I Think I Made A Rookie Mistake

Oops! Pics upside down, hhaha.I know how to fix that kind of mistake...oh, wait, no I don't. Oh, well, you can still see the artwork. :-)

It's a bird, btw.

What a sweet little painting! I can see why it sold. As long as the oily red is on top and you don't try to paint over it with a lean mixture, it will eventually dry and should be fine. It may take a while. Sometimes I use a Napthol Red by M. Graham (uses walnut oil) which seems to take forever to dry, but other reds will dry more quickly. The climate where you live has an influence on drying time, too. Let your buyer know that you will mail it as soon as it dries and then keep them posted on the progress so they don't think you've forgotten about it. When it appears to be dry, before you mail it (assuming you have to mail it), wrap it in parchment paper so the paint won't stick to the wrapping. I usually add a sheet of cardboard to protect it further and then wrap the whole thing in bubble wrap before I put it in a box.

The buyer is local and has been told it needs to dry first. Good packaging tips though.

Can I speed up the drying time with a blow dryer or heat gun?

Good tip on red paint too.

I used Cad Red Medium.

They are making payments and will complete payments next month. Will a month be long enough?

i thought the dots were supposed to be there. i'd leave them or smash a brush into it for a flower look.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I have no idea how you fix your mistake..... but I do know I love your painting! Good luck and much success to you!
Karen Majkrzak

Jani, if it's oil paint, it may take up to six months to dry thoroughly. It may be touch dry in time to sell it though..

Great piece btw and congrats on your sale!

I just checked, Jani, and you live in Western Washington. That means no dry weather until July. No way that I know of to speed it up. You are probably at the mercy of time. However, being local, maybe you can hand deliver and give plenty of warnings about drying time and not touching. It can still be hung, but probably shouldn't be handled much.

Jani, I have no clue either but just wanted to say that I love the painting. If you do decide to take the spots off, I would try to get them as close to where they were as possible because they are like icing on the cake here.

I know nothing about paints but I do know wet climates. A room dehumidifier dries moisture without using any heat. I used to pull gallons of water out of the air with them when I lived in the fog belt.

Spray with krylon matte finish. It has a drying agent in it.
-- mary ellen anderson

The trouble (?) with oil is that the way it dries is by polymerization (plastifying) upon contact with the air. The actual molecules transform into little interlocking hooks, but it begins on the outside to form an impermeable membrane. Acrylic binder works the same way, but also loses most of its moisture to do so, so even the driest setting on a blow dryer will cost a king's ransom in electricity.

Edit: What Mary Ellen said :)

"I" - and I'm not an oil painter - although I have done some - would remove the wet paint very carefully, as you think, with a cue tip - it will leave the "perfect" circle - then paint with dryer paint into that circle - don't paint "outside" the lines. The new 'thicker' paint will dry faster - and the day will be saved. This is my idea of how I would fix it. good luck with it.

the krylon trick might work - but that oil paint may 'never' dry - and touching it - even a year from now - it might 'slide'. BWDIK

I am an oil painter and use this product all the time to dry fresh work. Don't forget sprays will blow, so if it's really liquid be far enough away that the spray just falls on the work. You can spray several times (think you wait an hour between applications) if additional dryness is required. Should do the job for you, let us know.
-- mary ellen anderson

Whatever Mary Ellen says - I'd go with that. Never had this problem with watercolor.

I don't do oil paintings, but I do spray my work with Krylon. The first time I sprayed a piece I was worried about how it would turn out, so I did a quick test using the same pens on the same surface. The test piece worked fine, so now I spray all of my artwork with great results. If you're nervous about trying it, do a quick piece using the same materials (just simple color blocks with the same red dots), and spray the test piece.

Lovely piece, btw! The red dots are a nice touch!

@Mike: I'll have to try that some time, haha.

@Roy: Me either.

Thank you so much, everybody, for the help and the compliments.

@ Mary Ellen: I'm going to try that. It does seem to be drying a bit on some of the dots. Some look very wet still.

I'm still concerned that it will never dry due to too much Linseed oil to paint ratio. What is a good ratio and what is too much?

Jani,


As I understand the dots are fine,.. only wet.

