I am currently a Studio Arts major. I concentrate in mixed media/drawing, however, I have recently gotten back into oil painting.
Oil paint is very different from acrylic. When using Oil paint you use turpentine instead of water. As you know “oil and water do not mix well.” Oil paints are a lot thicker which is why turpentine is used to thin out the product. Oil also takes much longer to dry than acrylic does. If you make a mistake on your oil paint you can either wait a couple of days till it dries, or blend the area with a different color.
When I was first interested in oil painting, I was in community college. I did not enjoy it because the professor I had gave me a hard time, was not understanding, and hurt my feelings. She told me my one painting looked like “she had just come out of brain surgery.” Every time I was in that class I would be sad, I wanted to cry, and I’d come home complaining to my parents. Basically after that semester I thought, maybe I should not do oil painting ever again.
Nevertheless, during COVID I had thought about getting back into it and watched a lot of youtube videos of Bob Ross. But over the summer, I ended up not having much time due to work. This semester I am taking a painting studio and works on paper, which is a studio class and you can paint, draw, printmake, and even sculpt out of paper. and I am now using oil paint. I picked up a brush and started painting as if I never stopped. I remembered how well oil paint is with blending, and my love for it came back.
This semester, I want to continue with oil paint. I want to improve to make bigger projects. So far for my projects, I have made a red, pink, and black color scheme of the female body, and I am currently working on a cardboard project for my works on paper class in whichI have gessoed cardboard and put oil paint on top. I am still figuring out what else to add on to the pieces, but it will come to me. My love for oil paint is back.