Golden OPEN Acrylics?
2009 October 25
Golden makes a lne of acrylics that do not dry for extended periods of time - up to days. Have you tried them? Like them? Hate them? I have a set here I’ve been fiddling with. I’d like to review them for this site, but I’d like more input.
If you’ve got some experience with these, please drop me a line! lisagloria@gmail.com Or just comment here.
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LIsa Gloria, I have lots to say about Golden Open acrylics. I paint with acrylics exclusively right now. (Although thanks to reading your blog and others, I really want to use oils) When I first heard about golden Open I was excited because it sounded like a great idea for someone like me who has used acrylics for so long. I ordered a set from ASW online. my first trial was to take them with me on a plein air expedition. I found them to work just about like my normal acrylics, except that I did have more time to push them around, almost like oils before drying set in. And yet they did dry fast enough that I was able to glaze as I am fond of doing with acrylic. by the time I was ready to go home, the painting was dry enough but not as solidly dry as an acrylic would have been. I think they have a little bit more opacity than , say liquitex acrylics. That is a good thing, and makes the handling and mixing more like oils.
I have also used them as a watercolor medium, very thin, with washes and I am pleased with that too.
So I say, try them, and no smelly medium.
I have been using Golden’s open acrylics for several months now. I absolutely love them. I agree with what’s been said above and would add:
* the “reactivation” factor is very useful - a beautiful way to come back to white for a highlight - even after a few days
* they make it very easy to get soft edges
* the paint stays useable on the palette for several days
* I love using non-toxic water as a medium
* very easy to move between thick and thin paint
Gee, I think I don’t love them so much. I do love regular Golden Ac, but the tint strength on the Opens is like, nil. I don’t have the mediums, so I can’t comment on the drying time too much, but gee, I think it’s a little too subtle for me.
I just returned them to Blick to exchange for Chroma Interactives. I might try again at a later date….
Hi Lisa, that was quick
I’ve used them on a few studiopaintings. I like them but you have to get used to them.
For me they worked best in the later layers of a painting, when already a base-colour of the quick-drying acrylics was painted underneath (since the Open paint is extremely transparent). I don’t use water but the Open thinner with them which seems to work better. Also I found that if I put the paint on the palette the night before the feel of the paint is nicer but that’s a personal preference of course.
The Chroma paints are nice too, but a completely different beast.
They are more like regular acrylics, they dry almost as fast too but they can be reactivated with a waterspray or unlocking spray (the last one I use the most)
You have to get used to these too, I’ve read a lot of posts about people who expect some kind of oil painting experience with these paints but they get disappointed. Using the spray is vital to getting the most out of this paint.
If you want to lock a layer, or part of a layer you can apply a thin layer of the binder medium or fast medium fixer.
The pigment load seems higher than the Open acrylics.
That’s funny, I also found the Interactives to be “too thin” to interest me. It seemed that spraying either water or unlocking medium only made the colors too streaky and watery to do any serious blending. And the flat finish upon drying wasn’t too appealing either. But I might try an inexpensive demo set again after what I’ve read about them from others.
Now, I have to also agree that Open seems too fluid and translucent straight out of the tube. BUT, when you set the palette out for a day, they thicken into what Golden calls the “sweet spot” so they blend and cover better.
I have been using the Open acrylics for a while now and have found that they definitely require multiple layers but the results are truly wonderful….soft glowing glaze like effects….and the lights and darks are full of depth…It is a different paint requiring a different methodology and workflow….they are acrylics in chemistry only in that they use water as part of the cleanup….but that is it. From there on they are very different….So if you are looking for a paint material that allows a truly unique effect…try out one of the test kits…or get a basic set of key colours…
Remember…they are becoming for me the finishing layer with acrylics…where I use regular fast drying acrylics and then finish with the Open acrylics….so folks…plan your painting well…and the results are lovely.
The golden people are most helpful and generous and have a great product here.
I love acrylics and have both the regular and the Golden Open, as well as the full range of Golden neutral grays. Like others, I use the Open acrylics over the regular acrylics.
Acrylics–all of them–require multiple layers, glazing, and scumbling and a slow build up of paint layers to control the transparency. I use the Golden Open acrylic gloss medium to give me time to blend. (It really isn’t very glossy when dried.) For skin tones, I absolutely love acrylics because the base paints are opaque and with glazes over them, you get wonderful translucency that makes the skin lifelike.
I recently started using oils and it seems to me that the indirect oil painting techniques (imprimatura, grisaille, glazing, scumbling, etc.) are better suited to acrylics. I find I use oil paint in a very direct manner because it is so opaque. As much as I like the blending capabilities of oil and the opaque color, I just can’t give up acrylics! The Golden Opens have made it even easier to get soft blended edges that don’t look like acrylic.
After experimenting more with Opens, I can only echo that layering is the way to go (using faster drying underpaint). The results look like a unique hybrid between acrylics and oils. What seems most suited to this paint is scumbling. You can get wonderful, smoky, pearly, buttery, atmospheric effects this way - it spreads so much nicer and more smoothly than fast drying acrylics. Skies and subtle flesh tones are effortless. I just wish Open had more body and opacity.