Your choice of medium/media?

[stlukesguild]

What is/are your medium/media of choice? Why do you prefer this media? What do you like about it? What do you not like?

I just thought this might spur on some interesting discussions.

 

[Terri]

I like anything that doesn't involve the use of a brush. Oil pastels, colored or pastel pencils would start me off right.

I think I like the directness of the mark-making. For me, something gets in the way between brain and substrate when there's a wet paintbrush in my hand.

You painters, regardless of medium, have my respect, and a kind of awe.

I'm more comfortable with a film camera. I like incorporating what's loosely referred to as alternative photographic processes with my photos.

 

[Ellen Easton]

Mine is watercolor. I like it because of the ease of clean-up for one thing. And it's way easier to do plen air with. I started out in the 70's with oils and, while I do love working with that medium, I just prefer the simplicity of watercolor these days.

Now, I'm not saying watercolor is simple. Just saying it's water clean-up and easy to take outside and work with.

What do I like or dislike about it? Just about nothing is what I dislike. What I like is just about everything. How's that for an answer?

Back in my oil painting days I was only in my late thirties and in excellent physical shape. Hauling around my oils and paraphernalia didn't phase me. Nowadays I'm in my late 70's, have many physical limitations and I find watercolors suit me perfectly.

Now I love that I can just grab my travel palette, travel brushes and a small block or sketchbook and off I go. Easy peasy, huh? I don't even have to worry about taking water along because I have a creek running right by my back door. I live in the Willamette National Forest so there's no lack of awesome stuff to paint plen air right from home. I don't even have to drive anywhere.

 

[brianvds]

As has been the case all my life, my drawing sucks, so naturally, at the moment I'm doing little else, in an attempt to remedy the situation. And so, my favorite media are humble HB pencil on even more humble printer paper. Gotta say, I'm actually having so much fun with drawing that I'm not sure I even want to bother painting again, but at this stage, I have no idea where the whole thing will go.

 

[Hermes2020]

When I play at being a painter, my preference is for Winsor & Newton Griffin alkyds, wherever possible. I love how they handle like traditional oils, yet dry much faster. This suits my usual technique of building up layers and applying transparent glazes.

I started off as a ceramist, but was never interested in tableware or vases. Instead, I wanted to make sculptures, the bigger the better, but kilns have size limitations. Besides, since I didn't own a kiln, I had to fit in with the firing schedules of the pottery studios I used to fire my creations. Then, I hit on concrete as the ideal medium for me. Not any old hardware store concrete, but a special high strength and rapid setting formulation that is used to repair airport runways. It sets in less than an hour. I buy this product in 25kg bags. Now I am independent and can produce sculptures of any size in a fraction of the time it takes to make ceramic objects.

 

[stlukesguild]

I never was fond of painting until my final year of grade school. Most of the art I created was drawing. Throughout most of my years in art school and a good number of years beyond my medium of choice was oil paint. Almost 20 years ago I took an independent drawing class as part of the professional development courses required to renew my teaching license. I had done a lot of drawing over the years with Conté and charcoal... but never used a full palette of pastels. I began a series of large pastel drawings and was immediately hooked.

Like Terri stated above, I loved the directness and immediacy of the mark-making. I recall coming across a quote by Degas in which he stated that pastel combined the best of drawing and painting. This especially made sense for me considering that so many of my favorite artists emphasized drawing and the linear over the more painterly elements of painting. As I really had very little experience with pastel, I saw no reason why I couldn't create pastel drawings/paintings on the same large scale as oil paintings.

In order to create a better surface to work on, I began priming my paper with a matte acrylic. I remembered how Degas primed his pastel papers with green or red pointing out that the Venetians (Titian, Veronese, etc...) worked on such a toned surface as opposed to the white canvases used by the other Impressionists. I found that this underpainting helped to unify the painting as a whole. I then began to experiment with using the same matte acrylic in creating large flat passages in the paintings.

