Page 12 - The Decorative Painter Spring 2017

In the Teacher’s Corner
Changing Mediums: Converting
PRUDY VANNIER cda
How many times have you gone through the pages of The Decorative Painter looking longingly at a project but... Oh, it’s painted in oil and I paint in acrylic (or vice versa). Dang! With understanding the differences in the medi-
LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING:
Oil paint, in art terms, is paint made of pigment ground in oil. There are additives for drying, increasing flow, diluting, and more. Acrylic paint is water-based. There are additives for extending drying time, increas- ing flow, and more.
BRUSHES: Oil painters tend to use natural bristle brushes that are sturdier for cleaning with solvents. Acrylic painters use mostly synthetic brushes that easily control the paint+water easily.
COLORS: Oil painters mix paint for the wide variety of colors needed. Acrylic painters do some mixing, but with hundreds of bottled colors to choose from, it’s most likely that perfect color is bottled and on your shelf.
TECHNIQUE: Acrylic painters layer the paint, thus the step one basecoat, and then float additional layers to build the color, drying in between. In traditional deco- rative painting, oil painters apply the paint colors side by side and then blend carefully while wet.
THE CRUX OF THE MATTER
Study the photograph of the project you want to convert and the step-by-steps presented, “reading” it in terms of your preferred medium. Acrylic painters – see through the layers and determine the basecoat of each object or section of the design, and then analyze the shading and highlighting layers. Oil paint- ers – look at the colors side by side, noting the order of them on each object or section of the design painted. Make a diagram if it helps you.
YOUR PALETTE: Look carefully to the right at the palette listed and the color swatches. You can refer to online color comparison charts by searching “oil to acrylic conversion charts” or vice versa. You’ll find a plethora of lists and color images of charts.
Pictured above are leaves with the palettes listed. I had painted the original Leaf A with acrylic paint and then sent it to Cheri Roi mda with the line drawing and my painted sample. Cheri then painted her leaf just like my acrylic but in oil.
Cheri returned the painting with the challenge to reproduce her Leaf B in acrylic. The challenge was accepted and the point proven – designs and paintings can be translated to different mediums with working knowledge of color and technique.
10 The Decorative Painter • SPRING 2017
ums and the techniques, you can easily convert the instruc- tions. Put on your thinking cap (as my first grade teacher used to say) and read on!
Oil to Acrylic Conversion
OIL MIXES
+W+CYP +W+CYP
+W+UMB + C Y P UMB+BU+CYP AC+UMB+BU W+PB+(CYP)
ACRYLIC
DECOART AMERICANA GREEN TEA
HAUSER LIGHT GREEN HAUSER MEDIUM GREEN
PLANTATION PINE BLACK GREEN ALIZARIN CRIMSON DESERT TURQUOISE
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