Can You Paint Oil Over Acrylic On Canvas

Should you paint over an old oil painting.

Can you paint oil over acrylic on canvas.

In order to answer this question thoroughly i have a demonstration. The oil paint creates a solid barrier of oil between the acrylic paint and the canvas. Now i can share with you how to paint over an old canvas with diy acrylic pour art. So for example you could gesso your canvas and then apply a few layers of acrylic paint.

If you want to paint one first and then the other it is okay to paint oils over acrylics but never paint acrylics over oils. In the last few months i ve shared a few acrylic pour art tutorials. Many artists worry about painting with oils over acrylics. If you d like to see my step by step process for the portrait above follow this link how to paint a dog portrait step by step in oil or click on the picture above.

Oil paint will happily adhere to dried acrylic paint. It is a question i receive very often. You can paint on an old oil painting like it is a new one you will just need to make sure there is no grease or dust on it. But provided the canvas has been primed to be suitable for both oil paints and acrylics it s fine to start a painting with acrylics and then finish it in oils.

I love how easy this art project is. See more of that here. So you must use a water based acrylic paint to coat the canvas. Painting a slower drying oil paint over fast drying acrylic paint isn t a problem as long as the acrylic paints are fully dried and cured.

But do not paint with acrylics over oils. We found that regardless of whether the watercolor was soaked into the ground or dried over a glossy acrylic surface that oil paint medium and or odorless mineral spirits could be applied on top without. Never paint printed canvas using oil based paint or you will end up with disappointing results. You can see the videos and tutorials for my dining room acrylic pour art and my very popular first acrylic paint pours here.

Water based paints like acrylic dry faster than oil based paints. Would it be easier or the final painting better if you simply begin with a blank canvas. This is worse than painting over a greasy fingerprint. In addition they don t offer much flexibility and will crack and chip over time.

However you might want to consider if it s worth the effort. Also whether you can paint with oils on paper. What you shouldn t do is to start a painting in oils which dry slowly and then paint on top with acrylics which dry quickly. Although watercolor under oil is not a widely used technique today it is surprisingly effective and was well known at least in the 19 th century among british painters carlyle 2001.

Once the acrylic paint is dry you can safely paint over it using oil paints. So when you paint with acrylics over oils you re painting over a thick layer of linseed oil. Oil paint is made up of mostly linseed oil and pigment.