Oil Painting Contrast to Watercolor

The past 2 weeks, I have attempted to dabble back into oil painting, since I still got a few small canvases and quite a good amount of paint. The experience of going back to oil is fun, but only if you have the work space. You really need some space for all the supplies needed for oil paint, such as your mediums, palette, and turpentine for brush cleaning. The smell can really start to get to you in a cramp space. But the upside is, your painting stays wet, and you can always work on in it the next day and make any changes necessary.You can Make beautiful blends, and work from dark to light. Where as the majority of watercolor its light to dark.

In contrast to watercolor, I would for now gladly go back to watercolor painting. For 5 simple reasons.

Watercolor -Pros

1. Simple four materials, Paint, Water, brushes, and a palette.
2. Easy clean up, which is again with water.
3. Space is not a issue, as you dont really need a easel, you will be mostly working flat.
4.Easy to Travel with
5.Easily works in mix medium with ink, acrylic,gauche, and also many fun effects/techniques you can get off it.
6. Spontaneous

Watercolor-cons

1.You cant "blend" paints unless doing wet into wet, and you naturally work from light to dark, so you have to prep your image/composition ahead of time. Can be difficult getting that perfect blend/gradation in watercolor.

2.Any mistakes you make in watercolor requires quick reaction time of "pick up technique" and or scrubbing the pigment which can give you a texture that you may not want.

3.Can be a bit unforgiving when being careless.

4.Paper quality is critical.

5.Your painting is made of watercolor. meaning you have to be careful around raining days or any liquid falling onto it.

6. Your paper can easily be buckled and not flat, making sometime difficult for framing.

7. Your "white paint" is your water, and your brightest white, is the white of the paper. So you either paint around the white highlights you wanna keep or use masking fluid.


Oil painting-Pros
1.Rich colors
2.Blend colors easily
3.Its forgiving, meaning you can work very loosely and clean up any mistakes by just smudging it out or painting over it. and, easily change composition idea if needed
4. Many inspirational paintings were done in oils.! (the same is true for watercolor, but the majority of painters I look up to are oil painter)
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Oil Paint Con- This may very from person to person, but your painting can take a while to dry, leaving it prone to  being smudge, and dust collecting/hair.

1. Expensive- You have to buy mediums such as linseed oil/liquin to make your paint flow and turpentine for thinning or brush cleaning. In other words, more supplies are required to get a oil paint going effectively. And consistent buying of paint (explain in number 3)

2. Clean up is a hassle- You have to invest a good time in cleaning your brushes really well, or they are easily ruined. Where as watercolor you can get away with a brush loaded with pigment, just wet with water and clean, and your good to go.

3.Paint wasted- Your palette can get dry quickly leaving you to scrape of and or (if using disposable palette) throw in the trash. With watercolor you can leave it and just re-wet to revive and is good to go. You also have to squeeze a good amount of paint on your palette to get the painting started.

4.Muddy paint- You have to Consistently clean your brush, when mixing new colors for your painting. If you dont take the time to clean your brush between new colors, your color mixing will easily get contaminated, leading to really yucky mud color that you may not want.

5. Ventilation, Space and Health- You need a easel at best, and you have to work in a open space, especially if your doing a large painting. You have to be careful when handing any kind of solvent that is used for thinning paints or brush cleaning, for the fumes/evaporation of these paint thinners are harmful when in a room of poor ventilation. Not mention, make sure your rags are not clumped up, or it can easily lead to combustion with the right temperature.


Thats all for now, ill be posting a few watercolor and oil paints soon, once I get the chance to take good photos.