What is the difference between aseptic and sterile technique?

What is the difference in technique in painting in acrylic and oil?

• I have just started painting after years of drawing, it seems to require a different way of thinking, for instance going from back to front, when in drawing It was front to back. I have been painting in acrylic. I want to start in oil, because I think that there must be a benefit in shading and blending. Is this so? What should I do differently? Need help!

• Answer:

  This might be lengthy - I apologize in advance! Acrylic is basically a water-based plastic paint, kind of like a liquid plastic. Unlike oil, acrylics can be cleaned with water, whereas oil must be cleaned and manipulated with turpentine (paint thinner) and other oil mediums like linseed oil. Unless you're using a rapid-drying medium with your oil paints, you're not going to have the immediate result with a painting as you do with acrylics. Acrylics dry so much faster than oils, although oils don't always take a long time to dry if they're in the right conditions (like if you kept a painting in the sunlight or in front of a fan to dry faster). Since oils dry considerably slower, there's a longer amount of time you can manipulate the surface and work with the color. Also it's important that you prepare whatever surface you're painting on, regardless of whether or not you're using acrylics or oils. Using gesso (acrylic/water-based primer for canvases, etc.) or another ground to give yourself a nice proteceted and even surface to start on. A "ground" is just a name for whatever you're using to cover your painting surface with to start on. A ground is especially important if you're using oils though, because after a period of time (probably decades, not a couple weeks or anything) the oil can actually eat through the canvas if it's not properly "preserved" with gesso or another ground. When you gesso canvas/masonite/wood/whatever, use a couple coats. Apply one coat, let it dry, then sand it smooth before you put on another coat. I usually use two or three coats of gesso. It sounds like a lot of preparation, but at least you'll be giving yourself a nice surface to paint on. And I would suggest not starting out too ambitiously with oil paints - they were incredibly frustrating for me at first and I hated them. Maybe gesso a couple pieces of paper or small canvases, get yourself a little glass jar (anything NOT plastic, it'll eat through it!)and put some turpentine/turpenoid/paint thinner in it to combine with your paints while you're working. It'll thin them out, make them go on a little smoother and make them go a lot further! Just play with the paints and turpentine/paint thinner to see how they work, get yourself a good palette knife to mix colors and see how you can apply color to your canvas with a brush or your palette knife... basically, just play :) See how they can work for you and how you can make them work. Good luck and don't get discouraged! You should feel excited and proud to be part of a tradition as old as oil painting (or maybe I'm just too sentimental).