I normally want my oils to dry slowly so I love the Geneva paints, and also Mark's recipe for slow dry medium. However, I'm now venturing into plein air painting and want my plein air paintings to dry faster. So have been looking into different fast dry mediums for use with regular oil paints.
I would NOT try to use a fast dry additive with Geneva!
Has anyone Used Cobalt Drier? I have a bottle of the Grumbacher Cobalt Drier, and the only information I can find on how to use says to add is "sparingly by drops" to the medium, and not to the paint. I can find nothing on how much medium per drop. It seems that there would be a recommendation as well as a warning on how much is too much.
Is anyone aware of any recommendations on using cobalt drier other than "sparingly"?
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Even Ralph Meyers is rather vague in "The Artist's Handbook"!
If I make any changes, it will probably be to use less cobalt.
According to Ralph Meyer in his "The Artist's Handbook" proper use of a cobalt drier is the "least harmful" of the different driers. But he doesn't give much information on how to use it.
The recipe given by @broker12 gives a starting point by someone who actually uses it and has had good experience with the recipe!
I have just read in on a sales page of amazon for this product “An extremely strong additive for oil paints and should be used sparingly. Overuse may cause cracking of paint film when drying”.
I have been using M Graham`s Walnut Alkyd Medium for a few years and it dries the paint speedily enough for me.
You can find more driers in student grade paint as some dry very quickly while other brands take much longer for the same pigment.
I'm experimenting with other mediums and an considering a fast dry medium for plein air work. If I make my own, I can adjust the formula to meet my needs.
I used very little. Almost nothing. I just dipped the tip of a palette knife into it and then stirred it into a small jar of the walnut oil I use as a medium. If I leave it overnight the violet underlayer is absolutely touch dry. When mixed with lighter colours they also dry faster. I hardly blend at all and I like things to dry quickly so I can do further work on a painting. So, if you are working on something that you want to dry quickly the cobalt drier works great.
Seems every painting I do I learn something new. Thanks to @mstrick96 for telling us about cobalt drier and to @broker12 for relating his experience with it.
Just be sure to treat it with respect, because it is potentially toxic. Of course a lot of the other chemicals we use are potentially toxic and we have to treat them with respect too.
Bob Ross died from lymphoma, probably because of the way he cleaned his 2 inch brush in odorless mineral spirits by slapping it on his easel. I cringe every time I see him do that! Vapors everywhere! What he used is the stuff from the hardware store too!
Jerry Yarnell almost died from lymphoma for the same reason. His doctors told him that was that cause and to stay away from mineral spirits because his system is now very sensitive. He switched to acrylics. He was constantly in the mineral spirits, and absorbed it through his skin and breathed in the fumes.
On the other hand, if good chemical handling practices are used and these chemical are treated with respect as they would be in a chemistry lab and with proper ventilation, the modern oil painting chemicals can be quite safe.
In other words, don't get it all over yourself and don't breathe in the fumes constantly! Used properly, the cobalt drier is used in such small amounts that it is safe.