How to create long lasting quality oil and acrylic paintings?

I'm new to painting, but I've worked with graphite, charcoal, ink, etc. in the past. I've bought some stretch gallary canvas and artist panels. They say they are acrylic titanium primed for oil and acrylic paint. My questions are: Do I need to use gesso or anything before I paint on the canvas? What do I use to make the paint blend easily, but not too watery? Do I use the same thinner (or whatever it is), to blend both oil and acrylics? How do I seal (varnish?) either type of painting? My main goal is to create art that doesn't fade or peel apart, in this life time anyway. (Also, any tips on cleaning/conditioning brushes will be greatly appreciated as well!) Thanks in advance!How to create long lasting quality oil and acrylic paintings?
Lots of questions...





You won't need gesso on anything called primed canvas.





For oils - thin with turpentine (or odorless thinner), or linseed oil, or a mixture of both. The turpentine makes the paint dry faster, linseed oil makes it dry slower but gives it a beautiful sheen. Never try to speed your drying with heat - for fastest drying time mix your paint with Liquin or Galkyd, or another Alkyd Resin medium made for oils. Never paint over another layer of wet or tacky paint - this causes cracking.





For acrylics - mix with minimal amounts of water only... for best results, thin with acrylic medium. Water will make your paint dry too fast, and possibly make it lose its adhesive properties.





Always varnish oils and acrylics after they've cured. For oils this could be 6 months to a year, for acrylics 48 hours or more if the paint is thick. Use an artist-grade varnish only.





Use a good cleaner like Master's Brush Cleaner on your brushes - they will last a lifetime (either oil or acrylic). It comes with instructions. Keep a separate set of brushes for oil %26amp; acrylic.





There are lots more conservation rules, but these are your basics. Have fun with it!How to create long lasting quality oil and acrylic paintings?
for acrylics: Acrylics are water-based paints, which means they can be mixed with water to thin them down and you clean your brushes with water. They鈥檙e made from pigment mixed with acrylic resin and emulsion. Acrylics are very fast drying and can be use in thin, watery glazes or impasto.





How do I know acrylic paints are the right choice for me?


Only you can decide what鈥檚 right for you and for your lifestyle. For me the attractions are how quickly acrylics dry and that I don鈥檛 have to use any solvents, just water.





For a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of acrylics as opposed to oils, watercolours, and pastels, see Q%26amp;A: How to Decide What Paint to Use.


For opinions from artists who鈥檝e decided to use acrylic paints rather than oil, read Should I Use Acrylics or Oil Paint?





What brand of acrylic paint should I buy?


Any of the major brands will do.


Make a living making art. Apply now and gain the skills to do both.Many make acrylic paints in a fluid or liquid version as well as with a paste- or butter-like consistency. Artists will have their own preferred brand based on things such as the colours available and the consistency of the paint. You should be able to check the of lightfastness of the pigment on the tube by, for example an ASTM rating (American Society for Testing and Materials).





My favourite brand of acrylic paint is Golden, because of their magnificent colours, followed by Liquitex because the consistency is great to use with a palette knife and they come in plastic tubes which are incredibly robust. But I鈥檝e a lot of Winsor %26amp; Newton because they鈥檙e what my local art store stocks. When I travel I look out for unusual or useful colours (such as Golden鈥檚 range of neutral greys) or bargain buys. Some people insist that you shouldn鈥檛 mix brands of acrylics, but the research I鈥檝e done on the issue hasn鈥檛 raised any problems with doing so.





What colours should I get?


For a list of recommended acrylic colours, see Basic Colour Palette for Acrylics.





Should the acrylic paints I buy be artist鈥檚 quality or will student鈥檚 quality do?


Student colours are cheaper for a reason -- they鈥檝e more filler in them. Rather buy a few quality colours than a whole range of cheap colours. Yes, you may be less inhibited about experimenting if you鈥檙e using cheaper student colours, but you can鈥檛 beat the vibrancy from quality artist鈥檚 paints. Tip: Look for paints labelled 鈥榟ue鈥?or 鈥榠mitation鈥? for example 鈥榗admium yellow hue鈥? These are made from cheaper modern pigments rather than the more expensive traditional pigments and are very similar in colour to the genuine thing.





