Mark you are one of the few entrepreneurs who actually informs someone how they can make your products at home. Most everyone else has a “secret” formula for their products. Besides being a great teacher, and artist, you share so much for free with your audience. I've always admired that. BTW, I have used both oils and acrylics and I have a preference for oils. You can’t rush a painting, and I feel that acrylics force you to do so, even with using retarders.
While some people are trying to slow down acrylic drying , I add a cobalt solution to my oils to speed up drying! Painting in glazes, combined with the cobolt solution, gives me complete drying time options! I won't paint paint with any other but oils as it gives me the best of both worlds!?
@@robertchilders8698 I never did it, but when I painted wildlife subjects in acrylics years ago some folks used hair dryers to speed up drying, being a method of washes before the final opacity. It was their method and mine too basically. So, while waiting for washes to dry, so I could do another one, I'd watch an episode of X-files or something on TV; I loved the one about the guy who awoke and ate 5 human livers after hibernating for 30 years! LOL
The thing I've always loved about Mark Carder and his website is he'll tell you what you need to know AND then tell you what you need to do that doesn't benefit him. His generosity with his knowledge is without comparison. I wish I could visit him for in person classes but I have spinal injuries from a car crash and regrettably I can't do it. But I appreciate his website and RU-vid videos so much. I want you to understand... He's not a gatekeeper...he wants everyone to learn what he knows as an accomplished artist. He's one in a million, and in the vast range of RU-vid I'm so glad I found him.
I started using water mixable oils and also use natural walnut oil as a way to thin the paint. I have asthma and it’s nice now to be able to paint and not worry about any bad smells.
What does the walnut oil do? Just thin the paint? Id like to transition to oil but I only started painting last year. I'm asthmatic too so I'm worried about fumes etc.
Good, but never tried it. For me, with oils, it's the "juice", ah the juice, the beautiful, slippery, shinning, juicy juice, as it flows smoothly off the tip of your brush or knife, staying nice, and wet, and glossy, for a lovely long time on the canvas or panel; ...and, of course, there's the impasto, something difficult to do, but not impossible, with acrylics! ;D LOL
I quit acrylics and went to oil because I was frustrated with trying to accomplish soft or lost edges. Oils are more luxurious also imo. But, to each their own. Edit. I also found acrylics frustrating because they often dont cover in the first pass, and I had to do multiple coats which took away from the freshness of the original stroke.
@@poppetcrabappletoadflax414 Good point, I forgot about that. I do sometimes use acrylics in a mixed media way. Ill paint it main objects in acrylic in a complicated piece, and if I mess up, I can just wipe away the oils and start again with the original acrylic sketch still intact
You just don't know the right techniques. It's ok to change mediums if you are not comfortable, the important thing is to do art and express yourself. I use both, acrylic and oils, alone or mixed together
I painted for several years using acrylic paints and found that beautiful results could be achieved using a "layering" process and mediums. I have literally drawers full of bottles and tubes of acrylic paint. Over the past couple of years I have switched to using oil and I enjoy using it so much more than acrylic! One of the things I like most about it is that I can more easily judge how a color will appear when it dries. Acrylic will dry darker and water color will dry lighter. I always thought the oil paint was very expensive and it's clean up process was harmful to your health, so I was afraid to use it. After watching some of Mark's RU-vids, I decided to give it a try. Just a quick thank you to Mark. I enjoy painting again. Love your paints too!
I think these are good points, but it's worth remembering that there have been plenty of great artists painting realistic detailed styles who use and prefer acrylic paints. I doubt anyone would guess that artists like Wolfgang Grasse were using acrylic when their style and presentation is so similar to Bosch. Sometimes there's a little bit of elitism from the art community saying oil is always better, and I think that probably just comes from the fact that all of the old masters used oils (they had no choice). Everyone should try both and see what they prefer! While you're at it also try water colors, heavy body mediums, digital painting, pastels and don't stop exploring. :)
Good points, but oil is better if you have appreciation for specific results that only oil can achieve. The kind of variety of effects (especially translucency), colors, etc. that only oil can deliver. Plus the weight of that old masters tradition is a valid reason to want to be a continuation of it. No disrespect to other mediums, though I'd rank digital painting the lowest.
