I have a small selection of Griffiths Alkyds sitting in a drawer which I have never used but thought I might experiment with. Can anyone give me any advice on them?

Am I right in thinking that Liquin is the right medium to use with them or can they be thinned with turps?

I'm a complete novice at using 'oils' on figures so any help woud be appreciated.

Alkyds are a nice medium. They have the consistency and feel of oils with like an 18 hour drying time. Basically, whatever you would use for oils will also work with alkyds. I was considering using them instead of oils, decided to go acrylics instead. I'm not sure why they aren't better embraced by figure painters. Availability I guess.

Hi Sippog, I don,t know why people have a thing about "oils", they are just another means fo putting colour onto a figure, no mystery to them. In fact they're about the easiest paints to use,you don't need to be as technically disciplined as you do with acrylics or enamels and you have plenty of time to "mess around".
Alkyds are very similar. Winsor and Newton now call them "Fast Drying Oils". the binder is a synthetic resin as opposed to a natural one, which means that they don't dull down, they have a tendency to dry more matt and all colours dry at about the same rate. As opposed to ordinary oils and acrylics, they don't have a student grade and the pigment seems to be quite finely ground. the downside is that they are more transparent than ordinary oils but they are fully compatible with ordinary oils. Regarding thinners, turps really stinks so I would use either W&N or Rowney low odour thinners.
There are some basic rules about not putting acrylics on top of oils but that's about it. I hope this helps,
best wishes, Gary.

Hi Gary

Thanks for the advice.

Coincidentally I just got interested in the subject again after reading a post on here about water based oils. I bought myself a few of those as well to experiment with

I know oils are easy to use - I've used them to paint on canvas a long time ago - but it was the compatibility and thinning I was ignorant about. I wonder if you could use acrylics on top of oils if you sealed them with a lacquer like Dullcote for example. One way to find out . . .

Now I just have to find the time to paint something!

David

The rule says not, but rules are for the guidance of etc. etc. I know that people have used acrylic over oils, and funnily enough no one came to arrest them???
Gary.

Have any of you guys found a out of the tube matt drying alkyds brand ?

I might try these to see if indeed the blues and reds are matt (Gamblin FastMatte Alkyd Oil Colors )