But also oils blend more easily than acrylics, you can certainly learn to do it just as easily with acrylics but right out the gate oils are easier on that front.
There's a big difference between touch-dry and fully cured. Oils take a very long time to dry completely. This is why you need to wait 6-12 months before varnishing.@@landreeall
I’ve been using acrylic for about 10 + years, but I don’t like them anymore. Next painting I’m going back to oil. Acrylic doesn’t blend well. Is there an acrylic medium that prolongs the drying time?
Okay, I know very little about oil or acrylic paint, so my information might be wrong, but for acrylic paint it can be glossy and sheer too like oils, it just depends what type of acrylic. If you want a matte, thick layer with no gloss, use "matte" acrylic piant. If you want sheer, glossy acrylic paint, use "satin" acrylic paint. Satin paint can also be used on more surfaces. I use both, but I prefer matte. Also, I heard a professional oil painter say that oil does not actually really dry, it more like "cures". Is "curing" the same as drying?
You’re right, both oils and especially acrylics can be altered based on the mediums, paint, varnishes etc so you can encounter different sheens. This video is just speaking in general differences that artists observe using each medium. As far as drying the language can be a little confusing as oil paints (and also acrylics to a degree) cure as opposed to ‘dry’ through a process where the paint reacts to oxygen & polymerizes. Drying is just a word that more people relate to the meaning. There are essentially 3 stages of drying on an oil painting: the first is when it’s non smudge-able which can be as soon as days, the second is when it’s fully touch dry meaning the paint is solid enough not to be able to leave a mark if you pressed into the painting (this is the stage where u can apply the earliest varnishes eg gamvar), then finally when the paint is fully cured which takes an average of 6 months but depends on lots of factors (this is the recommended stage to varnish). Also acrylics take hours to dry but they take about a month to fully cure which is important to note for varnishing or painting oils on top.
Oils will be dry to the touch within a couple of days or weeks depending on the oil application, however you can only varnish the painting at least 6 months after it has dried or else the varshish will dry before the paint has fully and the varnish will give a crackled effect
Paint is never completely safe. Heavy metals like cadmium and cobalt can quickly leech into your skin, especially with oil paint. Always wear protective clothing
Im really impatient for paintings to dry so I use acrylic paint but I water them down with black and then I water down the colors more, I think they look quite cool when I water them down, it’s like a stylized way for ppl who is broke for watercolor but not broke for applebarrel paint
Oil is way more investment upfront so it’s definitely not the best medium for beginners/people not willing to spend over 200USD if they want a decent starter kit. Still worth it IMO. My worst oils look like they could be in a museum ngl 😂
@@VENOMYT5 sure, but then you also need mediums and solvents and stuff. I mean you still don't need to spend $200 lol, but the paints alone aren't enough, at least not if you want to get the full experience
A quick google search shows me that I can get a decent starter kit for less than half that. Gamblin 1980 is 40 bucks for 8 colors and a medium. Why exaggerate?
I fell in love with oils from the moment I first tried them in high school art class. Unfortunately they are too expensive for me now but really acrylic cannot compare. I love the ability to perfectly control opacity with thinner, the fact you can mess with the wet paint for days, and omg the beautiful texture you can get. I miss it sm 😭
This video and detail that acrylics can dry darker is what made me decide to give oil painting a proper try and I'm so glad I did! I'm used to watercolor and having to plan around it drying lighter, which can feel hard to predict if the humidity is low, the a/c or heater is on, etc. versus the binder just evaporating and curing. There's a lot to learn when working with mediums that can get lighter or darker when it dries, but alleviating that concern in at least one medium allows me to focus on learning other things that could also apply to other mediums.
