I did a few acrylic paintings during my college days, but the quick drying time was always such a negative, that I moved on to other mediums, one of which is oil paints. Oils, of course, dry very slowly, allowing blending and manipulating the wet paint, but there are many negative aspects to oil painting, too! Since they dry very slowly, one often has to wait a couple days in between painting layers. If you don't want to wait, then you have to deal with the difficulty of placing wet paint onto wet paint. Then there are the issues with hazardous solvents, the necessity of working fat over lean, the differences in the gloss or matte level of the paints, etc.
Recently, I heard that there was a slower drying acrylic - Golden's Open Acrylics - on the market, so I decided to give it a try. The paint piles stay wet on the palette for many hours - even days! The thin layers of paint on your painting still dry much quicker than oils, but they do remain open and workable for quite a bit longer than traditional acrylics, which can dry in a couple minutes (or less).
Here is my first effort, from a reference photo that I took on Lake Ontario. On canvas board, 12" x 9".
My second acrylic using the Golden Opens, from a photo taken in the Adirondacks.
On canvas board 12" x 9".
I hope to do more!
