OIL PAINTING VS WATERCOLOR: WHICH IS BEST FOR BEGINNERS?



Have you been looking to start painting, and find yourself wondering what's the best artistic medium for learning to paint? It's hard for us to know what to start with when there's so much available on the market, and it's easy to find yourself spoilt for choice. I started off with watercolors and was painting with them for years, but now that I'm an avid oil painter I'm not so sure it was the best choice for learning to paint. Watercolors are more frequently used in schools and beginner's classes for teaching painting, but are they really the best for starting out? Here are a few reasons why you might be inclined to pick oil paints (or, depending on your tastes and style, might not be!):



MISTAKES ARE EASILY REVERSIBLE WITH OIL PAINTS.

With watercolors, as I'm sure you know, mistakes are tricky to get rid of, especially without damaging the paper. With oil paints, thankfully, it's a much easier process; you can simply scrape back the paint with a palette knife (or, if the paint layer is thin, wipe it off with a rag) and paint over it. Because oil paints are more opaque, it's much easier to paint over mistakes, even if you're painting white onto a dark color.

Don’t get oil paints on your carpet, however!



VIBRANT COLORS ARE MORE DIFFICULT TO ACHIEVE WITH WATERCOLORS.

Oil paints are much more vibrant and pigmented than most watercolors. Depending on what effect you want, it might be easier to achieve high amounts of color with oils! Saying that, if you don't want to compromise on color but you prefer working with watercolors, you should try gouache paints; they're far more opaque than watercolor which also means it's slightly easier to get rid of mistakes!

Oil Paints produce very vibrant colors, whiles watercolors are more muted in tone.










WATERCOLORS DRY MUCH, MUCH FASTER

This is both a blessing and a curse, alike to acrylic's fast drying time; with oils, it's much easier to push around paints after you've placed them down for hours or even days, while everything is near permanent as soon as you place it down with watercolors. It's also good if you want to layer up your watercolors, so it's somewhat of a blessing also!



Watercolors are better for faster paintings, as they’re much quicker to dry.

Oil paints are slightly translucent, which means you can use underpaintings and glazing to create deeper shadows and brighter highlights in your works. Watercolors are slightly too transparent to create the same depth of color, in my opinion (feel free to prove me wrong!).

Oil paintings have greater tonal range.


WATERCOLORS ARE EASIER TO CLEAN

While it's harder to get rid of mistakes, watercolors are no doubt easier to get off of surfaces, clothes, et cetera; since they're water-based, they're removable from most surfaces with water or by going through a wash (although some pigments can stain; magenta is always one I've noticed being particularly bad for this). Oil colors, however, have to be removed near immediately with either solvents or a baby wipe from surfaces and are near impossible to get off of clothes (although I've noticed small stains might be improved by scrubbing with a baby wipe while the paint is fresh).

Because watercolors are water-based, they’re much easier to clean.


YOU NEED MORE MATERIALS TO START PAINTING WITH OILS

Watercolor materials are easy to source, and they're even easy to bring on the go if you have water brushes. Oils, however, generally require a larger amount of supplies and aren't so easy to make a travel kit for. If you're looking for something on the go without the hassle, watercolors are definitely the better go-to.

Oil painting requires a lot of materials to get started, even for simple paintings.


IT'S EASIER TO MIX COLORS BEFOREHAND WITH OIL PAINTS

Some watercolors can separate after a while of mixing, and it's also hard to mix large amounts of watercolor shades at once. Because watercolors are flat, they also take up a lot of space on the palette, while oil paints are viscous and hold their shape, so you can fit a lot of colors on a palette. It's also easier to slightly change the colors you have mixed without losing the original color, whiles there's a risk of corrupting the original color with watercolors because the pigment flows through the water so easily. And, of course, if you like to hold your palette at a slight angle, watercolors will be your biggest nightmare as they'll likely drip into each other and mix together!

It’s especially easy if you have a glass palette and good palette knives!






YOU CAN LAYER UP OIL PAINTS MORE

Of course, you can do layers of watercolors, but there's often a limit to what the paper can actually handle. This makes oil paints better for underpainting and glazing effects, which would be trickier to do with watercolors due to the paper's ability to hold and the transparency of it.

Oil paints can be layered in such a way as to appear flat, or, like in the picture, extra thick!


IT'S EASIER TO GET A NATURAL EFFORTLESS "MESSY" LOOK WITH WATERCOLORS

It's easy to splat watercolors around to get a pretty "messy" effect. It's much more difficult to achieve messy effects that look appealing with oil paints, unless you're going for thick impasto painting... then go for oils!!

Watercolors can look pretty messy and textured depending how you apply them!



OIL PAINTS ARE GLOSSY, WATERCOLORS ARE MATTE

This might play a big part in how your painting appears after it's dry. Of course, with oil paints, you can get matte varnish if you want them to be less glossy, but it's difficult to make watercolor paints appear glossy. This can be easier to take photos of, however!

Oil paints are a lot more glossy even without varnish!



OIL PAINTS COME ACROSS AS MORE 3-DIMENSIONAL

Because of the transparency of the layers, it's easier to create depth in oil paints through glazing and underpainting for shadows and highlights. This makes it easier to achieve more hyperrealist effects with oils rather than watercolors.






Oil paintings come across more lifelike and three dimensional compared to watercolors.


WATERCOLOR PAPER IS MUCH CHEAPER THAN CANVASES OR PANELS

Even if you're painting on a cheap surface such as MDF, watercolor paper is likely cheaper per painting. However, if you want a cheap solution for now and you're set on oils, try priming thick paper with gesso; it's better than it sounds, but perhaps not the best for archival quality.



Canvases are much more expensive than watercolor paper!

Oil Paints can seem intimidating, but if you're looking to get a more realistic effect from your paintings, it's often the better choice. If you like a beautiful natural "messy" look (why not go mad with washes watercolor and splotches of paint?) and want an easy "pick up and go" material, watercolors might just be your best bet.