Choose Your Painting Medium to Suit Your Personality

Choose your painting medium according to your personality and avoid handing out cash for a lot of painting supplies you are probably never going to use.

If you’re thinking about taking up painting or even if you have already started your art journey, you may have been wondering about all the different materials that are available.   It can be difficult to decide which painting medium is going to be the best one for you without buying  them all and trying out for yourself.

Nobody wants to outlay a heap of money on different types of paint only to have them sitting, unused, in a drawer 6 weeks later.  So, in this article I am going to save you some time and money by listing my pros and cons of different painting mediums.  I will also give you my recommendation as to the painting medium which would be the best for you to start with, according to your personality.

Oil Paint

Advantages of using oil paint are

• It blends well
• Slower drying than other paints which gives you plenty of time to get it just right.
• Can be left for long periods of time before coming back to it.
• Creates long-lasting artworks.  Many classic oil artworks are hundreds of years old.

Disadvantages are:

• Many people don’t like the fumes from oil paint and the turpentine which is used to dilute it and clean brushes.
• Slow drying times can be a pain if you are in a hurry to get your work finished.
• Cleanup can be messy and turpentine difficult to dispose of.
• Some yellowing can occur in paint layers with a high linseed oil content.

Oil paints are best for people with short attention spans or procrastinators.  You can attack your project in small pieces or leave it for weeks and keep coming back to it.  Oils are not for people who are in a hurry (like most of us, right)

Watercolour

Advantages of watercolor are:

• Dries quickly.  You can finish your painting in one sitting.
• No harsh chemicals.
• Easy cleanup
• Less wastage as paint can be re-wet on the palette
• Transparency means colors can be changed by adding another layer.

Disadvantages are:

• Takes more planning as underlying colors will show through
• Not as easy to control.  Sometimes the paint will do it’s own thing and go where you don’t want it to go. (although this can also lead to “happy accidents”)
• Paintings need to be worked light to dark which is the opposite to other mediums

Watercolours are best suited to people who are forward planners or, if when things start to go awry, you are willing to “go with the flow”.

Soft Pastel

Pastels are kind of like painting with chalk.  Takes you back to your childhood a bit.

Advantages

• Very quick to work with.  I have run pastel workshops where students who have never painted before create a finished work in less than two hours
• Pure, Vibrant colors.  The pigments in pastels are very pure with minimum binder being used.
• No need for brushes, water or turps.  Great if you want to paint on the move.

Disadvantages

• It’s messy.  Remember the chalks.  The dust goes everywhere.
• Pastel paper or board will only accept so many layers of “paint” so you are limited to the amount corrections you can make.
• You need to be very careful with finished artwork so as not to smudge your work.  Fixatives can be used but they tend to detract from the pure colors.

Best suited to people who love to get messy, who like to travel or who need results fast.

Acrylics

Last but certainly not least.  Acrylics are the most versatile of all the mediums.

Advantages

• The most forgiving of any painting medium.  Mistakes are easily corrected.  If you don’t like what you’ve done just go over it, as many times as you like
• Very little pre-planning is required.  You can paint light over dark or dark over light, whichever you choose.
• Dries fast, super fast.  This allows you to add more layers in one sitting rather than waiting for days.
• Clean up is easy, just wash your brushes out in water.
• Acrylics can impersonate other mediums. You can use in transparent washes like watercolour or in thick, textural blobs (called impasto) like oils.  You can also use as a free-flow paint and pour directly onto the canvas.
• Acrylics are light-fast and durable.  They have a tough, plastic-like finish that can easily be cleaned by wiping down with a damp cloth.

Disadvantages

• Sometimes they can dry a little too quick which can make blending difficult.  To combat this you can add water or a retardant to slow down the drying process.
• We don’t know how long an acrylic painting will last as they have only been around for 50 years or so.

Acrylics are great for people who are impatient to see results or are perfectionists and need to make changes often.  (Oh wait, that’s me)

You’ve probably guessed by now that acrylics are my favourite painting medium.  I’ve tried them all but always go back to acrylics.  You just can’t beat them for ease of use, toughness and versatility.  That’s why I have decided to make acrylic painting the focus of my online teaching efforts.

If you would like to receive acrylic painting tips, tricks and tutorials delivered direct to your inbox please visit the Free Resources section of this website

or

Enter your email address below