Some of the Mediums I am trying.

I wanted to share with everyone the experiences with some of the mediums I have been using. I have painted three 8" by 8" paintings on ampersand gesso board in the past 3 days, 1 each day. For each painting I used a different medium to see which would work the best. For me I want something that will allow me to have a open working time yet dry quickly.

The first painting I used Daniel Smith's Watersoluble Modified Linseed Oil. It worked very good and gave the paint a good flow. It didn't tack up one me and cause my brush to drag. The down side, 3 days later the paint is still wet and not dry. IF i had a large painting this might be the best medium to use because I know for a larger painting woudl take me days so keeping it open would be best.

The second painting I used Gumbacher Max Quick Dry Medium. I had to use just a little bit more medium than the DS WSO linseed oil, Not a whole lot more but just a little bit more. The paint did tend to dry on my pallett faster. After 2 days my painting is pretty much dry. For painting smaller items I think this would work best. It will allow the painting to dry quickly

The 3rd painting I decided to use the Gumbacher Max Quick Dry again, only this time I mixed about 5 drops of Colbalt Dryer to 1 Oz of medium. When I came back from work about 9 hours later the paint on my pallet and the paint on my gesso board was completly dry to the touch. I had to apply more paint over the top so I could blend. This was in just 9 hours. While painting my brush did tend to drag a little bit more espically towards the end of my stroke and i had to keep adding a lot more medium while I was working. It almost felt like working with a very slow drying acrylic at times because of the behavor. I could still blend paint on my board but towards the end of my session the first things I painted didn't blend so easily. It was already getting tacky and this was ona small canvas. This could probally work great for underpainting.
Next time I am gonna try using the cobalt dryer with the DS WSO linseed oil and see how it works. But over all I think I will just stick with the Gumbacher Max

Thanks, Matt! As someone who is just learning about when & how to use the various mediums, this helps a lot.

Interesting. I only used a quick drying medium once, walnut oil alkyd, and it worked very well without getting hard to blend. One problem was a I used it on an upper, so that the area eventually cracked because it dried before the lower layers dried. The second problem I had with it, was that I was allergic to it, causing breathing problems for me. Now I use it only outside and only on bottom layers.