While oil paints take ages to dry (sometimes up to a full year!) they can offer a flexibility (not to mention lusciousness given their high pigment content) that is harder to come by in acrylics. Yet I have found with extenders and a quick hand, acrylics can offer an amazing medium for building up layers and creating a thickness using a brush or a palette knife. Because the layers with acrylics dry much more quickly, you can create textures and impasto swiftly (unlike oils where inner layers can still be wet when outer layers are already drying).
However, it is really up to preference and (dare I say it) sometimes up to convenience. When my children are home from school (or being home schooled during Covid lockdown periods!) painting with water-based acrylics are my choice so that I can avoid smelly fumes of solvents and mediums used with oil paints, avoid little hands dipping themselves into my paints and then walls, and have a quicker clean up.
What type of paint do you prefer? Do you ever change it up?
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