@@vladimirkraynyk I ordered the oils and got scared off by a guy on facebook that talks about everything causing cracking and nothing will last long if you use oils or anything with chemicals etc. He has even written a book. It was so confusing that I gave up.
@@enaid54 There are oil paintings hundreds of years old, we won't be alive to know for sure how long acrylics last, probably a long time because it's basically a plastic. If you want your oil painting to last hundreds of years don't use toxic solvents, don't use too much oil to thin the paint, don't paint on a flexible support like canvas, don't use any color that has zinc in it. Do use a lead white when mixing colors, don't eat it, paint "fat over lean" i.e. less oil in the base layers and a little more oil in each following layer, or just paint alla prima i.e wet into wet, all at once Bob Ross style. Find a copy of Traditional Oil Painting by Virgil Elliott,.
@@enaid54 the cracking is caused by uneven drying rates pulling paint apart. paint thinner and cobalt drier attract a lot of negativity, but they are stable and the health risks can absolutely be addressed--furniture makers figured it out decades ago.
One of the happiest moments in my painting history was when I switched to doing landscapes with acrylics instead of oils. I hated oil paint. It's so gross and messy. Every time I did a painting, the entire room stunk to high heaven. Oils are for people who want to dilly-dally for weeks over the same painting. Or as I like to say, "oils are for people who hate finishing their paintings." When you visit an oil painting forum, people are constantly asking questions about the technical issues they have with oil paint. But in an acrylic painting forum, you never see this, because there aren't any such issues. I love the immediacy of acrylics. You put the paint on the canvas, you see the results within minutes. If you don't like it, you paint over it. Or perhaps you layer over it and the result evolves from there. Very few people understand how to use acrylics correctly; it is more difficult than oils. You need to be constantly aware of how wet the paint is. Acrylics are incredibly versatile and with practice and experience, you have complete control over your paint, including the drying time. I use a wet pallet, and the paint on that pallet stays wet as long as I want. I finish every painting in one afternoon; sometimes I do two paintings in one afternoon. If it takes longer than that, I've already lost interest. I love all of Mark Carder's videos; his advice is always well-thought out and very clearly presented. But for me personally, acrylics are definitely the way to go. I understand most people here prefer oil paint, and I personally could not care less which paint you're using. I just wanted to offer a different perspective.
@@jamilnasim3065 Like I said above, you need to know the limits of both and the strengths of both, sort of like driving a BMW and a Mercedes, I have both cars, (and a few others), and they are both different for different reasons!! LOL. Oils are workable for some time, and good for plein air landscapes, especially in my arid environment of the southwest, where acrylics would dry too fast. But while I painted wildlife subjects with acrylics, I used to spend more time working in the studio, building up a series of washes until the last sessions to go to opacity and the final touches of details in fur and feathers of animals! LOL ;D
Thank you so much for your generosity with your knowledge Mark. You've made everything available to all of us on your website and RU-vid. NOBODY else has done that. I'm very grateful. Thank you so much 🇮🇪🤝🏻🇺🇲🎉
Golden open acrylics are great, slow drying acrylics, they are great, you can blend them good and you don't have to wait six month to dry. They dry in a couple of hours, and stay wet for weeks in a container. Regular acrylics is great for the first layers and you can go over them with oils to make details and blending. And there are retarded and techniques that allow you to do all the blending you want. Colors vary between brands golden is the best i use, liquitex is also good. And you can blend regulars acrylics well if you know how to do it. Oils are great too of course. It is not one or the other, you can use all of them in combination, but oils must be used always at the end.
