For those of you who paint

[steveinca]

Hey everyone,
I have been painting with acrylics for over 8 years now. I really want to give oils a try. Thing is, i'm not sure if i know how to manage colors using oils. Do any of you have any experience in using oils? What are the advantages, disadvantages, do's and dont's? I really want to give it a shot today. Going to the art supply store later to pick up some oils and oil brushes. Any help would be appreciated. thanks in advance.

[benvan]

I am far from an expert or scholar on oils, as I never took a class or read anything before using them, but. I like them infinitely better than acrylics, much easier to work, play with, find the right color, etc. It really is just a matter of experimentation, and with oils they dry so much slower, that you can fix something a day or so later sometimes.

Just obviously be very careful with brushes, staying clean, etc. Because there is a lot more smell, and oils are much harder to clean off anything, and make sure the windows are open.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

[steveinca]

Apr 19, 2008 13:24:27 GMT -8 benvan said:

I am far from an expert or scholar on oils, as I never took a class or read anything before using them, but. I like them infinitely better than acrylics, much easier to work, play with, find the right color, etc. It really is just a matter of experimentation, and with oils they dry so much slower, that you can fix something a day or so later sometimes.

Just obviously be very careful with brushes, staying clean, etc. Because there is a lot more smell, and oils are much harder to clean off anything, and make sure the windows are open.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

thanks for the tips benvan. I'll make sure to keep my brushes clean and windows open!

[commandax]

I'm not a painter, but a painter I admire who works in acrylics and oil says:

Fumes give me headaches so I use Artisan water soluble oil paints then coast in with a surgical strike of Liquin to coat it when it’s all dry. They behave a little differently than traditional oils but I have gotten used to them. I use Liquitex soft body acrylics and mediums. I like their consistency and colors and they aren’t prohibitively expensive.

www.creepmachine.com/interviews/kelly-vivanco.html

[thecreep]

Yeh, Kelly is the artist that got me started on Water Mixable Oils. I have been painting with acrylics for years, and love how easy they are to clean and work with. But, they don't have the workability and "feel" that oils have. The Water Mixable Ones are a pretty good middle ground. You just thin them with water instead of turps, and they look perfect once they are all dried.

I guess it all boils down to how you, as an artist work. What medium works best with your personality type, and what medium will allow you to be more free in what you do. I think oils have the reputation of being more "fine art" like, but once you look at the acrylic works that Kris Kuksi, Travis Louie and Kelly Vivanco make, you can see that acrylics once fully realized can be just as amazing as oils can.

[jakewaldron]

I really can't paint at all, but for painting my figures I've been using Winsor Newton alkyd oils. I use them along with Liquin and they have been working really well. They are normally dry to the touch by the next day at least.

I have tried using acrylics more times than I can remember. I envy people who can paint well with them. I just have never been able to make them do what I want to do. These alkyd oils let me have the feel of oils but way faster drying times.

[Bytor]

I don't have any formal training but I have painted in both oils and acrylics and I like oils better because to me they have a "richer" appearance to them and as was stated before they have a longer work time because of drying. You can buy different mediums to retard or accelerate the dry times to your preference. I paint by a technique used by some of the old masters. Oils have a transparency ( well depending on the colors they do) to them and what some of the old masters did was to paint an under painting in gray scales and then with mediums they made glazes and painted over the under painting. If this sounds like something you want to try you can get a book called "How to paint like the old masters" by Joseph Sheppard.
Here it is on Amazon www.amazon.com/gp/product/082302671X
There is also a book that is really helpful called "Artist Handbook to Materials and Techniques" by Ralph Mayers. It is really good for a reference to all the materials available and how to use them and so on.
Here is one of my paintings, I used the technique in the book above to paint this. It really gives good step by step directions. Hope this helps.