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I heard about retarders but never tried, may be will test it, otherwise I waste so much paints :)

The same here, 80% of my acrylics just dry on the palette...

Peter, use glass as a palette, then you can strip it off and use the reverse image in a collage, or like I did once, I played with my glass sheet a little more and then just framed it:

DECALCOMANIAC COLORFIELD ABSTRACTION WITHOUT NUMBER 001-1600.jpg

I'm also using glass but I never end up with something useful!

That is a great Idea to use a glass and it looks really nice. I do not know how about you but one of the Russian Impressionist Igor Sakharov uses canvas as palette for his Oil painting and at the end depending on how it looks like also frames them as abstract.

yes, that is a good idea as well, and as a matter of fact, now that you mention it, I've done so myself, using a small panel instead, which later I just added a few things to.

Retarders may not be the best answer - I tried them long time ago (I doubt that they are any better now) but what they do is make the paint gummy, and that isn't workable either.
For some time now there is a product on the market by Golden, which is GOLDEN OPEN, and I tried a giveaway store sample. It works pretty good, alas it is also very expensive!
Just try to be fast. Another product I like to use for fine brush work are GOLDEN FLUID: I just put a few drops out, they go a long way, are very economic. Their pigment is super strong and concentrated, so you can thin them with water quite a bit, which makes them stay open longer too. And no, I am not a spokesperson for Golden, lol

Thank you Otto, I can imagine the quality of paints will be also altered by using retarders, you are right to try to work faster and just plan in advance that is one of the solution of problem, but thank you for sharing the tips about what you used Golden Fluid sound reasonable :)

Those retarders today are different. I'm about to test the Lascaux Retarder.

Let me know how it works - I have not tried one in a long time, maybe they make them better now.