painting with oils

[pjkemo]

I want to start painting busts with oils,or at least the faces for a start.My question is,
when I have the oils on a pallette,how long do I have before they start to dry up.some
of the bust I look at in this site have to take more than a few days to paint.

 

[Sambaman]

Actually I would say with oils left out on thier own, you have a solid day of painting before you will see any hardening of the medium. Of course you have to look at how thinly the paint is pread on the palette (the thiner the paint is spread out the faster it will dry). And if you keep it "bunched-up" you will see a "skin" form on the top much like a pudding left out too long.

I use oils exclusively, and I'm not the fastest painter out there, so what I do is place my palettes (I use foam disposable plates) in the freezer when I'm not using those particular colors. I seel them in a large zip-lock freezer type plastic bag, and keep them there for the better part of a week! I do get some slight drying around the edges, but assuming I've mixed enough of the colors, they stay quite plyable for even longer than that! That allows me to store them, and then come back to them as needed, for touch ups or minor corrections later. I tend to come back and add more highlight or shadow as a project moves along and as I stare at a piece I'm working on more and more. When I'm done, I throw out the plates and keep the plastic bags for the next project! HTH,

Check out this thred for a better idea of my "freezer carnage" when I'm in the middle of a project!

http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28176&highlight=freezer


Jay H.
Okc

 

[pjkemo]

O.K. Ill give the freezer deal a shot,thanks