[Tarique Beg]

Karin, I once read that Gainsborough (I hope I spelled that right), had perfected his portrait painting methods to the point that he was extremely prolific. Apparently, he would paint the face, hands, and take care of the general composition, and his minions would then fill in all the drapery and other stuff which he would finish off. Anyway, his paintings still have an unusual brilliance (I read) because he used to store his incompleted paintings in vats of ice, that slowed the drying time of the oil so that he could work while the paint was wet.

As I understand (I'm not a pro), that if the paint dries between several applications, then you end up with several layers, that may expand or contract at different rates with time. Then cracks appear in your paintings, which is why many of the old masters who did that now have cracked paintings. Not Gainsborough (I read). Glazing, was supposed to be a more permanent method, I guess that is what you use Karin, I was reading about your technique.

Virgil, I too read that painting oil on top of acrylic and other mediums ended up in the oil layer having a different coefficient of expansion /contraction with changing weather and temperature, compared to the acrylic layer, which is why it separated.

Does anyone here paint portraits with acrylic. Is oil the preferred medium because that's what clients want. Do they feel that perhaps acrylic is not the real thing. One thing about oil is that I found it easier to blend and get softer effects compared to Acrylic which sometimes dries to fast for me. I imagine acrylic on and acrylic priming should not cause the layers to separate (am I right ??).

Mary, about the pre-primed canvass or Belgian linen that you mentioned. Is that primed for oil paintings ? How does one prime for oil. I'm still quite confused about all the details. There's a whole lot of stuff about rabbit's glue and how you water proof the canvass/linen from behind to prevent dampness getting through etc. Let the layer of primer dry for six months, sand paper out bubbles, then the Gainsborough wet in wet single paint layer technique, and the very sparing use of linseed oil to keep colours saturated to the maximum and to avoid the yellowing of paintings (like many old masters, who apparently used a lot of linseed).

In general, I've been reading a lot about how mixing media and multiple layers of different medias all lead to cracking and general impermanence of the painting.

Sometimes I wonder if oil has all these problems why don't most artists simply go for acrylic ? I read that glazing with acrylic can also get you a very permanent and luminous painting. Probably, with enough practise and drying retardent, it should be possible to get the same effect with acrylic as with oil.

Comments ?

In fact, sometimes I feel it's so complex