why does oil painting takes too long to dry ?

Question

i was trying to paint with oil color for the first time, it took me so long to dry it, is there anything that you put on the canvas to dry it faster or wat?or anything that you mix it wit oil color????

Answer 1

There are plenty of mediums you can use to hasten drying. Try "Liquin" by Winsor&Newton or "Quick Dry" by Grumbacher. I also hasten drying by putting my canvasses in my car and leaving it parked in the sun with the windows just rolled down about an inch to eliminate whatever fumes may be coming off the paint. It takes so long to dry because the moisture in the oil binders is evaporating and the pigment is setting up in the oil rubbery solids that remain after evaporation. I have heard that very thickly painted oil paintings may still be drying inside after decades.

Answer 2

To dry an oil painting the oil within the paint must evaporate, something contrary to it's nature. This allows a silkier quality to the paint, and a much longer working time as aposed to water based paints.

To dry you simply set it aside for several days, weeks if the paint is very thick, and let nature take it's corse. There is nothing to speed it up, and in fact should you put something on top of it... a sealer or something similar, you can cause the painting to eventually rot.

The longer drying time allows you to set the painting aside and come back to it and still mix colors in.

I have found that the thinner you paint the quicker it dries. Try adding a bit more linseed oil to the paint and it will become more glaze like. It will dry to be able to be handled, but still isn't dry enough to seal, within a day, maybe two.

If y ou like quicker drying paints you might want to stick with acrylic. You can thin acrylics, and even add mediums to keep it from drying quite so fast. I've finally learned how to use acrylics effectivly after oil painting for several years.

Water colors dry even faster, but are harder to use since they don't have quite as thick a pigment as either acrylic or oil. But they can create some beautiful glaze methods.

Answer 3

Oil takes days (a week sometimes depending on how much paint you use) to dry because it is made of oil. There isn't anything you can really do to make it dry faster because it was made to dry slowly - allowing artists to work in sessions throughout the drying process and to be able to blend colors easily.

Answer 4

Yeah, oils take much longer to dry, that's why many artists use them instead of egg tempra. there is more time for blending the colors together. There are drying mediums that can be added while painting is being worked on. Search for art supplies and go to the oil paints sections.

Answer 5

Oil dries by oxidation so it takes a lot of time to dry, try using oil liquin to dry it faster. Usually when painting with oil people put thin washes so they dry faster instead heavy application of paint.

Answer 6

ive been oil painting for 3 years now and i dont think that there anything that u can do except B patient. but u can paint w/ not as much paint and make the coat less thick. it tales away from the effect though. patience is a virtue!

Answer 7

because it's oil! it's not supposed to dry fast!