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Acrylics to oils, any transitional tips
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Message
Posted
It's been a good 20 years since attempting oils and I can't say they were my strong point. That said i feel it's about time i gave them another go. I have the space and the drying time, a few basic colours and a heap of brushes (kindly donated).
Has anyone gone from Acrylic to oils? Any tips before I dive in would be graciously received. I've posted I few examples of my work I hope they come up. I like detail, something I remember being quite a struggle to achieve with oil. Any tips on this particularly would be very helpful.
Many thanks
Alicia
Posted
Hi Alicia, your paintings look fantastic, I take it these are acrylic? I haven't painted in oils for a number of years now but have just sent for some water soluble oils which I used to use. I know some people don't like them but having used them in the past I'm going to give them another go. I haven't got the space that I used to have since downsizing 5 years ago and these oils don't take as long to dry out. Will look forward to seeing how you progress, Linda Drury
Posted
I paint in oil and acrylic, and occasionally in watercour and gouache - as the mood might take me.
With oil, you have a generally more compliant paint if you employ much blending, and perhaps rather richer colours - or colours with (provided you buy good quality oils) more depth and subtlety. Acrylics are good for glazing, and have come on a long way since I first started using them over 50 years ago. But oil does have an irresistible pull. It's a great deal easier to use the sgraffito technique in oil than in acrylic - because the latter tends to dry before you have a chance. And I use sgraffito quite a bit.
As for detail - just thin the paint; work Linseed oil into it with your palette knife until it's fluid. It will always have more body than acrylic, but can be thinned to give as much detail as most are likely to require. You can also add turpentine, with oil, if the paint remains stubbornly unwilling to yield - but I've given up solvents, and find the paint can be thinned with Linseed oil sufficient to my purpose. Otherwise, as Alan says - techniques can be much the same: dark to light, block in the initial underpainting or sketch, build it up.
Two points which may be controversial, though: one, stretched canvas may be pleasurable to paint on, but a rigid support has greater longevity and is less likely to cause problems with the paint film, and look out for any paint containing Zinc White: it is much better avoided in the lower layers of a painting, and there's an argument that it ought to be avoided entirely, because of its tendency to cause delamination: I've used it and haven't (yet) had a problem: but it can take many decades for problems to show. So I've stopped using it, which can be difficult because manufacturers use it in so many of their colours - look out for PW 4 in the list of ingredients.
Posted
Incidentally - drying time: most of mine dry, more or less evenly, within a week; it helps to keep the Cadmium colours and Titanium White to a minimum - hard to do with the white, which is one reason why I use lead white when I can get it - and not to use Alizarin Crimson (which there are good reasons not to use anyway) - they're all little devils for slow drying. FAR be it from me to plug - you are to imagine an expression of wide-eyed innocence here - but my ebook Oil Paint Basics, available via the Amazon Kindle store at a depressingly low fee, contains far more information on this aspect than I can really offer here.
Posted
Thank you everyone for your replies. I'm currently building a small studio in my garden, thus when complete I can start oils.
I've not tried MDF, this seems to be popular. Does it affect the longevity of a painting? Warp? I've only ever painted on canvas or the odd pebble.
I've also read that folks sometimes paint their first layer in acrylic, just for a faster start time, this appeals to me as wet on wet was never my strong point.
Many thanks again for your replies, hopefully I'll be posting something soon.
Alicia
Posted
Alicia, if you look elsewhere in the Oils section, there's plenty of advice. This link advises on what painting surface to use:
http://www.painters-online.co.uk/forum/Topic86108.aspx
I've tried making MDF painting boards and it's too time consuming. I buy Belle Arti canvas boards, and sometimes canvas sheets, from Jackson's Art. I explained this in more detail in the link.
What type of paints to buy? The cheapest is student quality, perhaps £3 or £4 a tube depending on the retailer. These take a few days to dry, which can be inconvenient. If you buy alkyd paints, they dry in a day. The most expensive paints are artists quality at about £7 upwards depending on pigment. They take days to dry, you can speed up drying by putting a blob of W & N Liquin gel on the palette.
For brushes I buy Rosemary & Co Ivory brushes, which are softer than hog hair.
Posted
Can you give me some advice Alan or Robert, Its been quite some time since I painted in oils and I have been working on this painting over the last week. I know its not great but I am reasonably happy with it but not sure if I should darken the foreground or background off. Any advice would be great. The image is pretty much accurate in colour, size is an A4 boxed canvas. Linda 
Posted
Good job - never be reluctant to take GOOD advice: I still remember asking my brother for advice on a painting, a good 40 or more years ago - he isn't a painter, but he has a good eye for a painting (must have, he bought some of mine...): was good advice, and brought the whole thing to life.
By the way Brian, if you're looking in - I could do with a bit of help right now......
Posted
Without wishing to pick a fight with the author of that article, I don't WANT my acrylics to look like oils - and incidentally, I don't really think it's possible; the difference between an acrylic painting and an oil may not be immediately obvious on a screen, but in the flesh - I've never had any difficulty yet.
There's an implication here that acrylic is in some way inferior and needs to look so like an oil painting that you can be forgiven for painting it in this johnny-come-lately medium (I'm sure that's not what Michael Ham meant - I don't think it's what the author of the article meant, either; but it's an inference I know to have been made before). Acrylic, oil, watercolour, gouache, tempera, casein, are different mediums - those differences should be respected, not overcome - or is that too dogmatic?
Posted
No it’s not dogmatic at all in my view. I actually had the same thoughts when I saw the post but never got round to responding.
I haven’t watched the video and don’t intend to, the very title is a ridiculous one and the idea of ‘wanting to make acrylic look like oils’ quite silly and unnecessary.
I do paint with acrylics, although not so often these days, and I do work in a similar way to applying oils, but that’s where any similarity ends.
It’s a fine medium in its own right, and should be embraced as such!