Greetings!
I started a new painting... in acrylic! I'm going to do a second pass in acrylic with my limited palette, and then finish it in oils to add depth and interest. It's obvious enough that it's a painting of a coffee cup on a thing with an abstracted background, but my end goal isn't quite so straightforward. You're just going to have to check back later and see what I do with it. ;)
This is the first "direct" painting I've done in a long time; I normally fall back on the Venetian technique. It's also the first acrylic painting I've done in a long time. You can tell how much love I've given my acrylics by the fact that I'm still using the long discontinued Finity line. I also purchased these before I learned enough about pigment to know that Naples Yellow is a pointless color.
Exactly a week ago, I rediscovered my acrylic paints in the middle of a spring cleaning escapade and wondered if I shouldn't just throw them out. I'd become an oil paint convert partway into art college and hadn't touched acrylic since... but then I remembered why I bothered investing in a full set of artist grade acrylic paints in the first place.
It dries in ten or twenty minutes. It cleans up with plain soap and water. It handles best with cheapo nylon paintbrushes that I don't need to care about destroying. I can finish a painting in one sitting if I want to, and if I make a mistake, I just wait for it to dry and paint over it.
I decided to keep the acrylics.
Now, here's why I've been off the artistic grid for so long.
Last fall, I transitioned from working part time with no commute to full time with an hour commute each way, and it has actually taken me these past several months to arrive at a time management routine wherein I can get all the "domestic stuff" done and still have time for my personal pursuits.
I stopped painting because oil paint takes forever. By the time I set up, it's almost time to put it away again. Cleanup takes twice as long as setup, and then there's the drying time. Considering the lack of winter daylight and the fact that I now typically get home from work around 6:30-7pm, I just plain didn't have time for that.
I got so wrapped up in my love of oils that I forgot why I'd initially foregone them for acrylics. With a simple change of medium, I suddenly have time to paint again. (Although daylight savings time also helps.)
