Acrylic medium COLLEGE Retarder 75 ml

Schmincke COLLEGE Acrylic Medium: Retarder / Slow Dry (75 ml) – More Time for Perfect Blending

Does your acrylic paint dry too quickly, making it difficult to blend colors and refine details? Schmincke COLLEGE Retarder is the ultimate helper for every acrylic artist. This 75 ml tube-dispensed medium extends the open time and drying process of acrylic paints, allowing you to work at your own pace, create smooth color transitions (blending), and apply wet-on-wet techniques directly onto the canvas.

Product Features:
Extended Working Time: Slows down the film formation and drying of acrylic paint, giving the artist valuable extra minutes to hours, depending on the amount added and room humidity.
Gel-like Consistency: The medium features a gel texture that does not make the paint too fluid or runny, preserving the original body and brushstroke structure of the acrylic paint.
Complete Transparency Upon Drying: Although the medium appears milky when squeezed from the tube, it dries into a completely clear and transparent layer, ensuring color purity.
Solvent-Free Formula: The product is water-based, virtually odorless, and safe for use in home studios, schools, and art classrooms alike.

Application and Dosing

Mixing on the Palette: Squeeze your acrylic paint onto the palette and add the COLLEGE Retarder to it.
Correct Ratio: The recommended mixing ratio is up to 20% of medium relative to the paint volume (up to a 1:5 ratio). Since it is a highly concentrated product, a small amount is often more than enough.
Maximum Limit: The proportion of the medium in the paint mix should not exceed 25%. Excess medium can compromise the binding of the acrylic paint, leave the dried surface sticky, or prevent the paint from drying completely.
Cleaning Tools: All brushes, palette knives, and palettes can be easily cleaned with warm water and soap after use, before the paint dries completely.

Product Advantages:
Enables Oil Painting Techniques in Acrylics: Makes smooth transitions, soft shading, and layered blending possible—effects typically reserved only for slow-drying oil paints.
Reduces Paint Waste on the Palette: The paint does not immediately form a skin on the palette, which saves material and keeps your colors fresh for longer during extended paper or wood palette sessions.
Preserves Paint Texture and Sheen: The gel structure maintains the characteristic thickness of acrylic paint and ensures that the dried surface remains uniform, without altering the paint's original glossy or matte finish.
Convenient and Economical Packaging: The 75 ml tube is highly portable, seals tightly, and allows you to squeeze out exactly the amount you need.
Excellent Price-Performance Ratio: The COLLEGE series offers professional German quality at an affordable price point, making it perfect for students and advanced hobbyists alike.

Product Disadvantages:
Risk of Overdosing: Adding too much product (over 25%) can make the paint layer permanently tacky or extend the final drying time by days, so precise dosing takes a bit of practice at first.
Not Suitable for Fast Glazing Layers: If your technique relies on quickly applying multiple thin layers on top of each other, this medium will extend the waiting time between layers too much.
Sensitivity to Freezing: Like most acrylic mediums, this product is water-based, and freezing will permanently ruin its chemical properties. The product must be stored at temperatures above freezing.

Can I also use this medium to thin my paint?
COLLEGE Retarder is specifically designed to extend drying time and preserve the paint's consistency. If you want to make your paint more fluid or liquid, we recommend using a dedicated acrylic thinner or water.

Does the product alter the color of dried acrylic paint?
No. Even though the medium looks slightly milky-white when squeezed out of the tube, it dries completely clear and transparent, without altering the brilliance or darkness of your acrylic pigments.

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