Chroma encourages artists to offer feedback on their painting experiences with Interactive Professional Artists’ Acrylics, a revolutionary acrylic that offers extended blending and reworking capabilities. From your comments, we’ve learned that many of you like how our Slow Medium extends your working time even more. However, for those who like a more impasto paint, the Slow Medium reduced Interactive’s viscosity too much for their liking. We’ve listened to you, and are excited to introduce a new medium to the Interactive line: Thick Slow Medium.

The Thick Slow Medium (TSM) addresses impasto painters’ concerns. TSM greatly increases the time you can rehydrate Interactive with water, and because TSM has a gel-like consistency, you can incorporate TSM with your paint without thinning its viscosity. Artists can now create impasto layers knowing they can still use their water sprayer throughout their painting session.

A little TSM goes a long way! When first trialed, we found that adding equal amounts of TSM to paint produced a juicy painting session, perhaps a bit too juicy. Chroma USA’s Resident Artist, Jennifer VonStein, reported she created “mud” – something she claims she hasn’t done in years painting with acrylics!

Begin by adding small amounts to your paint and see what you experience. You may have to back off your painting a bit and let it set (like you would with oils) before moving onto the next layers. Also, working on a poorly prepared surface and/or attacking the painting too aggressively might cause your layers to lift. Preparing your surface with a few coats of gesso and the Binder Medium is very important to ensure good paint adhesion. You may want to experiment with new painting approaches, such as working a painting in stages or isolating your touch-dry layers with the Binder Medium or Fast Medium/Fixer. The effects of TSM are cumulative, so if you use lots of it, your painting will take a longer time to cure.