( Please help?)What materials are needed for...

[WildSpruceMoose]

Oil painting, acrylics, and various "drawing" materials please. I've never done oil painting before and have limited experience with acrylics, so I'm not sure if there are any ways to do more advanced paintings with acrylics. I don't think there is much needed for pencils, graphite and conte, any help about that would be appreciated. I heard something about certain chemicals for oils or something, which is what I'm mainly unsure of. Thanks a lot if you can help in any way.

[a_]

Oils are easier to blend with (because they dry slower) and are also generally more expensive.

Instead of being mixed or dilluted with water, like acrylics, you mix it with medium or turpentine. Your medium can be a mixture of turpentine (paint thinner) and various oils intended to preserve color, like linseed oil and damar varnish.

Turpenoid is the less smelly version of turpentine, and both are pretty toxic to inhale, of course.

Oils generally stain and harden your brushes if you don't clean them well, so you may want to get "Master's brush cleaner" or something for that.

They also have water mixable oils, but I've never used them.

I despise oils because they're so messy to clean up, but they are very nice for painting. It depends on whether you like slow drying or fast drying.

[WildSpruceMoose]

Thank you very much. I'm just putting finishing touches on my "proposal" for this semster of art, think of it as a sort of thesis for high school students and this information will help heaps. Thanks again--better get to adding this information in ;)

[DragonGX]

Acrylics dry way too fast for me. If you want to be able to tweak your paintingfor hours after youve started oils are the way to go..

[Andrew]

I adore oils, but while I enjoy the smell of mineral spirits, and linseed oil, the rest of my family does not. This, unfortnately, keeps my oils usage to a minimum. The slow drying of this medium, allows you to blend in colors days later or scrap back what you don't like.

Acrylics take a different tact. You can't use them exactly like oils, watercolors, gouache, casein or tempera. But they can be applied to look like like them. For detail work, they are closer to casein or tempera, as they also dry fast and permanent. You can do some wonder wet into wet effects. See Jerry Yarnell books for ideas. While his paintings are contrite at best, his techniques are worth exploring. Also check out Tim and Greg Hildebrandt's work for what acrylics can do. Acrylics are my primary medium and I am gaining a greater appreciation for them.

Watercolors and Gouache I like them for the portability. I use them for color sketches and studies in color and value. Beyond what I have gained from playing with them in that manner, I know very few of the technical aspects.

I also like casein and tempera. Both relatively expensive, and given the irregular nature of my art time, neither are really plausible at this time.

Have fun.
Andrew

[WildSpruceMoose]

Thanks again. This is like a oil info overflow!!! I heard my teacher talking of an oil painting he bought that didn't dry for a year heh. Oils sound like something I'll do 2 or 3 of my 5 studio pieces in this semester of art. I like being able to mix colours up and fix mistakes with a bit of paint thinner handy hehe.

[egerie]

Um.. I have to admit being at a bias with acrylics. It's what I've been learning with. I need some training with oils as I keep screwing up for lack of practice (non existent). I like acrylics because, as DragonGX mentionned, it dries really fast. I like to work with glazes but also being bang on for a colour I'm mixing right away. You can also use some retardants for acrylics so it dries slower... Just my 2c :)