I must confess that I am old school when it comes to any form of spray paint.  Sorry Banksy, but that graffiti thing does not work for me.  Give me tubes of paint, brushes and a painting knife and throw away the key.  I am happier that way.  But I have been converted.  At least in part when it comes to saving time and efficiency. After getting my hands on a range of Krylon sprays I have found a few new materials for my studio.

Krylon quick retouch varnish required?

Krylon Quick Dry for Oil Paintings is now a part of my studio.  I like it very much.  Among this spray’s claim to fame is that it:

• Speeds up drying time of your completed oil painting. Who doesn’t want that?
• Can be applied between paint layers to limit muddy colour intermixing,
• Can be applied over paintings before fully dry to aid transportation;
• Can be mixed into oil paint as a medium to aid drying time.

Those are some big claims.  Personally, I am not a fan of mediums and have no interest in spraying medium into my oil paint.  But as a quick varnish over semi-dry paintings?  Yes, please.  Much like thin retouch varnish your painting can still breath as it dries.  You can also rework over the varnish if desired.  Added to these features you cannot beat the speed and efficiency of a spray.

A note of caution.  Any spray like this must be used with standard precautions.  Ventilation, storage and correct spraying technique are top of mind.  Read the directions and follow them.

Krylon Fine Art Fixative

Krylon Fine Art Fixative helps to preserve your pastel paintings, pencil, charcoal and chalk drawings.  Especially when there is a danger of smudging your work before framing.  Perhaps for storage or to preserve drawings in a journal a fixative is essential. From my tests with the spray it seems to work like a charm.

I tried the fixative over pastel paintings and once the spray had dried I could not discern any visible change to the painting.  However the pastel was secure.  I could touch pastel marks without smudging them.  This does give me peace of mind when storing paintings prior to framing.

Another plus with pastels, after framing, is that you will not see those annoying bits of pastel powder falling off onto the matte board.

The fixative is also claimed to inhibit UV light damage from sun exposure to your work.

Krylon Workable Fixative

Similar properties to the Art Fixative described above, but not intended to be a final fixative. Instead Krylon Workable Fixative preserves your work’s progress.  You can carry on with your drawing over the dry fixative when desired. Allow at least an hour after spraying to resume work. It is always best to make sure the fixative is fully dry before you resume work.

As always test these spray products on scrap work to understand how they perform.

Krylon Gesso Spray

Finally I tried out the intriguing Krylon Gesso Spray.  Can you avoid the tedious priming of canvas and panels with brush and palette knife?  Well yes you can with this gesso spray.  Imagine spraying on gesso and you can see the efficiency and speed of this method.

I tested the gesso spray thoroughly on panels and canvas.  Personally I prefer using it with panels and not canvas.  Being a spray it is too fine and is absorbed into the canvas.  It is then difficult to see if your canvas is properly primed.  However on panels the priming layer is easy to see.

One issue however is that any solvents like white spirits for oil painting should not be used on this primed surface.  I found that any solvents would dissolve the gesso spray causing major problems.  Undiluted oil paint however worked fine on the sprayed panel. Also acrylics worked perfectly.

With that one important proviso (no oil paint solvents) I am happy to use the gesso spray.  A nice feature is to seal the rear of your painting panels before framing. The spray method makes this quick and easy.

Pricing?

Are the sprays good value for money? A rough calculation of the gesso spray compared to a tub of traditional gesso indicates that the pricing is very similar.  That is if the spray covers the claimed area. Based on this price is not a decisive factor in choosing spray over traditional methods.

Conclusion

Spray on products have real advantages as far as speed and efficiency are concerned.  They also have drawbacks that you will be familiar with.  You will need to assess your requirements.  As far as quality is concerned the Krylon range has been around for a long time and is highly regarded.

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