“How long does oil paint take to dry?” is a question every beginner oil painter will ask — and probably more than once.
And here’s the honest answer: it depends.
Oil paint can take anywhere from a few days to a few months to dry. In the case of very thick impasto paintings, it can even take over a year. It all comes down to:
- how thick the paint is
- which colours you use
- what oil the paint is made with, and
- what you add to the paint
The good news? There are simple things you can do, both while you’re painting and after you’ve completed, to help speed things along.
Here’s the complete list of tips to make your oil paint dry faster.
Why does oil paint dry slowly?
Oil paint doesn’t dry the way watercolour or acrylic does (via evaporation). It cures — meaning the oil in the paint reacts with oxygen in the air and slowly hardens.
This is actually one of the things that makes oil paint so wonderful. You get lots of time for blending and correcting, and your paint colour mixes stay wet on your palette. It’s also why oil painting is often considered the most forgiving medium for beginners. You can wipe off your paint and start again.
Another benefit is that you don’t need to frame your painting behind glass — the oil hardens and becomes tough and water-resistant.
However, if you’re trying to get your painting ready to hang in a show, or wrap as a gift, the slow drying time can do a number on your patience.
Below are tips on how to make your oil paints dry more quickly.
Part 1: How to speed up drying
WHILE you paint
1. Paint in thin layers
The thicker the oil paint, the longer it takes to dry. Heavy impasto paint can take weeks or months to dry.
2. Add a fast-drying medium to your paints
A medium is something you mix into your paint to change how it flows, feels, or dries. Fast-drying mediums are specifically designed to speed the drying time by increasing oxygen flow to the paint.
Fast-drying mediums to try:
- Winsor & Newton Liquin — popular and less likely to yellow than traditional alkyd mediums
- Gamblin Galkyd
- Grumbacher Alkyd Painting Medium
- M. Graham Walnut Alkyd Medium
- Schmincke Mussini Resin Oil Medium
For water-mixable oil paints:
- Holbein Duo Aqua Fast Drying Medium
- Artisan Water Mixable Fast Drying Medium
DumaDoArtTip: Not sure where to start with mediums? I break down all the different types in this post ? What are paint medium?
3. Pay attention to the oil in your paint
Oil paints are pigments mixed with a drying oil— oils that cure to a hard surface. These oils all have different drying speeds. Listed here are the most popular oils used in oil paint production, from fastest to slowest:
| Oil Type | Drying Speed |
|---|---|
| Linseed oil | Fastest |
| Safflower oil | Medium |
| Walnut oil | Slower |
| Poppyseed oil | Slowest |
4. Choose fast-drying pigments
This surprises a lot of beginners: paint colours have different drying times. It comes down to the pigment — the raw material that gives each colour its character. Some dry slower than others!
Here’s a table of pigments arranged by their drying speed. The numbers beside each name are standardized pigment codes, used across the paint industry to identify the exact pigment in the paint. “PB” means Pigment Blue, and the number indicates the specific blue pigment. Good paints have the pigment codes written on the tubes.
| Fast | Medium | Slow |
|---|---|---|
| Burnt Umber — PBr7 | Yellow Ochre — PY43 or PY42 | Alizarin Crimson — PR83 |
| Raw Umber — PBr7 | Cadmium Yellow — PY35 | Quinacridone Red — PR209 |
| Burnt Sienna — PR101 or sometimes PBr7 | Cadmium Red — PR108 | Quinacridone Magenta — PR122 |
| Raw Sienna — PY43 or sometimes PY42/PY43 | Cerulean Blue — PB35 | Permanent Yellow Deep — PY65 |
| Prussian Blue — PB27 | Ultramarine Blue — PB29 | Arylide Yellow — PY3 |
| Cobalt Blue — PB28 | Chromium Oxide Green — PG17 | Hansa Yellow — PY74 |
| Cobalt Blue Deep — PB74 | Ivory Black — PBk9 | Zinc White — PW4 |
| Viridian — PG18 | Indanthrone Blue — PB60 | |
| Manganese Violet — PV16 | Phthalo Blue — PB15:3 | |
| Indian Red — PR101 | Titanium White — PW6 | |
| Venetian Red — PR101 |
5. Try fast-drying paint lines
Some paints are formulated specifically to dry more quickly.
Alkyd paints are oil paints made with alkyd resins instead of drying oils. An alkyd resin is an oil-based binder that’s engineered to dry faster than traditional drying oils. They can be touch-dry overnight or within a day, and they can be mixed with your regular paints.
