Recently, I have been experimenting with acrylics, taking a break from oils. I have a friend who is a wonderful photographer, and with her permission used part of a photo she took as a reference (photo was by K. Gasper) for a bird painting in acrylics.
My impressions of acrylic versus oils:
I enjoyed the incredible detail that I could get with the acrylics and how quickly it dried, so that building up layers was easier. What was hard was that I couldn’t blend as easily (the sky took forever, I actually touched it up a bit with a light layer of oils afterwards).
The painting went a lot faster (I was done with most of it in a few hours of painting, because I didn’t have to wait for a layer to dry first). Cleanup was a lot faster and easier, too (just water) and there was no chemical smell from the solvents used with oils.
I will be trying some more experiments with acrylics in the next few weeks.
It’s just getting used to them and practicing blending with them. I use acrylics in life sessions and sometimes find that acrylics dont dry fast enough.
I like the volume you’ve got in the bird – like it’s just ruffled its feathers.