3 Tips to make your ACRYLIC painting look more like OIL 

I agree, toning the canvas, or adding an underpainting definitely helps with acrylics! Thanks for commenting!

Sorry, I am new to painting. Does the red under painting show at all on the final result?

@@marciabarreto780 Many artists will allow some of the underpainting to peek through in places. It adds a vibrancy to the painting when used well.

@@goilo888 Thank you

Thanks for the tip.

That's a great idea!

I completely agree with you and was VERY surprised that he did not suggest that in the video!

I use pouring medium and very little amount of water to make the paint flow better. Slow drying medium is also good, depends what you want to do...

Uh… you do you. Cause I have seen so many amazing paintings (ones that are borderline hyper realistic), where they all use the water trick. I’m glad you found your route but, the water thing is still a valid and excellent tip.

Whatever. That is like saying you have a valuable skill as a Walmart greeter. @@feyrie

@@feyrieI use water as well. Especially for glazes. I’ve produced nationally award winning paintings using water

Glad the tips help! Thank you for tuning in and for your kind comments!

I agree! I just wanted to keep these tips as simple as possible, and I have another video coming up with more tips that are more moderate in technique and supplies. Thanks for your suggestion, I appreciate it.

@@UncleJunior52 Yes, acrylic varnish, sorry I didn't specify. Works wonders

Is this for real?! Never heard of it, read something about varnish needing to be removable for restoration purposes, but not used as a medium. Would be great if it is true, that chalky look drives me crazy!

But putting varnish in the paint, would it wash out of the brush properly?

Mixing the varnish with paint? Sounds interesting, will try...

Thank you for attending! I've had a lot of fun each time I've been in Atlanta. Hope to be back there soon. Thanks for commenting!

Thank you very much, I appreciate that! Hope you enjoy future videos as well.

@@gagnonstudio No doubt, you have quite the library!

Awesome, oil paints are great! I love painting with them as well.

I’m terrified to try oils lol

@@ashleyfletcher5044 I am finding them so much easier than acrylics. Blending and drying time makes life easier and my art looks better Give them a go

@@ashleyfletcher5044 they make water soluble oils, so that you can use them very similarly to acrylics, using just water. Easy way to get introduced to oils without all the extras. I think golden also makes an acrylic paint that dries very slowly... This makes it similar to painting to oils (without the richness and depth that only oils can give)

@@ashleyfletcher5044 don't be, try and you won't regret it

Thank you very much!

Awesome 🙏💛🤳

Wow, thank you that is a very kind comment.

@@gagnonstudio 🎨🖌👍👍 I appreciate you. Have a wonderful day!

Awesome! Thank you for tuning in, hope the tips help!

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Thank you I hope to get to Toronto again someday! Hopefully soon!

thank you!

Thank you so much! I appreciate your comment.

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Thank you!

Thank you Vijay!

Thank you, I think there are a lot of opinions on this. I paint the edges on thicker canvas that aren't framed, but I mostly frame everything and use 7/8 inch deep canvas to fit more frames. To each their own :). Thanks for commenting.

@@gagnonstudio yup depends, i really love a full canvas that is unframed, so many people get hung up on the this idea of a frame for everything. A large modern work by itself IMHO doesn't always need a canvas, like DALI id never frame that for example and he probably didn't think of frame for alot of his crazy works. I will check out more of your videos, thanks again

Thank you!

Thank you, glad they could help!

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Thank you so much!

Good tips. I just bought the Daler-Rowney Georgian water-mixable oil paints and they work great. I did my first painting with them recently and there is no colour shift and it was touch-dry in a few days.

Don't buy Cobra from Talens, not enough pigments in the tubes, they are cheap student grade water soluble oils.

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Thank you! Glad I can help!

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Thank you so much, I appreciate the support and your comment.

Yes, you can also do that as well. That's something I'll talk about more in a future video. It's a little more difficult because adding in gel mediums affects the consistency and saturation of the paint in certain ways. I do think that adding those mediums is a great idea and is probably a more moderate technique in difficulty.

I am a beginner, but just thinking if heavy body acrylics would do that?

