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Paintings of landscapes, portraits and still life are usually done using acrylic or oil based paint. Use of this media is popular because of their rich color and texture that brings a sense of reality to the images.
The information below explains the difference between acrylic & oil paintings.
Oil painting - Oil paint can be mixed on the painting surface to create a continuous level of various tones and hues. By using oil paint, the artist can make various changes in light and paint realistic three-dimensional effects.
More importantly, oil paint dries slowly, allowing the artist to work almost endlessly to perfect a painting.
Mixing assorted powdered pigments with a binder of vegetable oil makes oil paint. Adding a solvent, such as turpentine, can thin the pigment, allowing thin films of almost transparent color that glaze the painting's surface.
In oil paint, artists can express their personalities through their brush marks. The trail of the brush across the painting surface is like the artist's autograph. The emotions of the painter can be detected in the intensity of the brushwork.
Acrylic - Almost any surface is suitable for acrylic paint. Unlike oil paint, acrylic dries rapidly and is extremely durable. Painters looking for a longer drying time to get some of the effects of oil painting add retarders to the acrylic paint. However, acrylic paint normally dries within an hour.
Since acrylic paints are water-based, they are a lot less toxic than oil paints and safer to use if working in a closed environment.
In the mid-1950's, researchers in Mexico and the United States developed a way to mix acrylic resins with water. Artists using acrylic paints can produce work that look almost identical to oil paints.
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