Dry your oil paints faster so you can keep working.
Oil paints can take anywhere from days to weeks to dry, forcing you to stop working until your current layer has dried. Choosing the right colors, oil-paint thinners and materials can speed up the drying time and get you back to work sooner.
Instructions
1. Plan out the layers of your painting, using thin layers of paint when possible. Always paint the thickest layers on the bottom and the thinner layers on top to prevent cracking. If you can do the entire project in thin layers of paint, do so. The paint will dry much faster when it's not spread on in thick globs.
2. Choose oil-paint colors that dry the fastest. For example, neutral white dries faster than zinc white, while cobalt yellow dries faster than cadmium yellow. Slow colors take five or more days to dry, while the fastest colors can dry in just two days, according to WetCanvas.com You can find a list of colors and how fast they dry in Resources.
3. Thin your oil paint with an odorless paint thinner before you start painting. Add a few tablespoons of paint thinner and mix with the paint until it reaches the consistency you want, such as extremely thin or still slightly thick. Mixing in paint thinner will cut down the time that each color needs to set.
4. Consider using linseed oil or boiled oils (such as boiled linseed oil), if you do not like using paint thinner. Both oils help the paint dry quickly, though boiled oils lose their color over time and work best for layers of the painting you plan to cover up later on. Mix in about a tablespoon of linseed or boiled oil to your paint. Keep adding until you reach a thinner consistency.
5. Paint on a surface that will dry quickly. Artist David Rourke suggests in his blog to use a copper panel as your painting surface. The bottom layers of your painting will dry quickly on the copper. A painting done on canvas will take at least two weeks or more to dry because of the absorbent nature of the material. A painting done of copper can dry in a week or less, depending on how thick your paints are.
6. Blot the painting with a clean rag or a piece of newspaper if it hasn't finished drying and you need to move on. This method, suggested in "Introduction to Painting" by John Henn, removes excess paint so you can continue on with the next layer. Consider this only when you really need to move forward with your painting. Blot gently and do not move side to side, or you may smudge the painting.
