Oil paints with fast drying time (but not too fast)

As some of you know, I mostly used acrylic paints because they don’t take ages to dry (unlike some of my initial oil paintings which took almost a month to dry). Who wants to wait a month to varnish their painting? Or worse, some artists wait 6 months to a year.

As annoying as the dry time of oil paints can be, you get the best gradients with them. Getting the same quality of gradients in acrylics is very hard. Sometimes acrylic paints dry a few seconds after you lay them down on canvas. Can you imagine doing a sky on a big (36×48 inches) piece? It can get a bit annoying.

Oil paints take too long to dry and acrylic paints dry in a few seconds to a few minutes. I found a solution to this problem by some reading and some experimentation. Oil paints have synthetic mediums which will speed up the dry time like no tomorrow. Some of these mediums can cause the paint layer to dry in 24 hours or less. This, for me, is very ideal. I can do a sky in 6 hours if I need to and then have it be dried the next day for another layer of paint.

Here are some mediums I have experimented with and liked:

Liquin – Made by Windsor and Newton. It is a great medium which will dry your paint in 24 hours depending on how much of it you use in your paint. It is a modern version of the maroger medium. If you do use it, make sure you have proper ventilation or wear a mask that purifies air. It smells horrible and its smell will give you headaches.

Neo-Megilp – Made by Gamblin. This is Gamblin’s version of maroger medium. It usually dries in 3-4 days. However, on some of my paintings it dries in 24 hours or less. I bought it because I wanted it to dry in at least 4 days but most I got from neo-megilp was 2-3 days.

I love Gamblin and everything they make. Their goal is to make high quality painting materials without harming the artist. They have their own version of flake white which is harmless to the artist (vs the original flake white which is full of lead).

Non-toxic gel medium – Made by Gamblin. This contains no solvents for oil paints so it is completely safe to touch, etc. And, it is advertised to dry in 3-4 days as well but in my experience it dries in 2-3 days.

Both liquin and neo-megilp are not completely safe. They should be used be used with proper ventilation ( an open window is enough or a big room with the door open ). Non-toxic gel doesn’t have these limitations.

Now I can paint to my heart’s content, and only wait a day for the paint before putting on another layer of paint. Although these days, I have been painting alla prima (wet into wet) quite a bit so my paint drying in 24 hours has become a bit of an inconvenience. However, I know I can extend the drying time of the paints by mixing some stand oil or linseed oil along with the synthetic mediums so its not too much of a problem.


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