Paint retarder, a revelation !

So I know this is probably explaining how to suck eggs for a lot of people but I had a bit of a revelation last night with my painting.  Basically with lots of thin lines of these dark eldar I was really struggling to get a nice crisp line.  I was thinning my paints,  using different size WnN7 series brushes and have a steady(ish) hand.  Why were my lines still looking chalky ?

Anyway by chance I decided to try some drying retarder that I bought probably a year or two ago and couldn't believe the results.  The paint changed from chalk to silk.  Suddenly I was getting the kind of line I was looking for.

I guess it is doing two things,  obviously stopping the paint drying but to be fair my paint is on a wet palette and thinned down so it should be ok anyway.  The second I guess is changing the opacity and consistency of it.  So I get a smooth finish that is slightly less opaque so therefore slightly more forgiving.

Anyway  I thought I would show an example.   One leg painted without drying retarder,  and which I spent a lot more time on,  vs the drying retarder version.  Hopefully I don't have to explain which is which.

So there you have it,  I know its not going to make me a golden demon winner but personally its a huge leap in terms of the crispness of lines I can achieve which is the direction I want to be going in.

Anyway heres the pic and thanks for reading :)

Will.