Artists

I use traditional oils, not the water-cleanup kind, but I assume they work the same way because oil mediums are used with them and water is used only for cleanup and not as a mixing medium. You'll be less frustrated if you get familiar with these aspects of oils:

- You can do either direct painting (doing the whole thing at once) or paint in layers after a layer dries. I prefer the second method because it allows for more precision and the use of glazes.

- Some oils are opaque like acrylics and some are transparent (check the small print on the back of the tube). This turned out to be a really important thing to know.

- Glazing is the use of transparent paint over a dry underpainting. The use of glazing is why Van Eyck's paintings of jewels and glass are so beautifully realistic.

- Paint light colors over dark ones, not the other way around like with water colors.

- Any transparent color becomes opaque if you mix it with white.

- Different paints dry at different rates (for example, white takes a long time while raw umber dries pretty fast); and the mediums you use make a difference, too: alkyd mediums and turpentine will make paint dry faster; linseed and poppy oil slows it down.

I like oils a whole lot more than acrylics, which to me are too flat-looking and lack depth. I hope this info will help you be less frustrated!