Difference Between

Oil Painting vs Acrylic Painting

If you are a budding artist, you are naturally fascinated by two of the most popular paints that are available for you to make paintings. And these are oil paints and acrylic paints. There are many seasoned painters who advice younger generation to begin with acrylic paints and slowly graduate to oil paints, but do you know the differences between oil and acrylic paints first to make a clear choice between the two? It makes sense to know the features of both to decide on the type of paint for your painting that is suitable for your painting and makes it stand out from the rest.

No doubt oil paints are a beautiful medium to work with but they are toxic and a painter needs to work in an open environment to save him self from the hazardous fumes. To thin an oil paint, turpentine oil is mixed in the paint. On the other hand, acrylic paint is water based and is not that toxic when compared with oil paint. It can be easily thinned using water and is easy to work with in general, though paintings do not come out as natural as with oil paints. Great artists refuse to accept acrylic paints as legitimate painting medium. To be frank, oil paints get a painter prestige and respect much earlier than when he uses acrylic paints.

One thing that can be said about oil paintings is that they are durable. Paintings done in oil paints centuries ago look beautiful and mesmerizing even today though the colors fade somewhat. The same cannot be said about acrylic paints, though they are not as old as oil paints in any case. I am not sure why, but oil paints look much more vibrant and deep than acrylic paints. Another major point of differentiation lies in the fact that acrylic paints being water based dry up quickly in hours if not minutes, while a painting done in oil paints may remain wet even after days or weeks. This is a point that goes in favor of oil paints as painters desire to make changes after hours and even days if they feel some aspect of their painting is not coming out as anticipated. These days retarders for acrylic paints are available though they can delay setting of acrylic paints only by a few hours. This means that you can make changes and variations in colors even after a few days if you have used oil paints.

Fast drying means clean up of brushes is easier in case of acrylic paints as brush becomes clean with just water. On the other hand, turpentine oil is required to clean up brushes as well as your hand. For students, acrylic paints tend to be better as they are quite inexpensive and students can also experiment with them by adding water to dilute them to get a lighter shade which is not possible with oil paints.

If you work slowly taking your own time, not rushing into things, oil paints are perhaps better for you. But try to keep windows open to save your self from hazards of toxins in oil paints. If you are a beginner, and money means a lot to you, acrylics are obviously better being cheaper. But oil paintings sell for more thus, offsetting their initial higher cost.