Artists who paint with acrylic paint find that the medium offers advantages that distinguish it from both oil and watercolor. As opposed to oils, acrylic paint is permanent, does not yellow with age and remains flexible when dry. Being soluble in water, it dries fast like watercolors and requires no harsh solvents for cleaning or diluting. In addition, it is more affordable than working with oils, which is a great benefit for the beginning painters.
Paint Working Time
However, the feature of acrylic paint that is most troubling to many artists is its fast drying time or working time. Working time is the total amount of time that the paint is available for moving around the canvas and worked with for its intended purpose. It has also been called the open time of a paint. Golden Artist Colors Inc. addressed this issue when, in 2007, the company began marketing a line of newly developed acrylic paints, called golden open paint.
Features
Golden open paint is made of a hydrophilic acrylic resin which increases the working time of the paint and enables it to take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, or even weeks, to dry completely, depending on temperature, humidity, paint thickness and other characteristics.
Those artists who use acrylic paint are now afforded many of the same painting techniques of oil painters. They no longer need to cover their palettes at the end of the day or use sealed containers and are able to use the same colors for weeks.
The consistency and flow of this paint is slightly thinner than regular acrylic paint. This means that the paint does not hold its shape well or in stiff peaks, which is only an issue for those who consistently paint with a palate knife.
Advantages
Golden open paint can be mixed with standard acrylics so 80 percent of a painting can be done with regular acrylic paint and then the rest can be done with the Open paint where an increased working time is needed.
Fresh paint does not need to be constantly put out on the palette and cleaning brushes is facilitated as the paint does not dry on the brush. Open paint has many benefits that artists who have shied away from using acrylic paint might want to consider it as their medium of choice.