How Long Until Acrylic Paint Is Dry? 3 Days. - LinkedIn

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This is one of the most common questions I receive as a Materials Specialist at Golden Artist Colors. While it may seem simple and easy to answer, it is not. When we conducted an extensive study (documented in our Just Paint Newsletter http://www.justpaint.org/investigating-the-drying-process-of-acrylic-color-and-gel-medium/ ) there were some interesting data points that emerged. Acrylics go through phases of drying and like a piece of wood, they never really are completely dry unless they are subjected to a zero humidity oven environment.

Normally, the acrylic paint becomes touch dry first, which is just how it sounds. You touch the surface and paint doesn't pull up with your finger. This merges right into the surface skinning over, but depending on how thick the paint was applied, Neither of these stages are reliable indicators that the layer is dry throughout the film. In fact, this is a fairly dangerous time to begin apply more layers, especially if the first product applied was gesso or some other sort of primer. Because it's the first layer on the substrate (canvas, panel, etc.) it's critical to allow this layer to really dry well, into it's solid state. Solid state films occur when the vast majority of "evaporatives" like water and retarders have escaped the paint film, and the polymer chains have finally merged together to create the binder network.

The tricky thing about this is that unless the coatings applied are clear, you do not have a reliable method of checking. And if you apply more products before this happens, you can actually restart the curing process and now the skinned over surface of the first coat(s) slow down the drying time even more. So what? Well, if you are painting on acrylic sheeting (Lexan, PlexiGlas, etc) you might end up with the entire coating able to be scratched or peeled right off.

So when I get asked the question, how long should I wait, the simple answer is 3 days. Three days? Yes, 72 hours; an eternity for most artists. The good news is, though, that 3 days waiting is most important for the initial paint layers, because once that paint layer is given enough time to fully coalesce, piling up brush loads of paints can be done more liberally with less chance of causing adhesion issues. Three days is when we saw the weight loss level off in nearly every kind of paint in most thicknesses and substrates, so it's a pretty reliable number to follow. More to follow about longer term curing, but read the article I linked for you if you can't wait any longer!

- Mike Townsend

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Share 20 3 Comments Greta Burger 7y

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I'm planning to experiment with glass enamels (powdered glass mixed with a medium) on glass and firing. Have you seen or heard of anyone trying this?

Like Reply 1 Reaction 2 Reactions Mitchell Rosenthal 9y

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disagree possibly an hour

Like Reply 1 Reaction 2 Reactions Andrea Pramuk 9y

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3 days is the holy trinity. Suggest working on 3 pieces at once 😳

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