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"Anybody use dish soap as a flow aid?" Topic


11 Posts

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Comments or corrections?

Personal logo Parzival Supporting Member of TMP14 Sep 2023 6:04 p.m. PST

Read about this as a cheap approach.
Does anybody have experience with this? Do you also add water, or just the soap and the paint? Does it work well, or well enough for "Arms length, Good enough to game with" results?
I'm wanting to get a dark wash into crevices.

Titchmonster14 Sep 2023 6:13 p.m. PST

Liquitex is great! Can get it at Michael's.

jwebster14 Sep 2023 9:07 p.m. PST

Flow aid is inexpensive, a little goes a long way

Look up Les washes for how to make an acrylic wash, explains what the flow aid does

John

hetzer15 Sep 2023 2:58 a.m. PST

Yes, I have for years. It works fine for me.

Griefbringer15 Sep 2023 3:45 a.m. PST

I use it occasionally.

Don't try to use the dish-washing soap straight from the bottle. Instead, you should dilute it a lot with water, as is also done when washing dishes.

I recommend taking a small bottle (e.g. empty paint bottle), adding a drop of the soap on bottom and filling the rest with water. Then allow the soap to dissolve to the water (shaking a bit and letting settle might speed up the process). Then when you need to use it as a flow aid, add a drop of the diluted soap to your thinned paint and mix on the palette.

Big Red Supporting Member of TMP15 Sep 2023 4:06 a.m. PST

Yes. I put one drop of dish soap in the water cup that I use to thin paint and clean brushes – stir gently but thoroughly. It breaks the surface tension of the water.

Wackmole915 Sep 2023 10:33 a.m. PST

make for easy flowing Ink Washes also

Windward15 Sep 2023 11:40 a.m. PST

I use it too works fine for me

bobspruster Supporting Member of TMP15 Sep 2023 5:12 p.m. PST

Yup, I use it when concocting washes. Just a drop or two for, say, 2 ounces if water.

Personal logo Parzival Supporting Member of TMP15 Sep 2023 8:25 p.m. PST

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to give it a whirl.

CeruLucifus17 Sep 2023 1:55 a.m. PST

The Woodland Scenics formula for "wet water" is 2 drops liquid dish soap in 1 cup of water. See this document, p26: PDF link

At some point I switched to using Dishwasher Rinse Aid not liquid soap. I would swear I got that from a Woodland Scenics publication, but today I can't find that online. I can't get Rinse Aid to come out in individual drops so I probably mix 5-6 drops per cup.

For thinning Liquitex matte medium and formulations of other Liquitex products, I switched to using their recommended Flow Aid water, which is Flow Aid concentrate mixed 1:20 or 1:10 with distilled water. See here: link

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