Oil paints made to dry more quickly include :
- Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd
- Sennelier Rive Gauche — the formula is secret but it’s designed to dry about twice as fast as conventional oils
- Da Vinci Professional Fast-Dry Alkyds dries to the touch in approximately 24 to 48 hours depending on the pigments, thickness of the paint, and environmental temperature.
6. Choose fast-drying white paint
Titanium White is a slow-drying oil paint. Thick white passages can stay soft for days after everything else feels dry. And if you have added white to your collour mixes, they will dry more slowly, too.
Solution: buy fast-drying white paints. These are formulated to dry more quickly and they can be mixed with traditional oil paints.
- Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd Titanium White and Mixing White Oil Paints. Alkyd Resin, dries in ~24 hours.
- Gamblin Fast Dry White: Linseed oil and alkyd resin, dries in 24-48 hours. (Please note, this used to be called Quick Dry White. There was another fast-drying oil paint called Gamblin FastMatte Titanium White, but it was discontinued in 2024. Fast Dry White is the only one Gamblin makes now.)
- M. Graham Fast Drying Titanium White (made with walnut oil and alkyd resin). Dries in 24-48 hours.
- Winsor & Newton Artists’ Underpainting White Oil Colour is a blend of both Zinc and Titanium White with linseed oil (WN uses the slower-drying safflower used in their standard white). Dries in 1-2 days.
- Sennelier Rive Gauche Titanium White uses Titanium White only, made with safflower oil that yellows less than linseed oil. Dries in ~2–3 days.
- Lead White and Cremnitz White (Lead Carbonate), and Flake white (Lead plus Zinc Oxide), all dry faster than Titanium white. However, lead is a heavy metal and toxic — it must not be ingested or inhaled — which is why the modern pigments Titanium and Zinc White were introduced.
Here is a handy comparison of drying rates
| Type of White | Typical Drying Rate | Time to Touch Dry |
|---|---|---|
| Alkyd/Fast-Drying White | Fastest | 18 – 24 hours |
| Lead White (Flake White) | Fast | 1 – 2 days |
| Titanium White (Linseed Oil) | Medium-Slow | 3 – 5 days |
| Titanium White (Safflower Oil) | Slowest | 1 – 3 weeks |
7. Add a drying agent
There are drying agents — called siccatives — that you can add directly to your paint to accelerate drying.
Commonly used drying agents include:
- Cobalt drier (cobalt octoate)
- Manganese drier
- Zirconium drier
- Calcium drier
Use these carefully and in small amounts, following manufacturer instructions. Overuse can cause brittleness and cracking over time. Also, some of these can be toxic, so handle with care. When in doubt, a fast-drying medium is a safer and simpler choice.
New to oil painting? My free QuickStart Guide to Oil Painting walks you through the basics — and you’ll finish your first mini painting in about 3 hours.
Part 2: How to speed up drying
AFTER you paint
The painting is done. The show is around the corner. Now what?
1. Put your art in a warm, dry, well-ventilated room
A warm room with good airflow is the best place to place your art to dry.
Cold, damp and humid conditions make the oil paint dry more slowly. If you live in a humid area, a dehumidifier can help.
2. Increase air circulation — carefully
Good airflow helps because the curing process needs oxygen. You can open the window if it’s not too cold, or use a fan in the room. Just make sure the fan isn’t blowing directly at the wet surface — that’s a good way to get dust stuck in your paint.
4. Don’t blast with space heaters
Direct high heat can cause the surface to skin over while the paint underneath is still wet — this can lead to cracking especially in thick, impasto paintings. Also, heat expands materials. If your wooden stretcher bars or the canvas fibres expand at different rates than the paint, the bonds can break or warp.
5. Do not put it in the oven
True story: I once put a small canvas panel in the oven on low heat to speed up drying before an art fair. The heat caused the glue holding the canvas to release, and the whole thing puffed up like a giant Rice Krispie.
I did not bring that painting to the art fair.
Quick Reference: How to Make Oil Paint Dry Faster
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| While painting | Paint thinly; use fast-drying pigments; buy paints made with linseed oil; add a fast-drying medium or drying agent to the paint. |
| After painting | Let dry in a warm, ventilated room with gentle airflow; no direct heat blasting, no direct sunlight. |
| Never | The oven. |
The good news (and why oil painting is the best)
Once oil paint fully dries and hardens, it is genuinely the best. Ok, I’m a bit biased but no other paint can create such rich colours and beautiful textures. It also means you don’t need to hang your art behind glass. And it’s nice to have your paint remain workable on the palette for a long time.
Most oil painters will tell you it is absolutely worth it.
If this got you curious about trying oil painting, I’d love to show you how easy it can be to start. Grab my free QuickStart Guide to Oil Painting.
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