One of my studio partners joked that with all the patterns/tessellations I was using, my paintings were starting to look like giant illuminated manuscripts. All I needed, he went on, was to use gold leaf. I thought, "what the hell," and began using metal leaf... and was surprised that the image actually worked. I thought the "glossy" surface of the metal would clash horribly with the matte surface of the pastels... but it actually worked. The almost "weathered" surface of the pastels and the matte acrylic... that I often further "weathered" by sanding combined with the gold leaf ended up looking in some way like the surfaces of old fresco or egg tempera paintings by early Renaissance artists... or even some of the later works by Balthus.

If pastel has any downside it is the face that it is a fragile medium that can easily be smudged or smeared and were I to frame my paintings under glass on the scale I work, the cost would be exorbitant. The only downside to the use of the metal leaf is that it takes forever to first prime the areas where the leaf is to be adhered with an adhesive. Then there is the challenge of using a medium that is almost lighter than air and apply it vertically on drawings/paintings mounted on the wall.

 

[Artyczar]

These are all interesting answers. I've been wanting to participate in the conversation for days, but life has been taking me away from the forum once again.

I started life off with pencils and crayons. I wasn't all that fond of crayons for coloring, but I wasn't bright enough to realize I could get paint with brushes, or try to ask for it. Duh! I certainly didn't know the differences between oil, acrylic, watercolor, etc. until I was in my teens, even though I once took a 2-day private class in oil painting when I was ten. I didn't even know that was what the instructor was trying to teach me; she didn't even let me hold the brush!

At age 12 or so, I bought a set of cheap powder tempera paints that worked a lot like gouache, and soon after, I bought a watercolor set. I "played" with those for a while and later added collage elements. I hadn't "fallen in love" with watercolor or oils yet, but I really liked incorporating collage. I felt like I was being able to play like a kid and have a childhood, which was something I didn't get to have.

It wasn't until I was around 20/21, when I met a future boyfriend who introduced me to oils, that I fully fell for oil paint. He used them and might have been even more in love with them than I was, and his intense enthusiasm got me way into them. I got almost as crazy for them for all the same reasons: the lush color, the texture, their life, and yes--the smell. I enjoyed how I was able to manipulate the paint while it was still wet (when thick, and when it was in thin layers as well). I couldn't "play" with it enough. It did everything watercolor and gouache did and more. I liked that it was less fragile, too.

I later added collage with oil painting, and that's also very satisfying--mostly paper and fabric with some stitching. There's not much I don't like about it really. I don't like making too much art in general on canvases (or panels) because of storage, but that's a problem I'm always trying to solve.

 

[stlukesguild]

Yes! I actually miss the smell of oil paints… linseed oil… damar varnish… and even the real pure gum turpentine.

 

[Mississippi Hippie]

Acrylics are what I originally picked when I took a painting class (the choices were traditional oil, water soluble oil, and of course acrylic) I thought oils to fancy, and acrylics cooler in general.

 

[stlukesguild]

I feel that oil has an immediate lushness or sensuality that can only be achieved in acrylic through layers of paint… and mind you, I use acrylics with pastel and several other media. On the other hand, acrylic is great for rapidly attaining a saturated artificial color well suited to a style rooted in Expressionism or Pop Art. I had a painting teacher who stated that the immediate sensuality of oil was too seductive for him and he found he preferred the challenge of acrylics.

 

[Bartc]

I may be an outlier (nothing new....)

Drawing/sketching since early childhood, but didn't take up painting as the rest of the family were pretty much all oil painters. Took up photography as my first creative medium, was in the business, learned some videography and early computer graphics (my digital artist son reminds me that those digital skills are now woefully outdated, but they serve.) Was intrigued with painting, but avoided trying.
Getting frustrated with photographic limitations (50 years ago), I became interested in sumi-e painting and took a short workshop that taught me skads about water media and brushwork. That became my foundation for painting, but still didn't take it on seriously.

For my 30th birthday my wife bought me an acrylic set, told me she knew I wanted to paint, and left the house for the day. First painting was total shit and I figured painting wasn't in my future. But looking at a pot of succulents I picked up the brush again and had marked success. An epiphany. That kicked off decades of acrylic painting. Loved it.