It’s often a conversation with the client so that they understand the dry times, however, the real issue is with varnishing. The painting will be touch dry in less than the full 6 months so u can exhibit or deliver it on a shorter time scale but u may have to wait to varnish. Some artists return to the painting to varnish later or they use a varnish like gamvar that can be used slightly earlier when the painting is touch dry
@@dorisroseart idk 🤷🏽♀️ that process seems very meticulous to me. 🧐 the whole coming back and varnishing after already bought and sold seems very unrealistic
I’ve not yet had to do that as my collectors have waited the full time frame but I do know artists who have done. It is quite inconvenient but also important. If u paint thinly & use alkyd mediums you can also bring the time down to more like 3 months.
I'm painting a new portrait after 2 years of not painting. And my oil painting is cracking. Can you please tell me how to fix it? And how to avoid it in the future? Thanks a million
@@shakiianPerhaps its an issue of accidentally not following the general rules of painting thin to thick and lean to fat? Hope you can find the answers you need.
Didn’t know oil paint takes long to dry. I’m studying digital painting and want to get a hands on traditional painting so I could make a portrait gift for my sister’s wedding.
Oils take 6 months (on average) to fully cure but will feel dry/unsmudgable much sooner - usually after about a week to a month or so. That means that although you have to wait 6 months to varnish you may be able to gift the painting sooner. Especially if it’s for your sister you can go back and varnish later. Acrylics are a better choice if you want the painting to be done & dry quickly in time to varnish.
To add on to that last part in case people don't know- not fireproof just in case you drop a match in your oily rags or something, but rather because oily rags can ignite _themselves_ under the right conditions
I accidentally picked my nose while i was using oil painting. I am still a beginner at oil pain.. So i had paint's in my finger💀... So yeah i suffocated aftrr sniffing oil pain.. Try and improve and Stay save yall 😂
I don’t understand the ‘oils are hard to clean’ argument. I can let a wet brush full of oil paint sit for like two days, pick it up, wipe it off and keep going from where I left off. If you accidentally let acrylic sit on a brush for thirty minutes, that brush is toast. You can clean oil paint off your stuff with soap, but often don’t need to because it’s still wet-you can just wipe it away. Acrylic, again, will dry so fast that it needs to be scraped away instead of washed off, and depending on the surface, this can be anywhere from easy (table surface) to near-impossible (clothing fibres). Not to detract from acrylics, but I think people don’t need to be as intimidated by oils as they’re told to be
I arcylic paint daily, and I find my two misting spray bottles indispensable. One bottle is just water, and the other is water & arcylic thinning medium. I mist constantly without thinking about it, and I also tend to keep a wet paper towel to put brushes I'm not using on. Sometimes I will mist my whole canvas with thinning medium, to avoid the onset of "the awkward gummy phase" where arcylic is half dry and can get a weird texture. Instead, this lets you work the paint longer and it can feel a lot like oil. I'm always misting the colors on my glass pallet with thinning medium spray, and it's a nearly subconscious habit at this point I use a glass sheet as a palette because I can use a razor blade to scrape dried arcylic off the glass. Oils are honestly so much easier but I'm scared I'll accidentally spray them with water at this point 😂
Hey i wanted to ask you something the thing is I wanted to get started in oil paints but due to they are expensive my parents to let me buy it. But we have some wall painting oil paints and fortunately they are in white blue red and yellow. The question is should I wait and save money to buy real oil paints(which will take a lot time) or for now I get started with those oil paints 😄?
I don’t know a lot about oil wall paint but a few, mostly abstract, artists have used it. There is a useful article on Jackson’s art blog called ‘CAN I USE HOUSE PAINT FOR FINE ART?’ That you may find useful to google. House paints have lower pigment concentration and aren’t made to last like artist paints so mixing colours and some techniques aren’t easy to achieve. If I were you I’d start using the paints you have but switch to artist paints as soon as you can. :)
I wanna transition to oil from acrylic, and ive heard people use liseened or wallnut oil instead of medium, so question is, are these viable replacements for medium, at least for practicing?