Excellent points. I've been using oil paints in plein air painting. Because they do not dry right away, oils are excellent to use in hot and cold weather. Transporting can be a bit tricky, but you can plan for that by using either a homemade cardboard box with dividers or one of these Raymar type panel carriers. An interesting thing I've noticed when mixing my oils with cold wax is that it does dry within an hour in warm weather. I like the cold wax because it creates impasto texture, especially when painting water. An edit on the end: Stay wet pallets are great for acrylics in plein air. Other ways to get around that dry time is to put out only small amounts at a time, using open body acrylics . Interesting textures and volume can be created in both mediums by adding sand or marble dust (use a mask!) to the paint.
I usually paint portraits with oils but at the moment I'm painting a Geisha portrait with acrylics and the blending of colours is very difficult as you said. Acrylics are nice because are easy to clean and dry quickly but for portraits is a drawback. Thanks Mark for uploading videos. 😎👍
With acrylic paints you don't have to worry about the oil painting rules of: "Fat over lean, thick over thin." Take a look at Greg Simpkins or Andrea Kowtch paintings. They've achieved amazing realism with acrylics.
I use poppy oil as a non toxic medium w oil paint, it’s more watery and less yellow than linseed oil. And I use a tub of that “old masters” brush soap to clean the brushes. So non toxic all the way
True. Just remember, the 'softer' paler oils don't quite set up as strongly as linseed, but are often used in pale colors, or highlights, so may be best reserved for final layers if that is a concern.
I find oils to have the potential to be luminous in a way that can't be photographed. Acrylics can have incredible boldness and brilliance but I've never seen an acrylic painting to look as if it's illuminated from within. Not all oil paintings have this quality, obviously but some do and it's profoundly moving. Maybe there are ways of achieving this effect with mediums or other additives in acrylics but I've never seen it in person.
I started painting seriously back in the 90s with Bob Ross & Helen VanWyk as my teachers. A few years later I switched over to acrylics and was determined to get them to act like oils. I was eventually successful with blending and able to manage the drying time of the acrylics to my advantage. When I discovered Mark, his method took me to a whole new level using acrylics. My 1st painting I did using his method won a 2nd, & 2 3rds in 3 shows. I recently started using water mixable oils. They seem to take forever to dry.
I used water-mixable oils when traveling in Europe years ago, for convenience, and yes, they have drawbacks. I found them "weaker" and less "vibrant" that the regular oils, almost like watercolors I guess!! ;D
Fantastic and timely as always. Thank you. I am currently working with acrylic which is great but like you said dries very fast. Going to start collecting oil paint from your shop.
Wow! I learn something every time I listen to you. This time I learned that most oil paints are not toxic and that if I use refined linseed oil as a solvent it's fine. I have only been using acrylics because i don't have a lot of ventilation, though I have some. I definitely will be trying to work with oils now. Thank you!!!
Good points. Also, If you need blackest black in acrylic that is just as black as oil black, use carbon black by Golden brand (especially fluid version).
I just wanted to add that if you've neglected to clean your brushes, you can bring them back with lacquer thinner. It's VERY toxic, but it reactivates even very dried paint. Allowing you to thin it out with mineral spirits after a good soak, and then finish it off with denatured alcohol or isopropyl. That's my method anyway.
Interesting…the famous British art forger turned tv artist John Myatt uses acrylics and says you can't tell whether his paintings are oil or acrylic. Acrylic are best used if you lean into their quality..fast drying. Use a staywet palette and a lot of water to keep the canvas wet and you can blend like oil paint. Also a stay wet palette keeps the paint useable for longer than oil paint on a palette. Having said all of that, you can,t really push acrylic around on a canvas like you can oil paint (though if you do push oil around you end up with mud). As for the colour shift…Winsor and Newton artist quality acrylic doesn’t really shift, and neither does Golden, so the shift has something to do with the level of pigment. Although i agree that oil paint gives a slightly richer depth of colour ….and there is something sort of lustrous about oil paint that you don't get with acrylics.
