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Share Your Creativity

For those wishing to share their artists' stories, their creations, or their tips and tricks to be creative.

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DRAWING & PAINTING BASICS

Exploring the Differences Between Oil and Acrylic Paint

Both mediums are capable of producing great results, how to decide which one is best for you

9 min readMay 11, 2025

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Two paintings of the same subject, one painted in oil, the other in acrylic
The painting on the left was painted with oil paint, the one on the right, acrylic. ©2025 Anne Kullaf

I recently began teaching an online class where students have the choice of working on the same subject in either oil or acrylic. In creating the demos for this course, I have found it really interesting to see the two mediums side-by-side in paintings of the exact same subject matter.

While everyone will have their preference for one vs. the other, both mediums can create stunning results, but they are very different to work with, even when using the same approach to a painting.

One medium is not better than the other; they are simply very different. I’ve outlined their strengths, challenges, similarities, and differences below as a guide to help you choose which medium would best suit your style of painting.

Acrylic demonstration in progress by Anne Kullaf ©2025
Acrylic demonstration in progress by Anne Kullaf ©2025

Ease of use

Painting with acrylics is fairly straight forward, they don’t need any solvents, can be thinned with water, and clean up is easy. Brushes…

Share Your Creativity
Share Your Creativity

Published in Share Your Creativity

For those wishing to share their artists' stories, their creations, or their tips and tricks to be creative.

Anne Kullaf
Anne Kullaf

Written by Anne Kullaf

I am a painter, my work combines classical realism with modern style. I write about creating and collecting art. You can see my work at .

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