First Paintings – Acrylic
I started painting with acrylics around 2007. My first attempts proved futile but I persisted. I did plenty of reading up on painting and color theory, however, about the only thing I recall from my self-teaching days is that yellow ochre will add depth to paintings. My older paintings leave much to be desired. Put it that way.
Acrylic is great for painters who like to finish their work quickly or for those that prefer to do minimal blending. Without a medium, it’s quite difficult to blend with acrylics. Faux blending is worth investigating more though if you want to stick with acrylics. If you are a beginner acrylic painter, take a glass palette or you can buy throw away palettes at any craft store. They are usually sold in packs of 20.
And then there was Oil
A few semesters into college, I switched to oil paints. The switch was not easy and I don’t recommend it if you are going to school where you need your paint to dry fast to make a deadline. Oil is extremely forgiving so blending is easy. However, acrylics are pretty forgiving too in that you can simply cover mistakes with gesso or pure white and keep on trucking. With oils, there is a waiting period and that period could be weeks with or without a medium. As you can guess, acrylics dry fast so you add mediums to slow down drying time. With oil paints, mediums are added to speed up drying times. There are other uses for mediums, of course, but just know that painting without mediums for oil is not recommended ever. Oil paint is super thick and paint goes much farther with mediums. If you are a beginner painter, take a wooden palette and an old washrag to class with you as that will be your palette for oils only and to remove them, you use a dry cloth.