Actually, it's the mediums that are the most toxic culprits like liquin for example, but yes, if you want non-toxic go for water media, including some oils now. But regular oils are great, and not for sissies, I guess! ;D Funny story: a guy was painting in some foreign country with watercolor and for some reason (to get a point?) has the habit of licking his brush occasionally; and he did that and got giardia (a parasite) from the water he was using from a local stream!! LOL ;D
Great video, completely agree with your fundamental points about oil vs. acrylic. Can I add my own two cents' worth? 1. There's a caveat to your point about darks: with oil paint, there is going to be sinking with black/ burnt or raw umber and ultramarine, so these colours are likely to dry less dark than when they were wet. The painter needs to know about 'oiling in' to rectify that. Oiling in can be a pain, as you may get things like blooming occuring, if over-done. 2. For an odourless or near-odourless studio with oil painting, then the citrus-based thinners are very good. I have been using Zest-It and am next trying Lukas Citrus Turpentine (due to availability where I live in Germany). Both products are UK manufactured. Like genuine turpentine, the gunge floats to the bottom and the thinner can be separated and re-used. 3. For brush dip I use cooking grade walnut oil with a few drops of clove oil. This works absolutely fine for me. You can also re-use the oil, as like the citrus thinner, the dirty colour floats down to the bottom. I use Pro-Arte Stirling long-handle synthetic brushes and am able to leave them standing in the jar for weeks on end (which is meant to be a sin) and have noticed no brush deformation. Small and fine brushes are just rinsed in citrus thinner.
Great video - I also avoid colours that have cadmium as a pigment, as it's highly toxic. And just to be sure, I use nitrile gloves so that paint doesn't come in contact with my skin. And I follow Mark's advice about just using refined linseed oil for the medium.
I moved from oils to acrylics years ago because my wife has asthma, and the oil is a trigger. I tried going back to oils once, but my technique has moved on to make use of the rapid drying of the acrylics, and painting wet in wet just makes a mess. I had the same problem with Golden Open paints. I no longer know how to paint cleanly wet in wet.
I don't refute any of what Mark is saying. I'm not a Realist painter. For portrait work I choose the look of soft pastel over all other. I'm somewhat diverse in styles but mostly lean towards impressionism and semi abstract. I only use acrylics for a quick one coat illustration work, which is not often. I like painting wet in wet oil a lot. I like control of varying drying time where I can drag fairly stiff paint over tacky and pull the color beneath for an unique affect. I kept struggling with all the various brands being too wet out of the tube. They call it buttery and I respect that. Except I call it shelf-life. So Ive started purchasing some of my own pigments and creating the stiffness of paint I like. With stiff paint I have control of when and where I need wetter or buttery by simply adding oil on the pallet. I keep a squirt bottle of 75% walnut oil/25% spirits handy. I'm a bit of a freak about white. Mostly I use lithopone or titanium according to how warm or cool I'm going with tints. I even mull tubes of 50/50 Lithopone, Titanium and different tubes of walnut verses linseed. Because I use a lot of paint, I don't need any extenders. I use only walnut oil or refined linseed in my pigment. I start my compositions and sometimes 2nd coats with faster drying time linseed paint and switch to walnut for final layers. There is an extreme learning curve to making your own paint. I highly recommend not doing it, if you have not been painting for many years, as I have. I still purchase several premixed colors that I simply don't have the expertise to create and don't use a lot, therefore the need for longer shelf life. Mixing your own paint teaches you more about the various pigments and how they react. I recommend also visiting a paint supplier such as Mark if you can. The more you can learn about paint and why suppliers use deferent qualities of elements in different pigments, will help in learning to mix greater array of tones on your pallet. As far as toxic spirits go, after 40 yrs, I still use mineral spirits sparingly. There is no need to keep dipping your brush into the spirits. Simply use lots of paper towels to wipe the paint from your brush and keep painting. Getting your brushes soaked in spirits will cause problems with making some of the unique strokes you might want and it's time consuming to keep trying to whipe them dry. When through with a painting session, I clean my brushes in the spirits. I seldom waste time cleaning with soap and water, yet every so often is needed. The most important thing about painting is painting often and discovering. There is no learning replacement for it.