Since the buyer is local...I wouldn't do a thing. Take the piece unpacked directly to the buyer...Tell him it's an OIL PAINT, and he has to be careful with it.

Tadaaaa

Leave it as is. It is beautiful. I have ruined many a painting by trying to "correct" my mistakes. It will eventually dry. Just warn the owner that it will take a long time and remind them not to touch the paint.

Yay, admin to the rescue. :-)

I will, Nancy. Thank you. I'm sure you are right.

I'm going to try the spray. I'm actually ordering supplies tomorrow. Adding the spray to the list.

A very good comment by Mary Ellen on the other thread:

Don't worry about paint/oil ratio. There is a drying/bonding agent in the spray. You might have to do several applications. Use multiple light applications not a single drenching. -- mary ellen anderson

(The "other" flippin' thread and the reason for the lady in blue comment (Isabella doesn't actually have tourettes. At least I don't think she does) : http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2290415 )

I've done that mistake before and... it will dry... it will however take a few days but don't fret though a month is enough.

Linseed oil is the main ingredient, or used to be in linoleum, the guy that discovered it spilled the oil on a table, and then left without cleaning it up when he looked at it again it had dried into a thick covering, and linoleum was born.
I think it will dry just fine, and I like the way the dots look on there great touch.

Terry
tlmair.com

If you try something you havenīt used before (like a spray), I wouldnīt use the original, but a sample.

Too bad it isn't acrylic. A layer of acrylic the depth of a thick drip would probably be dry in a week.

But if the painting is oil underneath the drops, then do NOT even think about replacing those with acrylic, because acrylic ON TOP of oil is unacceptably unstable. You probably know this already, but OIL on TOP of ACRYLIC ... IS okay, because acrylic dries into a stable base that does not conflict with the oil, whereas oil threatens the molecular structure of acrylic on top of it.

Terry, great piece of applicable trivia. I didn't know that. And thank you.

Colin, I will test it first. Not because I'm skeptical, but because I want to do it correctly.

Good to know, Nicole.

Robert, I was aware of not putting acrylic over oil, but I didn't know why. The painting is an oil.

Hello Jani, good seeing you so involved with continued commission pieces. Your painting is quite beautiful. I did have a point to make and other artist may agree with me. Personally I would not speed up the drying process too much because a drip of paint is not quite the same as if it were brushed on the canvas. By rapid drying it just may inhibit crackling because its a drip of paint either water based or oil. By rapid dying you are increasing the shrinkage of the drip of paint. By rapid drying you are removing the natural moisture components in the pigment. I have always loved the natural appearance of crackling on older paintings and yes you can speed up the process which would have taken centuries to occur on its own. Have you or anyone else experienced what I am speaking of.

A related similar reaction of mixing various pigments to canvases.....here is an example, do you ever recall seeing the effect of crackling on antique furniture. You could buy the paint a water based paint then apply a primer or sealer coat over it as it would dry it could cause a crackling appearance as in natural canvasses crackling over long time exposure. Best of luck with your remedy.....

Cheers, Michael Hoard Actor, Artist, Photographer.

I would avoid spraying it with anything you haven't tried before. If you are going to use the spray, make a test painting with the same ratios of oil to paint and try it on that first.

Thank you, Michael. I don't intend on causing a crackle affect. I have already decided that would be a bad idea to speed up drying this painting. I'm entertaining the idea of spraying it instead, but I will test that first, Nancy.

I used to use a lot of linseed oil. If I remember correctly, it only takes a bit longer to dry than straight paint. Of course, I used turp too, but when I wanted to blend I used a lot of linseed oil.

Give it two or three extra days and see if it's drying (I don't know how you check, though, without touching it...)

I love this painting Jani! So much LIFE in it!

I agree with Mary Ellen. I paint with oil and use Krylon matte finish. I've used it countless times for light drying to touch up areas of a painting.

I don't believe that the Krylon Matte finish is designed for use on oil paint, so personally I would not risk using a product not specifically designed for the purpose on artwork that I have sold or intend to sell - especially an oil painting where things can go wrong years later.

Cadmium red can take 5 days or more to be just touch dry - depending on environment and how much Linseed oil you put in it. Krylon does have a Quick Dry spray specifically for Oil paintings, if you need a spray, that would be a safer option.

