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Many artist has wondered–should I use acrylics to paint or oil to make my art? The answer is, you can have your cake and eat to too! 

When I took an oil portrait painting class in art school, my teacher told us to use at least two layers of white gesso to prime the canvas. So that’s how I did it over ten years. 

Only recently, I started to use colored acrylics as my primer and underpainting. 

The reason: it’s quick and more efficient. 

First of all, as long as you use at least two layers of acrylics before applying oil paint, your canvas will be ok.

Second, acrylics dry fast and flat. 

I use acrylics to lay out the large structures and primary colors of the painting to get a grip on how the picture will turn out. Then I paint oil over it.

Third, it’s simply time-saving.

 I use oil to do detailed areas like faces or skin. Or the areas need rich and nuanced colors. Oil is perfect for mixing and blending for that purpose.  But when it comes to places that I feel already look good, like some background areas,  I will leave it alone. So to save time, and my paintings will also shows the spontaneous and raw energy when I first lay down my brushes.

Acrylics is great, but I just love the richness of oil and the nuance of colors it can create. 

See my newest painting, the before oil and after oil pictures, below. 

Last, many artists have asked me how to improve their portrait painting skills. And I’ve seen so many of them making the mistake of taking course after course but still seeing little to no improvement in their quality of work.  And that’s just backward. 

So I am putting together a mini course for free to teach artists three simple steps to paint a portrait that would help them get a grip on the foundation of portrait painting. Would this be of interest to you? Please let me know.