A point that very few people make is that there is almost no expiration date on oil painting tubes, if it's close properly and there is no holes in the body of the tube, it will last for decades (I have tubes that are 30 years old and still good). But acrylic, even if you've never opened it will go bad after after 5 or 6 years, sometime even less. It will also go bad if you freeze by accident (it is a concern here in Canada). It is a super important difference because we pay good money for those tubes and want them to last, no ones want to spend money on expensive color only to see them go bad because he or she didn't use them quickly enough.
I’ve settled on Golden Open acrylics and Cobra water soluble oil. These two and their mediums are high quality, easy to clean and allow me to paint in an array of styles. I have a bunch of alkyd paints and liquin that I used for decades, love them, but don’t like the fumes and cleanup anymore.
I use both, acrylics and oils. Both are very different but I like both the same. True, turpentine can be a problem for its odour, health issues, etc., but I love the creamy, glossy surface of oil painting.
Well, I use water mixable oils from Cobra made by Royal Talens. For cleaning Sennelier Green for Oil and soap (both can be used for traditional oils as well).
Thanks Mark! I've been a nonsolvent painter for years - mainly due to lack of ventilation. Although I've been using walnut oil over linseed, as I've read that it doesn't yellow over time.
i quit acrylics because i couldn't have multiple premixed colors on a pallete - after i was done applying the first color, the rest of them were dry. may be a brand's fault tho (pebeo). ever since then i used umton oils and drying time is pretty reasonable . also reducing my palette to a variation of mark's helped since i can buy the main colors in large tubes and have some odd bright colors in smaller ones
I think it's good to remember that the drying process of acrylic paints is very difficult to control because they darken a lot depending on the brands.
This was my main reason for switching from acrylics to oils, aside from the drying time. I think the darkening effect of acrylic paint happens across all brands, since it's a result of the drying process itself, i.e. evaporation (I could be wrong, but I haven't found large differences between brands).
@@petermartin5030 They absolutely do. Water makes the acrylic emulsion transmit more light, and it appears white without pigment because it is a milky emulsion of water and plastic particles. This bounces light around inside and this milky emulsion affects the appearance of the wet paint. See how gloss medium is white, but dries clear. This is the same thing as the binder in the paint, so you can't eliminate drying shift completely.
@@petermartin5030this is good to know because to me this is just unacceptable. Especially since naturally you’d perceive something to be darker when it’s wet it kind of throws all of my estimations off😂
I studied under a woman who taught me to paint people. I went to her to learn how to paint my deceased step mother for my father. She said never use linseed oil because it yellows too much. I stopped using it then. Although I used it when I was self taught. Now I think I might go back and try it.
I was taught with acrylics. The secret of acrylic is to work in small sections at a time. Not moving on until one leaf (as an example) is complete with shading and details. Also, you need a much bigger pallet.
Acrylic can be fun mixed with watercolor/gouache/marker, but I mostly paint in oils. I use traditional oils, completely solvent free. I use walnut oil gel as a medium (so nice having your medium in a tube!) and clean up with regular bar soap and water. Sad how many people are misinformed to believe they need some alternative to traditional oils to paint solvent free.
how do you store? I don't have wall space and usually pile up my acrylic paintings. If oils dry slower is there a special way to store until dry? I would really LOVE to switch to oil. It's so delicious.
I make comics so acrylics were my go to. Slow drying would not be a plus for me because I need to make pictures in a specific amount of time. Plus its easier to clean and use on muli media paper. But I'd still love to get into oil painting for fun soon
Great video! I paint with both as well as watercolor. All the different mediums have their benefits and draw backs. I'd like to know if anyone can tell me how to get oil paint to dry faster without resorting to using alkyd based mediums which are toxic. I also use alkyd paints which dry fast but do have the toxic smell and you have to clean brushes with mineral spirits or terpenoid natural. I love the fact that with acrylic or watercolor, you can handle the painting the next day or within a few hours and also sell and ship them quicker. Having to wait weeks for oils to dry is a bit of a pain.
