Hi Trier.
I don't think alkyds are necessarily better than oils. For one thing, there is a bigger range of colours in oils than in alkyds. It could be that alkyds don't work too well for portraits, but I do textured abstracts and sometimes mix sand in with the paint.
I have found that alkyds suit my type of painting technique well. I like to build up textures in layers and usually use things like credit cards and painting knives instead of brushes to manipulate the paint on the canvas until I like the result. When I push them around on the canvas they behave almost identically to oils, but then I don't have to wait many days before I can apply glazes or scumble on some highlights. The drying time of alkyds is just right for me: acrylics dry too fast and oils dry too slowly.
I guess it's a very personal response to the characteristics of alkyds versus oils. I would like to hear your comments.
Hey Hermes
Thanks for your helpful reply.
Sorry to be late with my answer.
Problems.
When I was using the Griffin Alkyds, I found that I was always trying to get
more chroma in passages where I wanted intense color, but just could not even with straight out of the tube application.
Some colors were close to being okay, but overall I was disappointed and frustrated.
Then I tried a couple brands of water miscible oils with the same result.
Then I read in some posts on WetCanvas that others had the same experience.
More importantly, I read in a review that it was due to the fact that the alkyd medium will not take as much of a pigment load as the other mediums like acrylic.
Since I paint in a common manner of using just paint and mediums without additions of other fillers like sand, pumice and such, I would not expect a diminished color intensity.
That must be the key that accounts for the difference between the way you regard Griffin and my opinion of it.
I think this is kind of instructive, and would appreciate your thoughts about it.
I was unable to look up any data that specifies exactly the maximum pigment loads that each of the mediums would take for each pigment, but it must exist someplace.
The posting of this reply is sort of awkward since this is a thread by Katie about her painting , and we are having a discussion separate and apart from that.
There must be a better way; I am taking the liberty of also sending you this in a private message to your profile. It is bound to get through, one way or another, I hope at least.
Another Subject -
Re;your sculpture posts. I think they are outstanding works
