Question: Which oil colors dry the fastest?

Traditional oil paints have drying oils as a binder. This is what makes them dry much slower than water-based paints. Although different colors dry at different rates, how thickly the paint is applied also affects how long the paint will take to dry.

Drying times vary between colors because some pigments react with the oil to speed-up the drying time. Most manufacturers add driers to the slower drying pigments to bring the drying times to within two to ten days. The drying times are equalized even more when the colors are mixed on the palette.

As to which colors dry faster, Winsor and Newton provide the following list of pigments and their relative drying times.

Rapid Driers

• Aureolin
• Cobalt blues
• Flake white
• Manganese blue and violet
• Siennas and Umbers

Average Driers

• Cadmiums
• Chromium oxide green
• Cobalt greens and violet
• Mars colours
• Perylenes
• Phthalyocyanine blue and green
• Pyrroles
• Some natural iron oxides
• Ultramarine blues and violet
• Viridian

Slow Driers

• Arylamide yellows
• Alizarin crimson
• Cerulean
• Green earth
• Ivory black
• Lamp black
• Quinacridones
• Rose madder
• Some natural iron oxides
• Titanium white
• Vandyke brown
• Yellow ochre
• Zinc oxide