Driers

Driers, also known as siccatives, have always been with us in one form or another, although in the days of waterbased paints only, the natural evaporation of the water was sufficient by itself. But oils don’t dry nearly so fast if at all and so this has been of concern to artists since the time of Van Eyck. Some pigments were found to speed drying, especially those containing lead, cobalt or manganese. Some pigments, especially modern ones like those containing cadmium are the opposite and slow the drying of the oil. Paint chemists learned to add small amounts of manganese or cobalt or lead to these slow drying colors. Added in tiny amounts like this the driers help the artist, but if they are over-used they can weaken the paint film. Adding siccatives from a bottle to paint is rarely an advisable thing to do, adding a fast drying resin like Liquin is preferable.