One of the very first decisions you must make when you start your painting is what sort of paint to use. This Q&A will help you decide between the most commonly used paints: oils, acrylics, watercolors, and pastels.
One of the very first decisions you must make when you start your painting is what sort of paint to use. This Q&A will help you decide between the most commonly used paints: oils, acrylics, watercolors, and pastels.
Are these the only types of paint available?
Acrylics, oils, and watercolors are the mostly widely used. Pastels and watercolor pencils are popular cross-over drawing/painting mediums; painterly effects can be achieved with them while retaining the immediacy of drawing. Other painting media are gouache, tempera, and encaustic. Special paints are used for painting on silk or fabric, which are heat set (usually with an iron) to stop them washing out.
What are the advantages of each?
Acrylics: Such kind of paint dries very fast. Once dried, it can be over painted without disturbing underlying layers. And it can also be used thickly (impasto), like oils, or in thin washes, like watercolor.
Oils: It dries slowly, allowing plenty of time to work and to blend colors. Once dried, it can be over painted without disturbing underlying layers. Rich, deep colors which maintain their intensity when dry.
Watercolors: Mixed with water and brushes cleaned with water. Paint can be lifted off by rewetting. If paint squeezed from a tube has dried, it becomes reusable if you add water. This is, afterall, the state pans or blocks of watercolor come in.
What are the disadvantages of each?
Acrylics: For it will dry fast, though working time can be increased by adding retarding medium to paint or spraying water on a painting. Completely waterproof once dried, so it cannot be removed by rewetting the paint.
Oils: For it is mixed with solvents and oils, so the learners need to work in a well-ventilated area. As it is slow-drying, so consider working on several paintings at once.
Watercolors: Being quite transparent, it's hard to rectify or hide mistakes in a watercolor painting. Need to allow for colors being lighter once they've dried than how they appeared when you painted.
What other things should I consider when deciding what paint to use?
Cost: Watercolors are the cheapest to set yourself up with; all you need buy is a set of basic colors, a brush or two of different sizes, some paper, plus a board and brown gummed tape if you intend to stretch the paper.
Poison hazards: If you've small children, you may not want to have the solvents used in oil painting lying around. Some people are also allergic to the solvents – low-odor versions are available, as are water-based oil paints. Soft pastels can product a lot of dust.
How can I be sure I've chosen the right paint?
It will be impossible. You'll soon discover whether you enjoy working with it and the results, or not. If you like different things about different paints, you could mix them – then you'll be working in what's called mixed media.