Before I get into my discoveries on this matter I want to say that these are my personal findings after painting a lot of paintings. They have been found by trial and error. I paint daily about eight hours and often paint several paintings a day. I use both mediums, acrylics and oils and often times mix them. Yes the oils are over the acrylics after they have fully dried. I use acrylics for backgrounds cutting down on the toxicity levels not only in the brush cleaners but heavy metals such as cadmium, onyx oxide and cobalt among others in oil paints. So take this for what it’s worth. Read it all and then decide if you want to tackle this.
Using a wet canvas as with wet on wet oil painting where liquid white or liquid clear is used, there is nothing with acrylics to slow down the drying process in the same manner except for something like Liquitex Slo-Dri Blending Medium which is a retardant. But, it doesn’t quite work the same way as the liquid/magic white or the liquid/magic clear. Trying to do the same technique as with oils is definitely a challenge.
Okay you made it this far, good for you! Keep going, don’t give up yet!
Perhaps if we changed the question slightly to “can we use an alternate method to wet on wet with acrylics?” then the answer would be yes. Let me explain a bit further. I think that the first thing to take a look at is why Bill Alexander re-introduce an old oil painting method and renamed it? His idea was to be able to finish a painting in one sitting as with acrylics, in many a case and be able to come back to it and make a few adjustments the next day if necessary. In traditional oil painting, before adding layers one needs to allow the paint to dry otherwise as Bob Ross states many a time, you will become a mud mixer. Bob Ross simply took it to another level and made it possible for the non artist to learn to paint without studying half your life.
When I first started painting I was using acrylics, painting abstracts. I got bored with it and wanted to do landscapes. I found Bill Alexander’s videos on You Tube and felt that this was the way to go. I didn’t feel comfortable with purchasing expensive oil paints, new brushes, easel and toxic brush cleaners so I wanted to stick to acrylic paints. So my challenge became, how was I going to adapt this method to acrylic paints? I wasn’t an artist, I was a professional jazz musician and a remodeler so challenges weren’t new to me. Whenever someone tells me that I can’t do something a certain way, it becomes a challenge and in most cases I find a way or an alternative with same or similar results.
Once I understood the properties of the oil paints and acrylics and how they work, I realized that instead of trying to keep my canvas wet, allowing them to dry before applying a new layer was the answer. Sometimes the drying process took too long so I helped it along using a blow dryer. I learned that using large brushes anywhere from one inch to four was still possible as with the wet on wet technique. I can paint the canvas or canvas board black or any other color I want to get a nice overall effect. As long as I use a transparent paint over the first coating, the color shows through. With transparent colors, I can add white to it as with wet on wet for a cool effect, but I have to be very quick as I have only about thirty seconds or less before it starts drying.
The problem with opaque acrylic paints in trying to add layers before they dry is, you become a mud mixer. The paints aren’t thick enough, even if you buy the professional ones that state heavy body. My solution to that was to add a thickening agent with the paint such as a molding paste medium or similar to create texture. Acrylic paints dry flat and don’t show the brush marks as in oils, so in highlighted areas, I wanted to have texture which was done by adding a lot of medium to it, making the paint very thick. In this case instead of thinking that thin paint sticks to thick as with oils, the opposite became true using acrylics, as long as the paint underneath was dry.
There was only a little texture in this and brush strokes still didn’t show through. At least I can see the bumps created by the thicker paint which stick out adding a little depth. I could have tried just using the white molding paste first dabbing it with a small brush or knife, letting it dry and then adding my color to it, but I felt that it was just too much work involved and wasn‘t part of my experiment in using large brushes. You can try this yourself if you like.
I ended up painting about sixty acrylic paintings using large brushes before switching to oils. I also use numbers 2,4,8 fan brushes, 8,12 filberts, a number 0 liner brush and a plastic and metal paint knives. Some came out quite well while some didn’t. People loved them and asked to have them. I was flattered that someone would actually be proud to hang my artwork in their living or family room. Some have them in their bedrooms and hall ways. After switching over to oils to see how they work out, I find the wet on wet technique much easier and less challenging than with acrylics. With acrylics, you have to think and plan each move before applying the next layer although it is much easier fixing a mistake or a happy accident than it is with oils. The look of acrylic paintings isn’t the same as with oils and can be spotted easily enough as it has a lot to do with the brush stroke visibility in oils.
I still enjoy painting, using the large brushes with acrylics and every so often come back to them just for the challenge. I learned quite a bit learning the process with acrylics before getting involved with oils. I feel that it was a stepping stone to what I paint today and that includes portraits, birds, animals and still my favorite landscapes. Painting with acrylics especially using large brushes, takes much longer to finish than with oils. I painted a 9”x12” landscape the other day, which took me all day and started an 18”x24” landscape yesterday and just finished it today, late afternoon. Normally, I would have completed both of these paintings in about an hour using oils.
I would suggest giving large brushes a chance with acrylic painting for an alternative to the wet on wet. Just remember that each layer must dry completely before adding a new one otherwise you will become a mud mixer. Using large brushes in the same manner as with wet on wet is a bit more challenging and perhaps even frustrating for some in the beginning. I find it a thinking game and have fun just trying to figure out how to adapt a certain stroke used in wet on wet to acrylics. There’s no one out there to show me how to make it easier so it’s up to me to figure out the solution. The feeling is much greater after finishing a painting with acrylics than with oils because I had to figure out each step by myself. No copying here.
Here are a few of my earlier acrylic paintings using large brushes.
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| winter scene |
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| hidden stream |
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| learning from Bill Alexander |
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| Black River |
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| Black River |
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| water falls at dawn |
If you are still adamant and want to use the wet on wet technique using acrylics, you may want to try the Atelier interactive paints. Atelier Interactive is the only brand that can be used for controlled wet blending as well as standard techniques. Here's a link for their website http://atelieracrylic.com/products/atelier-interactive/ there are a few videos there as well,
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