For years I've been strictly an acrylics on canvas painter but recently I've started to grow curious about other types of paint- mainly watercolor and oil.
But... *curls up in a ball in her comfort zone*
Let's face it; paint is expensive and I'm not a rich girl. I want to break out of my squishy, warm little comfort zone but the thought of shelling out money and failing due to my lack of technique is mostly what is stopping me. I love the depth oils are capable of and the daintiness of water colors... *sigh*
I think I'm going to try one or the other but just can't decide. Do any of you have suggestions of which one would be better to try as I step away from the acrylics for a while?
That's kind of a complicated question.
The secret truth is that every painting medium is unique, so much so that it's almost like learning an entirely different art to learn each one.
I've experimented with many of them, and there are certain ones I'm more fond of. But each in my experience has its own strengths and weaknesses.
I should say I'm also an amateur materials and safety wonk. I care about people not inadvertently harming themselves with potentially toxic materials and practices. I also care about archival quality, whether an artwork is going to last without fading or deteriorating much.
If you wish to experiment with new media, may I suggest trying a limited palette to start? Generally one can begin to understand a medium's handling with a small tube of titanium white, one of ultramarine blue, and one of burnt sienna (for watercolors leave out the white). With these colors one can mix a passable near-black and subtle greys, as well as brilliant blues and rich glazed red-browns. None of these colors are expensive or especially toxic.
I second brianjanuary's suggestion about getting good quality paints. Student-grade paints are hardly worth using.
As for the paints themselves:
Acrylics are versatile and straightforward to use. They dry quickly, are not particularly fussy, and clean up simply with water. They are based on a plastic emulsion which dries to a permanent, waterproof film. They generally have a consistent quality and are very popular. However, there have been some questions as to the longevity of the acrylic film, which may deteriorate over time.
Watercolors are deceptively simple. They are delicate in appearance, but extremely subtle and nuanced in their use. Because one is working on paper with transparent colors, there is no correcting errors. They tend to be fragile, since they're on paper, and need to be treated with care. Watercolors are valued less highly than oils and acrylics by many art dealers and buyers.
Oils are fairly complex, but they produce beautiful results. They require solvents, which need careful handling because of their toxicity. Oil paints take longer to dry than acrylics, which allows for easier blending effects. They are the classical European paint, and have a lot of history and understanding of how they age.
The oil in oil paint gives it a little flexibility, so it can be used on canvas and other non-rigid surfaces, but it embrittles over time. It also yellows and gets more translucent. Cracks can form.
There are other paints, like gouache (a kind of watercolor, but more opaque), alkyds (a kind of artificial oil paint), caseine (a fun one, made from milk, it was the student's practice paint before acrylics), egg tempera (my personal favorite, made from scratch with egg yolk and pigments), and a host of even more obscure ones, but they are a little hard to come by and lack a lot of the community support structure that acrylics, oils, and watercolor have.
