Duet – Playing with water soluble oils

I got my H2O Oil paints today. I was already in process with this painting so I played around with the oils on the dresses and hair. I’m not planning to finish this one, it is more of a practice piece. I did want to post it for you to see my first attempts with oils.

I like the blending and the open time with the oils. That is all that I had hoped it would be. I went in after putting in the blue around the waist and added whites several times. I was able to blend the two colors together and get a soft blend on the top of the waist. Something that with acrylics would have required me to mix and mix paints to get just the blend I wanted because they dry so fast here. With the oils I was able to just add the single color I wanted to work with and blend it into the existing color with ease.

Oh there is a lot to learn though. Acrylics are very forgiving when it comes to lazy habits. Several times I caught my hand or a digit in the still wet oils. I can see I will have to use an easel when painting anything detailed. Now to see how long they remain wet after the painting is done. I understand this is one drawback when painting in oils.

I also tried adding a bit of oil pastel, then adding the oils over it. The oils wiped right off. I thought they would, but I had to try, to be sure.

I may try some water soluble pastels to see if those work. I know I can use the chalk pastels this way but I do not like the chalk. I can’t have it touch me and the dust from it makes me cringe. I was never a chalk person, even as a kid I hated using chalk.

I probably could keep working this… the floor line needs to be fixed, the background worked, the legs and arms adjusted… but instead I am going to scrape it all off, sand it back and start over.

I really enjoyed playing with the oils and see them making an appearance in a lot of my paintings. I can already see though that they will get used along with acrylics. I can see acrylics to create my background, then the foreground subject in oils.

I’m too much of a mixed-media junkie to use one medium strictly.