Every time I come back to my palette the mixed paint is dry. I believe that I have remixed piles of colors for this figure painting every session. At first, I was thinking it was too wasteful, but I decided differently.
There are many strategies artist employ to keep oil paint wet longer. I used to mix my colors with a medium that has clove oil in it for a while. This would keep the paint wet for 2 weeks, but the viscosity of the paint was too low and in some cases too transparent. Now I utilize paint right out of the tube and thin as needed. Unfortunately, when I return to my palette the next day all my mixed colors are dry and the piles have skinned over.
Yes, it is a bit annoying to remix colors every session, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this was great practice. So now every time I start another session for this painting I mix up my piles of color again. But I try to match the piles of color I already have on the palette with as little mixing as possible. I’m trying to get a better understanding of how to reach a very specific color faster. In most cases, it’s very difficult because I’m trying to mix colors that are very nondescript.
