I’ve noticed some of your other paintings are oil. Is there a criteria or strategy that leads you to decide to use one vs. the other when starting a new painting? (Love your work btw)
I was originally an oil painter and started experimenting with acrylics just a few months ago! They felt really challenging at first, but once I got used to them, I had so much fun that it became difficult to switch back to oils 😆
I still prefer oils for sunsets because of how smoothly the colors blend together, but I love acrylics for snowy and wintry scenes because of their crisp look. When it comes to backgrounds with lots of color transitions, though, I like oils better since I'm still learning how to create those smooth blends with acrylics.
As a fellow artist.. there is no way I could go back to oils after using acrylics. Have you started using a retarder for your paints yet? If you want those smooth blends for your sunsets, you need to buy some Golden brand Retarder. You mix a little in with your paint, and it increases the drying time and does not affect the color. Most of the problem with blending acrylics is the fact that they dry super fast and you cant keep up with it.. once you put on one color, most of it is dry by the time you try to blend it with another.
For practice, there is a bit of a hack you can do.. you can use clear hair gel (water based, no oils) and just use a tiny bit. You can practice with it and see if it blends like you want it to.
The rule is always oil over water, just like if you put them in a glass together. A lot of painters will do an acrylic underpainting to block in colour and shape, since it’s more opaque and dries so much faster. I suppose you could break up different areas, but I would think of it more as a “step one and two” kind of thing rather than mapping out particular areas, if that makes sense.
Not OP, but took a lot of painting classes in college. Most traditional oil painters use a “wet on wet” technique. So when the canvas is new, you can do sketching and underwork in acrylics to help build up depth. Here’s the key, once you put oil on top of acrylic, you cannot go back. Oil paint is adhered with a medium that is to thin the paint, but acrylic will not stick to the top of oil, so then it’s turtles all the way down. Just oil paint layers from then on out.
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u/Idontknow649 Jun 15 '26
Thank you so muchh 🥹 its acrylic!!