The mars black stiffens beyond use in only four hours. Which is good as it will dry quickly on the canvas, but sad because it's one of the most expensive tubes of paint I've ever touched. I've been trying to improve my clove box setup. It's getting there.
I bought this expecting it was wood, and it isn't. The goal is to rub linseed oil and clove essential oil into the wood to create a slick surface that smells of cloves. The small airspace combined with cloves would slow down the drying time of the un-painted oil paints. That's the theory. However, I can tell it's not wood because the places where I dropped essential oils and didn't rub it in for several seconds, are blistered. Essential oils like clove and rosemary oil are STRONG solvents. They dissolve all sorts of plastic and coatings easily.
But it's still working for now and now that I have all the mixing done, I'm just painting right form the clove box so I can close it up when interrupted.
Like when a flock of woodducks land on the balcony railing outside the window to watch me. They are so pretty!
Maybe a wood duck painting is in my future?
Another way to deal with distractions is to use a brush dip. This is a jar or metal container with a grid or spring in it to let the pigment fall down away from the bristles. I put safflower oil in it as it's slow drying and a few drops of either rosemary or clove essential oil. Since the mars black is drying so fast, I can simply put my brushes in the oil when I step away from the painting.
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