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I've used Golden Open, it is an ok alternative to regular acrylic, but still dries very similar to regular acrylic. A lot of my students and customers haven't been big fans of the open acrylics so I don't push it too much. Mostly due to the weird middle drying time where it gets sticky. Still dries flat unless you add a gel medium. The same techniques would apply to golden open, except you could use the thinner instead of water.

@@gagnonstudio Maybe I'm just ignorant on some of your discussion. To date all I have used is their mediums. You could use their gloss or flat but that really doesn't matter as I varnish at the end at which point I could go gloss, satin or flat with my Gamvar varnish. Had great success with Gamvar and doesn't smell. Don't use Golden varnish, really smells. That middle dry time doesn't bother me. Just next day paint time again ain't too bad. Oil painters use hot smelly solvents to speed up their dry time. They are always trying to get their oils to dry so they can get back onto their art piece. Tried Cobra water/oils but that dry time did not suit me at all. Went back to my Golden OPENs and am quite happy. Maybe the key to success for me is that I use their mediums. You can also mix the OPEN's with their heavy body acrylics or any medium that Golden has. They are all inter-mixable. The nice thing about the heavy body acrylics is you can do a heavy impasto, can't do that with straight OPEN's. You have to stay to a thickness of a dime they say. Anyway those are my two cents. Thanks for your comments.

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Thank you. I rarely use mediums with acrylics. I'll use a flow medium here and there. I try to use water very sparingly because I know how it can affect the paint. I try to just use enough to make the surface of the canvas smooth without breaking down the paint. My only problem with the medium is that I like to mist the canvas, and I hate breathing that stuff in when it gets sprayed into the air. I will, however, use it on the palette without spraying. I appreciate your comment!

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Thank you for commenting! That's a great idea!

Thank you Thomas, I appreciate that!

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Thank you!

I have in the past. A few years ago I came to Naples. This year I'll be in Orlando in September. It's possible that I add another location as well, but it'll be based on if there is enough interest.

Never use spray furniture wax on a painting whether it be acrylic, oil, or watercolor!!

@@TheJudeJane why though? I don't see any problems, not yet anyway.

Keep up with what works! Sounds like a creative idea, and if you've had good luck with it then keep doing it. I've met many artists from around the world who do things outside of the so called art "rules" and they have great success with many different out of the ordinary approaches.

@@gagnonstudio Thanks for responding. I cannot take credit for creativity since I got the tip from another youtuber artist. I don't recall who, sorry. I had an old can of it in the closet so I tried it and happy with the results.

@@debstawecki6843 Actually, Jude is correct. Do whatever you wish, but know that non-archival products are just that, and will yellow and ruin the painting. Artist fixatives, varnishes, whatever are not just preffered, but I would argue required if you want your work to stay in good condition for as long as possible. (And to not turn dark yellow)

Missing the point.

How soon after finishing an oil painting will it dry/cure and then be varnished? One reason I don't want to try oil cuz I want to be able to sell paintings quickly. Time is money.

It depends on how thick the paint is. It will cure much more quickly by using mediums like liquin or Neo megilp. In general if you don't use really thick paint you can varnish after a week or two if you used those mediums throughout the painting. If you have thicker paint you may want to wait at least a month if you used the mediums. If no mediums you should wait longer depending on how thick you put the paint on. So in short, the mediums do help speed up the time in which you can varnish your painting and ship it out. If you keep the layers thinner you can probably get away with varnishing and shipping after a week.

I also ready where as long as it's touch dry, I can use gamvar to varnish immediately. Is that true? And it won't yellow over time using that.

I don't have any GA trips scheduled yet, but I do go to the Atlanta area frequently. So hopefully soon.

I've painted over it before with acrylics with no problem. I haven't done it with oils though because I use a different varnish.

You want to add the varnish when the painting is dried completely. I use Liquitex varnishes, and even the directions tell you to apply when the painting is completely dry.

@@amberforbes3151 Thanks!

wait until it dries

Thanks for writing. I wait until it is completely dry. I find that the varnish goes on much better and more evenly when the paint is completely wet. Fortunately it'll only take 30 minutes to an hour for regular acrylic to dry completely.