Took up watercolors in my 50s to have something very portable when bike touring. Really took that seriously and ink and wash became my favorite. Tried water soluble oils for 2 years with our early plein air group outings a decade ago and hated it, same for oil pastels or any oil medium and still feel that way. Encaustics didn't move me either. Moved on to try Ceracolors (cold water soluble wax) which I really liked, then various water and dry media.

Last 5 years I've been into pastels. Pretty much same reasons as Terri and StLukes. Sure I do the other stuff too, but very little acrylic at which I am quite skilled. Drawbacks of pastels frustrate me, but the results and the process I truly like. Maybe best? Hard to say, because I still easily drift back to other media, particularly watercolor, sometimes doing 2 or 3 media in a particular outing.

So what's my "favorite"? Can't really say. Whatever floats my boat toward creativity on any given day, that's what. It's the creation of art that is my medium I guess.

I did try ceramics very briefly to sculpt and realized it's not my thing. Have now written and published 2 books and writing is another one of my things, but I'm basically a painter and quite happy with that.

 

[Mississippi Hippie]

I feel that oil has an immediate lushness or sensuality that can only be achieved in acrylic through layers of paint… and mind you, I use acrylics with pastel and several other media. On the other hand, acrylic is great for rapidly attaining a saturated artificial color well suited to a style rooted in Expressionism or Pop Art. I had a painting teacher who stated that the immediate sensuality of oil was too seductive for him and he found he preferred the challenge of acrylics.

I paint Expressionism, but when I paint something different I use acrylics for them, too. I think I get what your painting teacher was meaning. I painted with oils to try them for maybe a year or two but I didn’t sell artwork then, so who knows where they are. I like the fast drying aspect a ton of acrylic and oils I think I would just use ‘because they are nice/expensive’ when I used them no technique required them and it took a week what took a day in acrylic. I like acrylic is a new media compared with almost ancient oil. So many possible things can happen with acrylic. I believe acrylic is more modern.

 

[Bartc]

I feel that oil has an immediate lushness or sensuality that can only be achieved in acrylic through layers of paint… and mind you, I use acrylics with pastel and several other media. On the other hand, acrylic is great for rapidly attaining a saturated artificial color well suited to a style rooted in Expressionism or Pop Art. I had a painting teacher who stated that the immediate sensuality of oil was too seductive for him and he found he preferred the challenge of acrylics.

IME, you can get pretty much the same effect with any style you want in acrylics as with oils. They just handle differently.

 

[Geoffr]

Love watercolors because of the challenge.

 

[OliveOyl]

This is why art school was good…for me. I got to play around with different mediums, inside a messy studio setting, and with feedback…if I wanted. I tried ceramics, printmaking, watercolors, pastels, gouache, acrylics, pen/ink, colored pencils, conte crayons, drawing, design and illustration; and took classes in perspective, anatomy, color theory, art history and more that I’ve now forgotten. In the end though, I loved oils best so discarded everything else including sketching. It’s now been 40 years of having only oil paint as my main course.

Despite being in art school, there were never specific lessons on materials, techniques, or mediums and what they are and how best to use them. That means I still don’t think I paint “correctly” and so continue to fumble around, painting after painting. But because oils are easy to manipulate, I’ve used them in conjunction with latex house paint, spray paints, fluorescent paint, fabric dyes, various textiles, embedded objects (sand, pennies, buttons), modeling paste, crackle medium, gold leaf, bits of ephemera, stenciling, sewing and hardware.

Nothing produced has been earth-shatteringly unique or anything, but these little “experiments” are what keep me from getting too bored. Like adding a sprinkling of spices to a steady and strict diet of oil. Yum.

 

[Ellen Easton]

Yes! I actually miss the smell of oil paints… linseed oil… damar varnish… and even the real pure gum turpentine.

Oh me too! I always loved that smell! Watercolors don't have that. But still love watercolor and all that goes with it. As I've gotten older, I find that I spill things more easily and there's not a doubt in my mind that I'd make big messes and would spend as much or more time cleaning up as I did painting. I'm just not going to do that. In addition to becoming more clumsy with age, I've also become lazier about cleaning up the messes.

 

[john]

Started with watercolor, did some poured ink stuff and then tried acrylics and then oil. I like the painting process with watercolors and the effects one can get. I like the look of oils and how they can be worked on forever and I hate that they can be worked on forever. I hate work.

