Oil vs. acrylic – which is the better paint?

Oil painting and acrylics are the two main techniques in contemporary painting. But what are the main differences, and what should I look out for when painting or buying art?

Oil and acrylic paints both have a similar consistency and can produce similar results. Many painting techniques can be used with both oil and acrylics. Oil paint Oil paints take a very long time to dry; in most cases, it can even take months for them to dry completely. This is a great advantage if you like to work slowly and want to be able to make changes to the details later on. It is important to have plenty of patience and also plenty of space to store oil paintings.

In oil painting it is important how the painting is primed. Skipping the primer stage is generally not a good idea in oil painting. The canvas absorbs the oil paint and can therefore become damaged over time, which naturally affects the quality of the painting. Anyone who paints with oil is part of a long tradition of painting. The great masters have always worked with oil paints, and even today it is still regarded in some quarters as ‘the supreme discipline’ of painting.

Colour nuances with oil

Oil painting allows you to utilise a wide range of colour nuances, as well as offering high colour brilliance. Furthermore, drying times can be adjusted and thus influenced by using additional painting mediums. If, for example, you work extensively with turpentine, you should ensure the room is well ventilated, as turpentine is harmful to health.

Quick-drying?

Acrylic paints, on the other hand, dry within five minutes to an hour. The process is much quicker and you cannot make any changes afterwards – but you can paint over it if you wish. The only rule for acrylic paint is: as long as the surface is free of grease, you can paint anywhere. Nevertheless, it is still worth applying a primer, for example with gesso, to protect the canvas. It is important to always check which primer is suitable, as otherwise cracks may form.

Acrylic paint

Acrylic paint requires only water as a binder and is therefore far cheaper than oil. Furthermore, acrylics dry to a water-resistant finish and are also much more lightfast than oil paintings. Acrylics are also odourless compared to oil and less harmful to health. Combining oil and acrylic Artists such as Franz Marc, for example, worked with both media at times – using oil and acrylic paint. However, the rule here is: ‘fat over lean’, which means that oil paint may only be applied over acrylic paint, not the other way round, as otherwise the oil will not be able to dry.

What should you look out for when buying?

When buying an oil painting, you should be aware that its colour fastness may diminish over a long period of time. This is, of course, not guaranteed, and modern painting in particular features a great deal of new and high-quality work. Nevertheless, an oil painting requires a little more care than an acrylic painting. If you hang it in a very sunny spot, the colours could fade over time. In the case of an oil painting that was only recently completed, it may appear to be completely dry, but as this usually takes several months, it needs to be placed in a well-ventilated spot on the wall, particularly at the beginning. If you place it in a large frame behind glass, this may hinder the drying process. With acrylic painting, you needn’t worry about this as much.

Which technique is better?

There is no single answer to this. Every artist must find this out for themselves. It is best to choose the method that suits your own work and then to immerse yourself in it. That is, after all, the beauty of modern painting: there are no longer any specific rules dictating which technique is best.