Oils vs. Acrylics for newbies

[marc_neri]

I have been a great admirer for miniatures for sometime now but never seemed to have enough time to pick up the hobby. But now with my new found spare time on my hands, I wanted to give it a try. My expectations aren't high. Perhaps, more realistically, I know I wont be cranking out works of art that will be displayed in any museum.

What I wanted to know is what kind of paint should i start with? Reading the forum, WN Artist Oils and Vallejo Acrylics seem to be the most popular? But, for a beginner, which do you guys recommend? (Oils or Acrylic)

You comments are appreciated.

Marc Neri

 

[Jason W.]

Welcome to the planet Marc! Although I paint primarily with acrylics, I would suggest oils for the beginer . They will give you a longer "brush time" and help you develop a steady hand. Experiment with all types of paint however, eventually you will find a favorite medium.
Maybe someone on the planet can give you some basic oil colors to start with.

Above all... have fun! Don't get frustrated and ask lots of questions.

For what it's worth

Jason

 

[Einion]

You'll probably get as many answers to this as there are members here

There are a number of things to consider and I suppose the first is have you done any painting of any kind before? If you haven't then Vallejo and Andrea, the two most common hobby acrylics, might not be the best choice as they dry very quickly and many people find them tricky to master. But they are easy to use for simple painting and their fast drying time can be an advantage as well.

Oils might be more forgiving because they give plenty of time for blending but many people find they are better suited to larger scales. They also come in intense colours mostly so you need to learn to mix the dull colours that are common in our subjects. Hobby paints on the other hand are available in a range of ready-made military shades like olive drab, khaki and field grey, as well as a number of fleshtones.

Enamels are another possibility by the way, Humbrol being the most common, and these can be used together with oils - the most famous figure modeller uses this combination. In some respects this is the most versatile option as you have a relatively fast-drying paint, the enamels, and the slow-drying oils which can be mixed together or used sequentially for different effects.

Lastly you should consider cost. Oil paint can last almost indefinitely in the tube, and the quantities we use are tiny, but they have a high initial cost - very high for some colours, $40/50 and more for one small tube. You can paint a figure with only four paints if you know how to and you don't mind all the mixing but realistically a palette of about 12-15 tubes isn't unusual and many people have a lot more than this.

In the long term oils work out to be very inexpensive but if you just want to try your hand I think it would be best to stick to hobby colours where the initial outlay is low. And since many people find mixing believable skin colours difficult this is another advantage to a range like Vallejo which has a number to pick from.

Don't forget that you'll need brushes too and although you can get by with only one or two most people use a few more on a regular basis (again it depends on the scale of the models to some extent).

Einion

 

[dario966]

hello,
I am new to this site and I am new to figure modeling however I am not new to painting. I suppose you could consider oil colors that are less expensive - there are two kinds - alkyd resin oils (dry in one day - can use odorless paint thinner) and water soluble oils (can be sped up by using drying medium or mixed with alkyd oils) Winsor&Newtown make both (but they are not alone) and in NYC you can get a standard 40ml tube for about $3.50. Liquid Acrylic paints (from 2 oz to 4 oz bottles) for professionals made by Liquitex or Golden are quite good and they are both strong, lightfast and permanent, can be used as fine alternative to Vallejo or Andrea paints. They also make wide range of mediums and paint retardants that can elongate the drying process - so play, man!
Next, the so called basic colors you must consider:
cadmium lemon yellow, cadmium yellow medium(or deep), yellow ochre, burnt sienna, raw sienna, cadmium red, crimson (madder), burnt umber, emerald green, cobalt blue deep, ultramarine blue deep, prussian blue, and tiatnium white (for mixing). Actually, you do not need black, you can achieve black through mixing e.g crimson, emerald green, burnt umber etc. Do some reading on color theory, on primary colors, complimentary colors, grays, role of the blue in the shadow painting etc. Cadmium containg paints are the most expensive and ... quite poisonous (if you try to feed them to your figurs, he, , he
Buena suerte, amigo

 

[Guy]

Welcome to the planet Marc and Dario,
I have been using all the mediums, tube oils, enamels, and acrylics for years and use all the above sometimes on the same figures. One advantage until you get your feet wet in figure painting is the enamels, Humbrol or Floquil come pre-mixed in appropriate colors until you become more familiar with the process of figure painting. If Bill Horan can use enamels........need I say anymore?

 

[KeithP]

I guess my response is why limit yourself? You may find that you'll use Oils, enamels, acrylics, printers inks etc all on one figure!

The goal should be what works best for you. Try them all and see what works.

You can try using the less expensive craft acrylics before you jump to the Andrea or Vallejo if you wish.

Keith

 

[Automata]

Marc,

I think an important consideration is this: What look are you trying to shoot for? We all learn by emulating the techniques of painters whose work we admire. Basically, I think the process will be frustrating if you are, for example, inspired by a certain oil painter's work but start off with acrylics.

The cost and even perceived ease of use of a medium should be secondary to what effects you would like to achieve with them.

There's nothing to say you have to stick with what you start with either. I started with enamels, then switched to oils, then acrylics!

As far as oils being easier to learn: To me, painting with oils is like learning to play the guitar; 'Easy to learn, very difficult to master.

Just one person's opinion,
Barry

 

[Hullebullen]

I started off my figure painting career with Warhammer figures in my teens. Naturally I used Citadel Acrylics since I didn't know anything else. After the usual (?) hiatus around my early twenties I came back to the hobby around a year ago. I saw these guys using oils and the figs they produced were mindboggling.

Naturally, I thought, wow, I got to get me some oil colors. Well, to cut a long story short, after a frustrating stint with oil colors I went back to painting with acrylics. I've seen people do wonderful stuff with oils but I'm not used to them so for me it was easier to go back to something I knew how it worked.

As for recommendation...well, my recommendation would be to perhaps not get into oils if you're not 100% sure if this hobby is YOUR hobby, since they are pretty expensive. Perhaps you should go with something a bit cheaper until you can decide if this something you're stuck for life on ...

 

[marc_neri]

Thanks for all the input. Sorry for the delayed response.