If you follow me on instagram, you may have seen in my stories where I answered a question about commission work in acrylic vs oil paint. It was a short little video, but I received a lot of responses and additional questions afterwards. And, lo and behold, I have a lot more to say about this subject ;)
For starters, though, I want to be clear that it is very difficult to distinguish between finished oil and acrylic paintings. They look very similar. The choice of medium, to me, is more of a choice for the artist rather than the collector. Unless of course the collector is a fan of the classic “fine art” designation that comes with oil paint.
I know a lot of artists who love acrylic—in fact almost all of the art that I have personally collected is acrylic. But I also know artists who are just starting out, and think that acrylic is “simpler”, “easier”, or—my favorite—“less toxic” than oil paint.
Oil paint is natural pigment plus linseed oil, thats it. Now, some natural pigment is toxic, such as cobalt, and contact with the skin should be avoided. However it is not toxic to be around it, and as long as you use today’s non-toxic cleaners rather than turpentine, there is no need to worry. Oil is viscous and velvety and smooth. There is a feel to oil paint that you just don’t experience with other mediums. Oil paint dries very slowly, which I hear touted as a detriment by some, but it is actually one of my favorite parts about oil painting. As long as I keep my palette out of reach, I can use the same palette for 4-5 days and come and go as I paint and hang with my boys. As a mom I greatly appreciate and value the slow drying time. I also love using this to my advantage in my wet-on-wet oil painting techniques. The canvas stays bendable for several days. For clean-up I use “Master’s brush cleaner” and all natural and nontoxic hard soap that cleans both brushes, hands, and even clothing. This is literally all you need. If you are like me and like to let brioches sit around collecting paint for days or weeks on end, then you can buy another non-toxic product, and all-natural turpenoid. Not to be confused with turpentine, this has virtually no smell and is not toxic at all.
Acrylic paint is a water-based micro-plastic. This fact was always a little bit of a turn-off to my Earth- and ocean-loving self. Acrylic also dries really quickly (sometimes too quickly!) and can be cleaned with just warm soapy water. You can spray the paint down with a water bottle, or even mix in a medium that helps it dry slower, but the fact remains that I have probably wasted gallons of acrylic paint just from being called away on some mom mission only to return to a dried out palette full of paint 20 minutes later. This is also a factor in the painting process—and for artists how like to layer versus blend, it is a distinct advantage. I would personally love to create more abstract work soon, and I fully plan to use acrylic in these pieces.
As you can see, the differences between oil and acrylic are mainly ones related to process and clean-up. The finished painting is virtually indistinguishable, especially once varnished.