How many brushes do I need for painting with acrylics?


You鈥檒l need stiff-bristled brushes for thick acrylic paint and soft-bristled brushes for watercolour effects. You鈥檒l be faced with an array of sizes and shapes (round, flat, pointed), and you also get different length handles. If you鈥檙e on a tight budget, start with a small and a medium-sized filbert (a flat, pointed brush). I love filberts because if you use just the tip you get a narrow brush mark, and if you push down you get a broad one. Tip: When buying very wide brushes, save money by buying a good-quality household decorating ones. Look for brushes that aren鈥檛 too thick, or cut off half the hairs.





Modern synthetic brushes can be of excellent quality, so don鈥檛 restrict your selection to only those brushes made from natural hairs such as sable. Look for brushes where the hairs quickly spring back up when you bend them. With brushes, you tend to get what you pay for, so the cheaper it is the more likely the hairs are to fall out. Be meticulous about cleaning your brushes as if acrylic paint dries in a brush, it can be extremely difficult to get it out.





for oils:


Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that bound with medium of drying oil 鈥?especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil, such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense, these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body and gloss. Other oils occasionally used include poppyseed oil, walnut oil, and safflower oil. These oils give various properties to the oil paint, such as less yellowing or different drying times. Certain differences are also visible in the sheen of the paints depending on the oil. Painters often use different oils in the same painting depending on specific pigments and effects desired. The paints themselves also develop a particular feel depending on the media.





Traditional oil painting techniques often begin with the artist sketching the figure onto the canvas with charcoal or a ';wash,'; which is thinned paint. Oil paint can be mixed with turpentine or artist grade mineral spirits or other lean vehicles to create a thinner, faster drying paint. Then the artist builds the figure in layers. A basic rule of oil paint application is 'fat over lean.' This means that each additional layer of paint should be a bit oilier than the layer below, to allow proper drying. As a painting gets additional layers, the paint must get oilier (leaner to fatter) or the final painting will crack and peel. There are many other painting media that can be used in oil painting, including cold wax, resins, and varnishes. These additional media can aid the painter in adjusting the translucency of the paint, the sheen of the paint, the density or 'body' of the paint, and the ability of the paint to hold or conceal the brushstroke. These variables are closely related to the expressive capacity of oil paint. When looking at original oil paintings, the various traits of oil paint allow one to sense the choices the artist made as they applied the paint. For the viewer, the paint is still, but for the artist, the oil paint is a liquid or semi-liquid and must be moved 'onto' the painting surface.





Traditionally, moving paint was accomplished with paint brushes, but there are other methods, including the palette knife, the rag, and even directly from the paint tube. Oil paint remains wet longer than many other types of artists' materials, enabling the artist to change the color, texture or form of the figure. At times, the painter might even remove an entire layer of paint and begin anew. This can be done with a rag and some turpentine for a certain time while the paint is wet, but after a while, the hardened layer must be scraped. Many oil paintings reveal evidence of such scraping on close inspection, particularly when the surface itself is examined. Oil paint dries by oxidation, not evaporation, and is usually dry to the touch in a day to two weeks. It is generally dry enough to be varnished in six months to a year. Art conservators do not consider an oil painting completely dry until it is 60 to 80 years old.





but one more thing to keep in mind, an artist paints something to have the beauty of a picture, and to put their creativity into that picture not for making it last long. and another thing, peeling and fading is only somthing you worry about with cheap paints anyway, not good quallity ones.


if you like to make stuff last for a long time, you should work with antiques =)
Hi,





I could give my opinion, but you already have two fine ones.


Just remember that IF one day you decide to use an oil primer (unlike the acrylic one, it can only be used for oils), you'll need to size the canvas with rabbit skin glue or PVA glue (I think I'm right about the PVA, but not sure).


I'm referring using primer over a raw canvas, not over an already primed one - I prefer to say primer instead of gesso.





Kind regards,





Jos茅


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