Acrylic Paint

Acrylic paint is fast-drying paint containing pigment suspended in an acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry. more...

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Depending on how much the paint is diluted (with water) or modified with acrylic gels, mediums, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting can resemble a watercolor or an oil painting or have its own unique characteristics not attainable by oil or watercolor.

Acrylics were first available commercially in the 1950s. The first commercially available artist acrylic paints were mineral spirit based paints from a company called Bocour Artist Colors. The waterbased acrylic paints came later and were coined the term "latex" housepaints, although there is not any actual latex from a rubber tree in an acrylic dispersion. Interior "latex" housepaints tend to be a combination of binder (sometimes acrylic, vinyl, pva and others), filler, pigment and water. Exterior "latex" housepaints may also be a "co-polymer" blend, but the very best exterior waterbased paints are 100% acrylic based. Soon after the waterbased acrylic binders were introduced as housepaints, artists (the first artists were mexican muralists) and companies alike began to explore the potential of the new binders.

Acrylic Artist Paints are their own unique media. They can be thinned with water and made into washes to be used similar to how watercolor paints are used, but the washes are not water sensitive and color lifting techniques are not as easy to do with acrylics as they are with true gum-arabic based watercolor paints.

The main difference of acrylics and oil paints is the inherent drying time. Oils allow for more time to blend colors and apply even glazes over underpaintings, etc. This slow drying aspect of oil can be seen as an advantage for certain techniques, but in other regards it impedes the artist trying to work quickly. The fast evaporation of water from the acrylic paint film can be slowed with the use of retarders. Retarders are generally glycol or glycerine based additives. In the case of acrylic paints, the addition of a retarder slows the evaporation rate of the water, and allows for more water to be added and the paint workable, until the retarder has left the film and the paint layer is dry.

Oil Paints have several disadvantages to acrylics, however. First, they tend to require the addition of a toxic solvent, such as mineral spirits or turpentine to thin the paints and clean up tools, though relatively recently water soluble oil paints have been developed for artist use. Secondly, oil paint films become increasing yellow and brittle, and will lose their flexibility in a few decades. Thirdly, the rules of "fat over lean" must be employed to ensure the paint films are durable.

Oil paint is able to absorb more pigment than acrylic because linseed oil has a smaller molecule than acrylic. Oil has a different Refractive Index than Acrylic dispersions. This changes how light interatcts with the paint films.

Read more at Wikipedia.org