retarders are to slow the \"set\" time of paints and are generally maxed at 10% retarder/90% paint.
Reducers (airbrush medium, glazing meduim, water, future, etc.) are to \"thin\" the pigment to binder ratio. Generally lots more reducer can be used. Normally 50% reducer/50% paint but even 90% reducer/10% paint is possible with good reducers. Now for the kicker, most reducers will retard the dry time.
That said, I use Liqutex or Createx airbrush medium as a reducer and add a dab (1 oz. to 12 oz. bottle) of liquitex retarder.
I am looking to try the glazing meduim. This sounds like the perfect stuff for making washes from. In watercolor painting, glazes are VERY thin paints layered up to acheave a great depth of colors.
Chrispy
Active member
Are you sure you didn\'t get the gel retarder? The liquitex stuff I got is the consistnacy of honey or corn syurp.. I did get gel retarder the first time and sent it back, as it really thickened up the paint (like I can get it onto the brush without having to cut it thick). I haven\'t found the regular kind thickening teh paint too much, but I did find it creates a shine if you use too much, I put in only one drop per mix I use.
retarder
Are you using a retarder in gel form? I find they\'re easier to use in liquid form as they don\'t change the thickness of the paint and in fact help to thin it. The Vallejo retarder is a gel retarder rather than a liquid one for example. Liquid ones would be ones like Liquitex Slo-dri.
--Katie G.
edit: gah Chrispy beat me to the draw lol
Are you using a retarder in gel form? I find they\'re easier to use in liquid form as they don\'t change the thickness of the paint and in fact help to thin it. The Vallejo retarder is a gel retarder rather than a liquid one for example. Liquid ones would be ones like Liquitex Slo-dri.
--Katie G.
edit: gah Chrispy beat me to the draw lol
Thanks for advice, everybody.
The retarder I bought is in the liquid, not gel form. It took me forever to explain what I\'m looking for to the lady at the local painting accessories store. But when she finally understood what \"the thing that makes acrylic paints dry slower\" ment, I bought the last (and, perhaps, the only) bottle of the retarted they had in store.
Will experiment some more this evening -- ruin a mini or two
The retarder I bought is in the liquid, not gel form. It took me forever to explain what I\'m looking for to the lady at the local painting accessories store. But when she finally understood what \"the thing that makes acrylic paints dry slower\" ment, I bought the last (and, perhaps, the only) bottle of the retarted they had in store.
Will experiment some more this evening -- ruin a mini or two
Valander
Member
I\'ve used the Vallejo Glaze Medium, and I\'m pretty happy with it. In my experience, it didn\'t act too much as a retarder, though it did slow the drying time just a bit. It also wasn\'t really a reducer, in the sense that the paint wasn\'t really too much thinner. It did, however, make the paint more transparent, which can give some really nifty effects.
U
U4-Welcome
Guest
Especially for tweening ? :bouncy:
airhead
Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
Oh my dear sweet Tooshy. Tweening is a neat form of blending that works something like this:
Paint one half of the sword with the darkest metal color. Paint the other half with the lightest. Now, go back into the middle third and paint it with a 50/50 blend. Top 1/6 with a 75/25 mix light/dark and the bottom 1/6 with a 25/75 mix. Keep halving the area and mixing the color in-between until the blend appears smooth. Clear as mud?
Paint one half of the sword with the darkest metal color. Paint the other half with the lightest. Now, go back into the middle third and paint it with a 50/50 blend. Top 1/6 with a 75/25 mix light/dark and the bottom 1/6 with a 25/75 mix. Keep halving the area and mixing the color in-between until the blend appears smooth. Clear as mud?
TAB Studio
New member
A special some one taught me to use the future floor wax at a 50/50 dilution really watery and then blend... It works very well but they also pointed to be careful of puddles dab the up as needed.
I purchased both the Liquitex Retarder and Flow agents. It was suggested to me by the art store that for thinner acrylics, like GW, I should add some water and use a touch more retarder then with tubed acrylics. I use a mix of 1/4 retarder to water.
I think (this is an educated guess) this has to do with the way retarder works. It doesn\'t inhibit the evaporation of the water, but rather, it just takes longer to evaporate. Since tube acrylic has less water to start with, the retarder will of course definatively extend the tube paints life.
With a thinner, more liquid (watery) paint, the retarder has to go farther in order to make up for the evaporation of the water, so more would be needed.
I personally have 3 addatives I use on a regular basis for painting: clean water, 25% retarder in water and 25% retarder, 5% flow agent in water. I paint with a magnifying light and was having the paint dry really quickly being 8 inches from a hot light. These mixes allow me much more time before something dries.
I think (this is an educated guess) this has to do with the way retarder works. It doesn\'t inhibit the evaporation of the water, but rather, it just takes longer to evaporate. Since tube acrylic has less water to start with, the retarder will of course definatively extend the tube paints life.
With a thinner, more liquid (watery) paint, the retarder has to go farther in order to make up for the evaporation of the water, so more would be needed.
I personally have 3 addatives I use on a regular basis for painting: clean water, 25% retarder in water and 25% retarder, 5% flow agent in water. I paint with a magnifying light and was having the paint dry really quickly being 8 inches from a hot light. These mixes allow me much more time before something dries.
Valander
Member
LOL... as a matter of fact, yes, it works very well for my new fave pet technique.
Airhead is pretty close with his description, though the process he describes is really what I would consider \"intermediate layering.\"
The technique I\'m referring to is very similar to this, but relies on using very, very thin and semi-transparent layers for the intermediates. I swear, I\'ll do a tweening article soon, but here\'s the quickie (of course, I swiped this technique from Thierry Husser and a great article over at Planet Figure (www.planetfigure.com)--though they\'ve moved the original article somewhere).
Basically, do a \"normal\" layering technique, with a base tone, two shadows, and two highlights (or maybe 3 of each, depending on what you want). It\'s fine to be a bit \"rough\" in applying these, as you really want to be blocking in colors at this point. After you\'ve blocked in the colors, starts the \"tweening\" process.
Thin your shadow #2 and #1 really far, almost to wash-like consistency. On the line between the colors, overlap some of the very thin #2 onto the #1, and vice-versa. Do this for each color division. The idea is that the toning of the very thin paint will soften the transitions between colors.
I\'ve done this on a few models now, and I\'m sold on it. It\'s (for me, at least) much easier than wet-blending (never got that down), and gives at least the same results. It\'s also a lot faster than feathering when doing layering (after some practice), and it has the advantage of \"automatically\" doing touch-up.
Full article to come soon, promise!
Edit: found a link to the article that got me started: http://www.planetfigure.com/articles/jaume_face_eng.pdf