I never tried acrylics so I don’t know if this is true now or ever was, but I was told acrylics change colors as they dry. So you would mix a color put it on the canvas and when you came back the next day it would be darker. That would be an issue if you were doing realism I suppose.
What makes acrylics dry so fast are ammonia and formaldyhyde - use in a well-ventilated area. With oil paints, solvents aren't actually necessary, and do mess with paint bonds. Water mixable paints use "resins" (which are toxic to breathe, etc) "and/or emulsifiers" but I think it depends on the 'emusifier?'
I see in acrylic paint, you can get transparent and opaque. How do you make transparent oil paint, say to do a wash please? Love your method, will start soon.
I am allergic to turpenoid, etc. but I don't find alkyd mediums smelly or toxic. I paint in both acrylic and oil, but they are very different, and so I paint differently in both. I use alkyd medium with the oils, and it helps each color dry more uniformly and quicker. Have been considering Griffin so I could paint more uniformly in drying time. Only gripe with alkyd colors, and I have used them before, is that caps are very hard to get off tubes if they sit for awhile. Always keep acrylic brushes in water until you can clean well
Yes, creating hyper realism is really hard in acrylics. There isn't that many artists who can create hyper realistic paintings in acrylics. But that might also be due to bias. Not many great artists will switch to a medium that they know very little about once they reached that ability to paint realistic paintings in oils. There is just no reason to drop medium that has proved itself over centuries. I'm just glad that we have so many options no matter what artists choose. I can't paint realistic paintings so it doesn't really matter for me. I'm yet to try your technique so maybe one day i too will be able to create great art a many of your students.
ive used alot of professional brands of acrylics with retarders and thinners and the problem on large canvas for skies and seas etc, is in minuets or less the paint gets ‘ropy” alot like real lead white oil paint, its very difficult to say the least. I paint i acrylics because 90% of the local artists use oil and the galleries here wont accept any more oil painters
In my case i need all the time to correct my own errors, when I`m painting, oils are for me my favourite, way to express what i want to do. Is my point of vue.
Another drawback to acrylics is that the dried color is not exactly the same as the wet mixed color in hue and value (darkness) and therefore very difficult to match when coming back to continue a dried painting.
In my experience with oil painting the colors become duller after they dry. Are you supposed to varnish the canvas when you’re done? They seem so rich when they’re wet but become comparably flat when dry. Is there something I’m doing wrong here?
Nicely said. There are two more things I think are worth considering. Acrylic paints are essentially a liquid plastic, and they are often very toxic. Another benefit of oils is glazing; it is almost impossible to achieve good glazing with acrylics.
Acrylics all the way, I find them so much more enjoyable to use. The whole process is clean and fast. I like to paint with speed and i dont have any problem blending i do it quickly and im focused. I hate painting slow I find im more prone to overthinking and overworking. Oils are just silly old antiquated way of painting and i think the future is better served focusing on arcrylic and i find them more versatile. I love layering on dry layers wet on wet actually bores me IMO
Acrylic has some toxic pigments just like some oils. Example cadmium paints. Acrylics don’t dry fast in humid environments. In fact they dry very slow. Linseed oil has the classic oil painter smell that we associate with the “artist”… but if you don’t want everyone in the house to know you are painting , acrylics are a better choice plus there are many mediums you can use with acrylics that are not toxic don’t smell and all can be washed in water. Which is a really cheap solvent ! In this day and age if you are using turpentine , paint thinners etc and you don’t have a ventilation system you are basically crazy lol Waiting for paint to dry just is not an option these days …. for me Might dry after I die lol Nice video.
