Vallejo paint retarder

[megroot]

Hello Guys,

I have bought me a bottle of paint retarder from Vallejo. I want to try this produkt so i can easely blending the colors (that is a promise of Vallejo).
I cannot find how many drops on the pallet i must use, or is it done by putting the brush into the retarder and then pick some paint??

Who use it or has used it?
What do you find about this medium?
Does it effect the paint on the figure?

You see many questions to answer and i hope i get many answers.

Greetings
Marc

 

[rdclaeps]

I have some and have used it in the past. I don’t recall any ill effects it had on the paint, maybe more of sheen with certain colors. For thinning the paint, I just substituted the water for the extender. The exact ratio was whatever consistency I needed. I have a friend who paints wet on wet with acrylics and he uses Winsor and Newton Watercolor extender. He says that this brand works much better than the Vallejo brand.

 

[Pete_H]

The item that Roger refers to is "Winsor & Newton Blending Medium." I used it a while back and didn't find it to change the finish of the colors (sheen, flat, etc.). Considering the bottle content, it's a far better buy than the small Vallejo bottle of retarder.

 

[megroot]

Thanks, guys,

But how much drops going to the color on the palette. Or is it no science but just try and error.

Please answer to that

Marc

 

[Einion]

Use as little as possible Marc. Acrylic retarders are made from glycol which slows the drying by holding on to the water, but add too much and you can get shiny patches, tacky paint and even areas that will lift when you try to paint over them.

The general advice for these varies from make to make, W&N's gel retarder for their artists' acrylics is specific about which colours need what proportion but other makes are not. I would suggest starting with about 1/10 (one drop to ten drops of paint) and see how that goes, and aim for no more than about 1/4 by volume at maximum.

For what it's worth I would suggest not trying to rely on retarder at all and learn to build subtle transitions with many thin glazes of colour. Trying to actually blend two colours using a fast-drying paint is actually harder than working the other way.

Einion