Retarder Surprise

[Fuseboy]

Bought myself some Winsor & Newton acrylic retarder. I guess I was expecting some kind of alcohol or oil-like consistency.. imagine my surprise when I lifted the lid to find a thick, stringy goo!

It\'s water soluble, so I can thin it, but the label indicates that it shouldn\'t be diluted.. which leaves me with paint that\'s slightly translucent and has the consistency of grease.

 

[Fuseboy]

cont\'d

(Hit Enter too fast! As I was saying..)

My recent attempts at blending have been dry on dry with very thinned-down paints, using water and acrylic extender, a bit like drybrushing with ink.

For my next experiment, I\'ll use a bit of water, a bit of extender, and a bit of retarder, but my guess is that it won\'t really extend the drying time long enough to do proper wet on wet.

I\'ve tried with less retarder, but the paint started drying, and my wet on wet quickly turned chunky.

Anyone have experience with this?

 

[Tiderius]

Hmm, consistency of grease? Try liquid retarder. Search for Liquitex retarder and you will find plenty of online stores selling it or other products that are similar.

 

[farseerlum]

that seems to be what retarder should be like! i know the vallejo stuff is goopy. ( i nearly took it back )
just remember you shouldn\'t put much in. vallejo recommend about 10% retarder would be as much as should go in. otherwise it will mess with things like consistancy.
you can add a little water but you should probably get the same brand extender/medium instead.

 

[Xavier]

Retarder

What you want to get is Liquitex Slo-Dri. This is a retarder in liquid form.

Note whenever you buy products (extender/retarders) always make sure the product does not say \"gel\" as you will get a very thick paste.

 

[farseerlum]

i actually like the gel! you can just dab a bit on the pallete without needing a full drop!

but yeah reading the description is a good idea. although the vallejo bottle says nothing about it being a gel.

 

[tooshy]

Ah...I was wondering about this

Cool, I didn\'t like to mention it, but my retarder is all gloopy. I even bought the Vallejo one \'cos I thought the Windsor and Newton stuff had gone off or something ???

I did buy some KY-Liquid the other day, now to save me looking back through the threads, was this for retarding paint or to make it smoother i.e. minimise paint strokes?

 

[freakinacage]

i think the ky was a retarder but i could be wrong. as for gloopy w&n retarder - i bought some of this stuff the other day and only once i had opened it and realised it was a gel did i note the \'not to be thinned with water\' bit. also used too much with my paint so it was like painting with grease. damn

 

[Jkaen]

same thing caught me out, will see what happens when i use less of it

 

[mini-goddess]

If what you got from W&N was in a tub/jar, it\'s not quite what you need for use with our hobby. It\'s intended for working canvas, not small scale like what we need. I use either Liquitex Slo-Dri or Folk Art Extender...Folk Art is cheaper and works just fine.

 

[Xavier]

Suggestion

Personally I\'d stay away from W&N, retarders and extenders. Their paint products are desinged more for the portrait painters and so their paints and products tend to be thick and pasty. I much prefer Liquitex and Golden products who have both gel and liquid mediums for their products.

 

[Olda]

My favourite retarder is Retarder Medium from Ferrario (Italian company). This one works great - it\'s absolutely liquid! It can be mixed with colors up to 20% of it and I always add a bit of water to the paint and then add retarder. Often happens that I get up and when I look at the mini from last evening it\'s still little wet! So you have a lot of time to do the blending really well.

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

KY for modeling

Originally posted by freakinacage
i think the ky was a retarder but i could be wrong. as for gloopy w&n retarder - i bought some of this stuff the other day and only once i had opened it and realised it was a gel did i note the \'not to be thinned with water\' bit. also used too much with my paint so it was like painting with grease. damn

You use KY mixed with water to keep fingers and tools lubricated while working with green stuff. Or get the gel in a pump - it has the right consistency straight up.

Never heard of using it for painting. It\'s mostly glycerine, so I suppose you could.