Unless you used Liquin or alkyd oil paints, you probably need to wait at least a month before putting a retouch varnish on it. Then in 6-12 months, have the client return it for the final varnish seeing as they are local.

I purchased some Krylon Matte Finish from Dick Blick. I'm not sure it is right one for this purpose. I needed it for other stuff anyway.

Michelle, when I asked about Krylon for oils, they suggested a gloss finish; which I don't want. The one I purchased is the same can I already have, but it doesn't say anything about having a drying agent that helps dry the artwork.
Krylon Gallery Series US archival varnish 1378 matte. For use on many media's including oil. Is that the one you all are talking about?

A few of the red dots are still pretty wet, but are holding their shape.

Is there a different Krylon product that dries the art? I wasn't able to find it.

The type of oil I used is water- soluble. The Linseed oil is made for that type of oil paint. The paint behaves just like traditional oils including drying time. The difference is that it is soap and water cleanup, non toxic and you don't need turpentine ever.

http://www.danielsmith.com/ItemList--Water-Soluble-Oil-Colors--m-1373

I'm going to call Daniel Smith tomorrow and see what they have to say about drying agents. I'll let you know what they say. Not sure why I didn't think of doing that before.
I'll let you all know if they have something.

I have not used oils in a long time, but do know linseed oil can take almost forever to dry. There are some products that speed up drying. Haven't used any of the water-soluble "oil solutions"! Possibly you can carefully blot out the red "stuff" being careful to keep the round shape. Repaint with oil, and use one of the drying agents with it. Takes some time, but am sure it will work. Good Luck! Nice piece!

The Matt Finish is different than the Quick Dry for oil paintings. They have different ingredients and are two different products. http://www.krylon.com/products/?N=198512443

The Matt Finish has acetone and toluene in it, personally I would not risk the possible chemical reaction of those solvents on an oil painting. If the Quick Dry for Oil Paintings has a gloss finish, you can reduce that gloss if you really want to by using a satin retouch varnish. The matt finish would by definition, deaden the look of oils. If you use it, I don't know if you would be able to oil out the painting and recover the beautiful look of oils when you varnish it.

I use normal oil paints, not water soluble ones...I'd be a bit more cautious with them on a painting that I was selling, purely because they havn't been around long enough to know what may or may not affect them in the future. Drying agents are normally used during the painting process rather than after (eg liquin). As oil paint continues to oxides for years, delamination, discolouration, cracking, crazing etc can happen years down the track, and without being a chemist, its hard to say what, if any issues may arise down the track. Using time tested and proven methods and products, especially with oil paintings is the safest option. But if you are not worried about archivability or longevity of work, then it probably dosn't matter.

Well, you guys, it's drying on its own finally. Thank goodness.

Btw: There is something in oils that sets off airport security - lol. Over Christmas I had to hand carry some drying work on a plane and it was crazy. Every piece of clothing I had on even shoes were picking up the chemical signatures. So keep wet painting out of security, cause I was afraid we'd have to wait at the airport till the thing dried.
-- mary ellen anderson

Never would have crossed my mind, Mary Ellen. :-)

I painted two other chickadees and their heads crackled a little. I'm not sure what I did to cause that to happen. I may have painted thicker paint over a linseed type of wash, but don't remember. How does one crackle paint on purpose?

That's strange. Can you take a photo of the crackled heads? lol. The substrate is primed canvas? Could you be trying to put a water soluble like acrylic over oil? We're missing something obvious, maybe?
-- mary ellen anderson

I can take a picture, but I don't know how to embed a photo, lol.

One of the birds had a pre painted background with oils and was dry, but maybe not cured and the other had fresh swipes of wet paint underneath the bird on the pre painted background from me cleaning off my pallet knife. I don't like wasting paint. Like the first, the background was dry oil, but may not have been cured.
If I can figure out how to do this on purpose, I'd have something special, lol.

I'll try to get a photo.

Hey, Mary. I finally got the bird's with crackled heads up on FAA.

Here's the one in the op. I still haven't touched the red dots. They do appear dry, but with a sheen.