Acrylics confuse me. They dry darker or lighter or something. They can be like watercolor or like oil and have four hundred different kinds of glazing mediums and witches brews of stuff that I'm sure if I knew how to use would help. I don't like having to clean up brushes and stuff every time. Like I said above, I hate work. And to be frank, I'm not crazy about how acrylics look. Maybe I just haven't seen the right ones. Although one of mine got an honorable mention and is one of my best. Go figure. I can't. Like I said, they confuse me.

Using a palette knife with oil is very satisfying. It seems to take off the onus of being too serious or something. Feels more like play to me and some of my best looking pieces were done that way, and in plein air. Plus using the knife is faster for me and seems to reach an endpoint sooner. And clean up is way easy. Which I like because..............I hate work. And they get more texture and depth.

But recently after doing oils for a few years I'm back to enjoying watercolors for what they do. I have a set of gouache that I should try someday.

Going forward I think I would like to do oils with knife, and also watercolors. I like them both too much to give one up.

 

[Artyczar]

IME, you can get pretty much the same effect with any style you want in acrylics as with oils. They just handle differently.

Not to be a snob, but I think you can come real close, but not so's you can't ever tell the difference. You can use the very best acrylics on earth and layer and glaze them with the greatest techniques; you might even think it's an oil painting at first, but upon closer inspection, you'll inevitably see that acrylic is never like oil paint. And we still don't know how long it lasts. Only time will tell us. However, it seems, IMO, the color dies a little over time, while good oil paint seems to stay alive for (at least) decades, if not a century+...just needs a little gentle cleaning here and there.

A little "cheat" trick is to build layers with acrylic and glaze over the remaining layers with good, expensive oils. I've done that, but I don't know how long those pieces will last either. They look pretty good (not the actual paintings; I'm talking about the glow of the colors).

 

[stlukesguild]

I need to agree with Arty. I have seen acrylic paintings that looked like oils... from a distance... but you can always tell up close. More so... I was speaking of the immediate sensuality of oil paint from the first brush strokes. Ultimately, with oil paint you are looking at pigment suspended in oil... as opposed to plastic... and that includes pigments such as various metals that cannot be suspended in acrylic. Again, I say this as someone who has used acrylics frequently since art school and exclusively for the painted portions of my mixed media works for the last 20 years. I love much of what I can achieve with acrylics... but I am never attempting to mimic the look of oils.

I also agree with John in that the manner in which acrylics change color as they dry can be disconcerting. I can't say how often I have an area of my painting that is just what I am after... while it is still wet... but once it dries the saturation fades. This was something I hated about ceramics. I disliked how you really didn't know what a work would look like until after it had been fired. Colors could leap from one piece in a kiln to another completely changing what you thought it would look like.

Arty... I suspect acrylic will hold up well and do fine as an underpainting... especially when you consider that most oil paintings from the last 100 years were painted over acrylic gesso. I would guess very few oil painters... outside of hard-core purists... use rabbit skin glue and underpainting white... although I did this a few times.

 

[Bongo]

As far as painting goes - I started with b&w acrylics on 18"x14" canvas panels. After a year or so I added color, then wanted to paint bigger switched to (not 1/8" hardboard) but heavy 1/4"MDF for the support. Then I was painting bigger but the paintings were HEAVY.

I discovered YUPO. I bought it by the 60"x 10-yard roll! Using Golden Acrylics (except for gesso) I made 30"x40" paintings -(many) many hundreds of paintings on gessoed Yupo. I bought a table saw, miter saw, etc. and started making floater frames. But mounting large Yupo paintings turns out to be problematic, so I switched to 1/8" hardboard panels which are easier to frame.

I wasted a lot of time trying to make a rock-solid Plein Air easel to my liking. Finally got a Yarka (Rusian plein air easel) which solved the equipment problem, and switched to oil paint - better suited for plein air work. Now I'm using a Mabef 1/2 box French easel with oil paint on 16"x20" 1/8" hardboard panels. For studio work - I'm using oil paint 95% of the time and a wide variety of supports.