Linseed oil, liquin, walnut oil etc are all different versions of oil medium. Oil painters tend to use both a solvent (such as a mineral spirit like gamsol) and an oil medium to aid them in their painting. Unlike acrylic mediums which can be combined and used in lots of different ways, oil medium should be used sparingly and you need to add a little bit more into each layer of your painting to prevent cracking (this is called the fat over lean rule). The solvents main purpose is either to thin paint in the first layers of the painting or to wash brushes. Technically speaking you don’t have to use either solvent or medium for oil painting but both can be useful to change the consistency of the paint to be less thick and also to wash paint off brushes.
@@dorisroseart Thanks for the reply, and a great one at that! Thank u for that info, it will aid very much in my oil journey! Again, thank you very much!
Yes you can! I prefer to use an odourless mineral spirit like gamsol as it is much slower-evaporating & less toxic. I wipe the paint out of the brush then break it down in the gamsol and then use mild brush cleaning soap and warm water. 👍
The only way you can use both oil & acrylic in one artwork without issues is to use oil paint overtop of dried acrylics, not the other way around. So you could do an acrylic underpainting & use oils on top about 2 weeks to a month later (it’s good to wait the full cure time of the acrylics rather than just touch dry). Many artists do use acrylic underpaintings as they dry much faster than oils so you don’t need to wait as long to paint on top :)
Most oil paint itself is rather safe, likely just pigment suspended in oil. The idea that oil paint is more toxic than acrylics likely originated from the use of dangerous solvents like turpentine when oil painting (as opposed to acrylics, where water can be used as a solvent). But you don’t have to use turpentine, I’ve heard of safer alternatives such as mineral spirits.
the comparison would be even better as a normal video and not this style of video. I believe most people that actually care about these things have a bigger attention span than those 30 seconds that these "shorts" or what to call this, provide. Hah, I sound like a hater dont I
6 months is the average (meaning there are lots of paintings that take longer) but do not fear 😝 cuz that’s the full cure time not how long it takes to feel ‘touch dry’ which is more like an average of a week depending on the colour, thickness, oil medium etc. But many artists imagine their oil painting is dry as soon as it feels dry but when it comes to varnishing & even shipping their painting this can lead to problems cuz it’s not fully cured yet :)
Acrylic can dry in minutes or hours at the most. Some Brands can be very glossy. Or can be varnished to get whatever sheen you want. Maybe you should ask us the difference between acrylic and oil paint.
It may feel dry that quickly but it takes 2 weeks to a month for acrylic paint to fully cure/polymerize (aka dry). This matters for things like varnishing or painting oils on top of acrylics. In those cases it’s recommended to wait the full cure time. This advice comes from the paint manufacturers & university conservation studies. You make a good point that you can change the sheen & consistency of both types of paint (to a certain degree) using mediums & additives! This vid is just about the overall differences for those looking for a basic overview. 🤗
Of course, if you compare cheap oil paints to expensive luxury acrylic, acrylic will be shinier and better. But the creator is talking about the overall composition between the two paints. Acrylic can only get so far with medium to be shiny. But oil paints are shinier and more buttery than what acrylic could ever be.
I use retarder and it works excellently. Do NOT use water. It manipulates the texture of the paint in an unnatural way, and it has the same drying time as regular acrylic from my experience.
@@andtipidee I think it really depends. I heard the golden rule was a less than 25% ratio of water, so as to not disturb the pigment and the binder. I've always had a spray bottle with water right beside me as I paint, and it's worked fine for me, though experiences can differ. I personally do it every now and then when I know I'm stepping away from my paints for a couple of hours. The acrylic you use might have an affect -- some do tend to get chunky with added water. Water also doesn't keep it wet longer than a retarder or medium would, but it's practically free, so it's what works for my lower budget and also the frequency I paint. It's definitely something to be careful with, but that doesn't mean it's out of the toolbox entirely!
Dont listen to this if you are just beginning........shes getting high tech. Not necessary. Get out there and paint. You can buy oil cheap and it mixes better. You can not with acrylic....you can use acrylic for years and get no where. Oil is the opposite. . You'll need linseed oil and a odorless paint thinner. The rest come to you in time. Its easier than how Shes putting it. Recycle recycle recycle. Is the best method in life..meaning use what you have.... I use vegetable oil to rinse brushes thru the week. And then a paint thinner at the end of my work week. And I buy all my.stuff from walmart and work with a more expensive white. And use black Use as many colors as you want....you 'll in time understand the paints you use.
