Mediums and Retarders

A most misunderstood, but useful product is the “medium”. Think of it as clear paint. It is in effect, the “medium” which is carrying the pigment in all tubes of acrylic paint– without the colour! There is a dizzying variety of choices designed for various applications. I’d choose a general purpose medium in order to get started.

Medium is not to be confused with “retarder” (even more confusingly called ”medium retarder” in French). Retarder works chemically on your paint mix (with or without medium) to slow down the drying time. I’d try painting without retarder and introduce it should you have drying problems. Even with retarder, drying can be unpredictable and the real solution is to choose a slow-drying series of paints.