Why Acrylic? Why not oil or water paint?

Oil paints are wonderful and so are watercolors. But acrylic is the easiest to work with. With watercolors, there’s no room for error. Once the paint hits the canvas, there's no moving it or erasing it. Oil paints are more sophisticated. There needs to be time for prep and time for drying. The pros include that oil paint stays wet longer, and it gives you more time to work with it. Not only can you leave the canvas overnight, but you can also leave your paint on your palette. You can come back to it all the next day where your paint on your palette will be pliable and the paint on the canvas will be flexible enough to blend. The most important con of working with oil paints is the chemicals. Paint thinner and most oil paint mediums are solvents and are toxic. It is believed that Bob Ross died of lymphoma at age 52 due to all of the chemicals he was constantly breathing in.

Acrylics dry much faster, but you can paint on almost any surface! You only have a certain amount of time to blend and spread the paint before it dries. Acrylic is great for painting on paper, canvas, cardboard, plastic, metal, glass, wood, and stone. Acrylic is also non-toxic! You don’t have to worry about splashing paint into your drink or dipping your brush into your juice or wine, if you drink it, you’ll be fine (it happens ALL the time at our studio)! Acrylic is water soluble, meaning it can be thinned and mixed with water to create different consistencies. If you mess up, you just let it dry and you can paint right over your happy little accident! Overall, it’s easier to clean up afterwards and it’s inexpensive.