I started experimenting with oil paints this week.
About 10 years ago I took an oil painting class. It was one of those adult education classes they host at a local high school and I was the youngest person in the class by several decades so I felt really out of place in the class, especially since the teacher had a very traditional perspective on painting (no abstract art!) and we were only allowed to paint still lifes. I got scolded for having the wrong brushes.
Needless to say it wasn’t my favorite class but it was interesting and I learned a lot (especially since it was the only oil painting class I ever took). I was only there for one semester and I never really did oil painting after that. Acrylic paint is easier to work with and maybe I felt freer with acrylics after my experience with the strict oil painting teacher. I kept the oil paints though.
I never used the paints, just kept them because I hate wasting supplies and have an almost compulsive need to find a use for everything. Luckily if you store good paint properly, it won’t dry out. The half-finished oil still life I kept was taking up space (and the looking ugly) so I wanted to get rid of it. Obviously I didn’t have the original fruit I used to start the painting so I tried to fill out the pieces of the painting I still had.
One thing that’s different with oil paints is blending. Oil paints dry slowly so it’s easy to go back and adjust the paintings, with acrylics it’s hard to fix mistakes. The problem I was discovering was how hard it was to remove the pigment from the brushes, and it was too easy to accidently blend colors and create something that looked really ugly (red-orange and blue do not make a pretty combo). Keeping colors separate is much easier with acrylics so adjusting to that has been tough. I know I need a better brush cleaner to keep the colors cleaner.
I’m liking the oil paints though; there’s a softness with the colors you can achieve that acrylic doesn’t have. I’m in the midst of finishing another painting I started in acrylics (the brown squiggly line is in acrylic) but continuing it using oil paint. So far, I’m happy with the progress, though I’m struggling to blend some of these colors together. I don’t think my former oil painting teacher would approve of this painting but I’m happy with it, which is all that matters.
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