CREATOR QUICK TIPS:
Acrylic Painting Techniques: Can you make your painting look like oil?
Yes, with the right techniques and sometimes, mediums, you can create an acrylic painting that closely resembles and oil painting, without the odor and dry waiting times.
In this video there are a few tips to creating a multi-toned background that resembles and oil painting. Over it, I added some additional paint and pigments colors, but you could let it fully dry (24 hours) and then paint whatever you like over it!
Wet-on-Wet Tips
DO:
Work quickly! Unless you are using a slow-dry medium, this is a FAST painting technique. You can get the beautiful oil-like look of wet-on-wet with acrylics, but only if you work quickly, within the same color tones (all cool, all warm, etc.) or if you work with a medium.
Organize the project. Since you are working quickly, have all the colors you want to use (and even those you may want to use) arranged and at hand.
Dry. Let your work on the base dry thoroughly. If you are adding pigments, like in the tutorial, you can let it dry and then apply small bits of paint only (no water) to add the pigments. Then, let that layer fully cure before you glaze or varnish. (Cure = 24+ hours.)
Glaze over pigments. You want to seal these. I find a good coat of glazing medium works great. You can then varnish over that.
DON'T
Over blend. Use your paints to create tone-on-tone effects where there is variance, not one blended color. In the tutorial, you can see how there is yellow, white, some light reds and deeper gold, but it is not fully one blended color.
Add water. Say what, now? No water with acrylics? Right - only put water down when you lay your first base color. After that, no water or you will risk breaking the pigments and you won't get that pretty oil-like effect.
Have fun, be well, be safe!
LEARN MORE ABSTRACT - ACRYLIC ART PAINTING TECHNIQUES
