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Peter Smith

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I've never posted on here before because I've never done an oil painting before but today I was given a box of oil paints and other materials plus a proper palette in return for a donation to charity. A proper palette - I can't use a dinner plate for oil paints! I decided to have a first go by copying a portrait I'd done before in acrylics, based on a Renoir original, so I could do a direct comparison. As I don't know how to do anything else I painted it in the same way as I would an acrylic and it took me about two hours, a similar time. I'm reasonably pleased with it although the shape of the face is quite different and I prefer the acrylic version. I've been a bit tentative, it probably needs more contrast.  It's been fun though and I shall certainly do more. The top picture is the new oil, the one below the acrylic I did last year. I was limited by the colours that I was given and two tubes of Payne's Grey have been ordered!
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Peter Smith

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I'm surprised looking at the pictures together that the oil is brighter than the acrylic and I'd expected the opposite. It will be interesting to see if the same happens when I try a landscape.
DR

David Reeves, Cspwc, Sca

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 I'm surprised too as oil is easier to blend on the surface than is acrylic. However your acrylic looks like you were able to blend the colours quite well. 
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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The lower one is the better of the two, I think - it has more realistic flesh tones, the one above it looks a bit brown and without tonal variation.  Are you sure that the top one is oil and the bottom acrylic, or did you mean the bottom one was oil - 'cause that's what it looks like.  
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Peter Smith

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The bottom one is certainly the acrylic but I agree that you wouldn't think so. I might have another go at the oil tomorrow, it's a bit bland at the moment.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Yes, do.... the beauty of oil is the thicker paint you can employ - it repays a layering approach, perhaps more so than acrylic.  I think you've nailed the acrylic version, but then you're not particularly experienced with oil, I think?  Apologies if I have that wrong - it's a very different medium; though I'm a member of the National Association of Painters in Acrylic, I have to admit that oil, for portraits, is generally the way to go - but then, you've got a good acrylic....  so much for "supposed to be", then!  Careful though - once you get into oil, it's a devil of a job to go back.  
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Peter Smith

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I've had a happy half an hour this morning trying to improve things; I do like the fact that the following day the paint can still be worked. As you say Robert, worryingly enjoyable!!
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Peter Smith

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I've done a second oil portrait, of Elizabeth Louise Vigee le Brun. The new painting is on the right, on the left one I did last year in acrylics. I think it rather confirms that oils are better for portraits. As usual I've made the eyes too big.

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by Peter Smith

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Peter Smith

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I know this is probably a silly question but if I've got an acrylic painting on canvas can I paint over the top in oils with no ill effects?

Alan Bickley

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In theory yes you can, but not acrylic over oils. Robert may help regarding any possible long term effects!
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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You can and it might work - the reverse, as Alan says, certainly wouldn't.  There are people who routinely paint in oil over acrylic, their logic being that you can paint in oil over acrylic primer (acrylic "gesso") but that ignores the little problem that acrylic artists' paint is not priming; the composition is different.  It's not recommended because we don't yet have enough experience of acrylic under oil to know if it might delaminate or crack in time.  So I don't do it; and I don't see any need to, either - it's a bit of an insult to both types of paint...  But, if you don't mind taking a bit of a risk, you'd be far from the only person to do it.   The exception is Chromacolour, and if it's still made, Procolour - forms of acrylic in a resin that's susceptible to re-wetting if Turpentine gets anywhere near it.  Most brands of acrylic apart from those should be OK, but the trouble is the oil just sits on top of the acrylic, it doesn't bond with it: so if you do it, don't do it on a flexible surface like stretched canvas or paper: obviously, it's then more likely to crack. Long answer to a short question!
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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PS - yes the eyes are too big, but only slightly, and it's a better painting than your acrylic original.  I have painted portraits in acrylic, but, and I know Alan would bear me out here, oils are far better for this job.  The one on the left reminds me of someone - a US or Canadian comedian working in Britain, and of course - I've forgotten her name.  Someone might know.  That's quite a contrast with the skin tones, isn't it?  
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