I absolutely agree with the sentiment of just getting out there & painting with what you have! Although I will say it’s important those using oils for the first time understand certain aspects of studio safety like the fire risk associated with oil mediums like linseed & how to use solvents. But you’re right, recycling & using what you have is key :)
I just want to add - odourless doesn't mean fumeless - fumes are still released with odourless solvents. The safest way to work with oils is to clean brushes with a light oil and then wash with soap and water. "The Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver" is really good. Solvents will speed drying time, but you'll always have to work is a well ventilated space. I don't work with any solvents, I'm just patient :) The peace of mind is worth it. :) Happy painting.
Ok.. Acrylic paint will dry in about 15 seconds. If you buy the expensive Free Flow Acrylics than you may have a couple minutes to blend your colors. I use basic acrylics and they are absolutely terrible, they dry incredibly fast.
oils do not take 6 months to completely dry. Typically 4 to 6 weeks. It's possible for oils to take 6 months to dry under specific conditions, such as with particularly slow drying pigments combined with thick impasto techniques.
Unfortunatly yes, although they feel dry much earlier they take on average 6 months to fully cure which matters when it comes to applying varnish etc :)
Simple answer is yes. It’s best to wait the full six months - which is the average meaning it could be about 3 months to more than a year depending on the drying speed of your mediums, paint colours, the paint thickness, and the environment etc. BUT some varnishes like Gamvar still allow for drying to continue underneath but you still have to wait for the painting to be fully touch dry. This doesn’t just mean the paint doesn’t smudge but that the paint is fully hard eg if you dig your fingernail into the surface it won’t leave a mark. So if you use a fast dry medium like liquin, fast dry colours like umbers, and paint thinly u may be able to varnish in about 1/2 months at the earliest. The problem is many artists apply varnish too early. it doesn’t usually cause visible problems in most cases but the issue is the varnish bonds with your paint layer meaning u can’t remove the varnish without damaging your painting. The whole point of varnish is that it can be removed and reapplied later on so that you can clean off all the dust and dirt that accumulates on the painting over the years.
The additives & pigments. Aka what solvent you use & if the pigments are toxic if ingested (there are labels on the tube). I have a few videos on this topic that elaborate further! 🤗
I just saw a video where a girl said acetone will turn dried up acrylics back to liquid acrylic again & it helped her clean off her pallet ❤ but? You can save nail laquers with nail polish thinner as it adds the chemicals back in that have evaporated out (& it can really only be salvaged if it's thicker, but if it's super clumpy or dried, it's likely too late) where some ppl say you can just add acetone (polish "remover") to your nail polish, it may be thinner but it's no longer the product that was in that bottle 😢 So my question is, is there a product for watercolors & acrylic paints that's similar to "nail polish thinner"??? I
You are referring to the time it takes to be touch dry but all oils take 3 months to a year to fully cure (polymerize). Even acrylics take about a month to fully cure even though the paint feels dry in minutes. 🤗
@dorisroseart , good to know, but I was just wondering if it becomes an issue if you're not painting impasto, should be stable enough to pack and send as soon as it's touch dry?
Anyone new to painting might read this comment and make a decision based on this. Oils smells of whatever oil the pigment is suspended in - usually linseed oil. The smell is subtle, natural and I personally love it. If you use solvents, which you don't have to with oils, then yes, you'll need to protect yourself from solvent fumes. I oil paint without the use of any solvents. Acrylics do have a smell. It's more chemical than oils and can be intrusive depending on the brand. Crack open a window and you'll be fine. If you're very sensitive to smells and chemicals, you may need to try different acrylic brands to find one you tolerate. Hope that helps anyone reading this. Happy painting!