I suppose it depends on the genre, having done all media for 50 years, so, it depends on what you paint. Now it seems that folks want to be "safe", personally and environmentally, with their media, and that's fine, but not really part of the problem of which to choose, for a given painterly effect. Oils have been used for centuries and last a long time, watercolor too but more recently and acrylic the most recent, and some other "modern" stuff too like water mixable oils. Of course, pastel which I have never really used much, except in pencil form, is arguably the oldest media, it being used in cave art for example!! LOL. I find acrylics good for detail work when I did wildlife mostly, for fur and feathers, also some other water media like gouache, but oils are fine for outdoor landscape work, being "forgiving" and workable for a good length of time, and I don't have an issue with them in the studio, with adequate ventilation. I do occasionally paint figures and portraits to keep my drawing skills "tuned-up", for any other thing I might paint. If you can draw very well, you can paint anything, ...absolutely Anything! : ) So, there you have it. I like all media, but it depends on the subject, for me anyway. Materials are expensive, so I choose one, and try to keep costs down. Now I use oils, in a limited palette, for everything. But I still have all my other medias, moldering away somewhere in my studio!! LOL. When I paint, I leave all politics behind. I want to escape from that for a few hours a day, anyway. That's how I try to stay "healthy" while I'm painting!! LOL ;D
Well, I don't like to disagree with one far more knowledgeable than myself, but I've never seen the problem with using oil paints straight out of the tube (whatever the brand). I find them just fine. And being an exclusively alla prima oils painter, I don't have to worry about fat over lean or thick over thin. Cleaning my brushes afterwards is the only step that requires the use of any material at all other than paint. However, I completely understand that other painters will prefer different viscosities and textures, etc. It is always each to their own.
same with me. i only add medium to titanium white that has been sitting on a palette a little longer and a few drops of non-toxic solvent to burnt umber for underpainting
My advice. DONT BUY student grade paint even if youre a beginner, buy professional grade, so youre not disappointed with the result. Pretty much any brand is good. Its only after painting for a while that youll develop a preference. Also dont buy cheap stretched canvas from Walmart or somewhere like that. Check the canvas for roughness. If its rough it will be HARD to spread the paint. You should sand away the extra roughness, and it would be a good idea to have acrylic gesso on hand to add a layer after sanding if necessary (Gesso is the white that a canvas is sealed with if youre not aware) I hope this helps.
I have to recommend water mixable oil paints. They are just like regular oil paints in every way... except they can be washed up and away with water. Somehow they figured out how to make oil mix with water. They're extremely underrated in my opinion. I have to recommend them to anyone asking.
Winsor and Newton Artists' Oils, is a recognized workhorse of a brand that even professionals use, without the payout for "premium." It is a nice consistency for most colors and doesn't need much linseed oil to maintain fat-over-less fat.
Don´t use cheap oils, even if you are only learning how to use it. Buy a good brand like Van Gogh, etc. As for surfaces, linen is the best for quality, though it is expensive. Anyway, you can buy a linen canvas or the linen and make the canvas yourself.
Florescents are only available in acrylic (?) I'm talking pigments that flouresc under black light. Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks... I absolutely prefer oils for conventional colors
Acrylics are irreplaceable as a blocking in, underpainting tool. Especially if you paint muted, realistic colours over the top of pop neon and fluorescent colours and allow them to seep through. It sets the painting up beautifully. Acrylics are also good in plein air, especially if you're painting a dark object (like a bridge or a tree) over a glowing sky. In short, both acrylics and oils are effective tools and it pays to be open minded. (Just don't mix them, or paint acrylic over oil, but you all know that.)
My main beef with acrylics, besides being less saturated, looking like a rubbery film n drying too fast is it seems to be impossible to predict what the color is gonna look like after drying?? Especially relations between colors that are already dry and the one you’re mixing. Absolute headache. Like it always gets a tad darker but it seems impossible to gauge how much exactly 🥴😭
