Talk:Acrylic paint

proposed split

I think the article should be split into a technical part, in which the polymer coating mechanisms are explained, and another article in which the artwork is explored. 194.53.253.51 (talk) 14:27, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Links removed

I've removed some links to commercial galleries or individual artists who appear to be purely promoting their own work or websites - Self promotion or vanity publishing is against Wiki guidlelines - Otherwise anyone could just add a link to this article because they happen to paint in acylic or sell acrylic paintings - Rrose Selavy

acrylic paint is removed by turpentine or mineral spirits.

But not easily...

MWAK--84.27.81.59 14:45, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Is that picture the best we have to offer of Acrylic? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikeonatrike (talk • contribs) 17:51, August 30, 2007 (UTC)

My link - www.gailart.biz - is instructional as I have taught acrylic painting. Because I only sell my work locally or for illustration purposes, I'm not promoting on the internet. But there are sites where someone can view more of my and other artists' acrylic painting. If you're going to have a discussion of acrylic painting, it's important to include many perspectives and techniques, or else everyone might think that "One-Step" painting is the only method, or that you can only paint on gessoed surfaces. By the way, acrylic paint is really not removed easily unless it's immediately done. I just spilt some paint-water on my rug yesterday and have to really work to get it out. And paintings that I've done over a decade ago on fabric that has been washed repeatedly have lasted really well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.226.177.16 (talk) 16:22, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Mediums

I added the paragraph about mediums, incorporating a sentence about binding characteristics that was already there. Through the use of mediums, it is possible to achieve a vast range of effects that are not possible in oils and watercolors..

Media

The plural form of the word "medium" is "media" — not "mediums" — and I changed the entry accordingly. Also, I replaced a lot of parenthetical second-guessing with a "citation needed" tag. Buck 18:19, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Hey Buck, I am the fellow that wrote the paragraph on mediums. I too love the Chicago Manual of Style, but you are applying a dying and archaic plural form to a modern word. The plural of "painting medium" is "painting mediums," and any painter who heard you say "painting media" would probably still understand you, but would think that your English was terribly stilted. This usage is completely established in all forms of modern English. Metzenberg April 9, 2006.

I think substituting an "a" for the end of the word is how you form some plurals in Latin. Adding an "s" or "es" is how you form plurals in English. In English, I believe e.g. stadia is incorrect and stadiums is correct.

^Where on Earth did you find your datums? Presumably in the mass mediums. That's where one usually finds strange phenomenons.

Media

Media may well be the plural of medium, however the industry commonly refers to these products as Acrylic Mediums, not Acrylic Media.

Thank you. That is correct. I am in the industry. Metzenberg April 9, 2006.

Removal by Turps

Sorry, this is incorrect. The turps won't be removing the acrylic paint, ones own elbow grease will be doing that. You see, once an acrylic paint has cured (24hrs - 2 weeks), it undergoes a chemical change as the acrylic emulsion particles bind together. Using turps or mineral spirits won't unbind these particles. The friction of rubbing them is what may be doing this. Once cured, acrylic paints are cured irriversibly(sp). Most manufacturers actually sell turps based varnishes.

This not quite 100% true, about being cured irreversibly. I have some plastic cement which uncures acrylic paint, even after 6 months. ~The Little Green Man from Mars^{(My Page)}_{(Where do I live?)} 21:01, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

I don't think i'd want to try plastic cement on my carpet or clothing. Another suggestion, Goo Off, i think it's called, would hard some surfaces. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.226.177.16 (talk) 16:25, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

No, I wouldn't use it either, but it does show that the paint is not irreversibly cured. For those who want to avoid dissolving the paint job of their model Corvette, the cement is from a Revell Professional Mini bottle, #39608 according to the label. ~The Little Green Man from Mars^{(My Page)}_{(Where do I live?)} 02:12, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

acrylic techniques and restrictions

"There are techniques which are available only to acrylic painters, as well as restrictions unique to acrylic painting"

It would be nice to have a reference or elaborate more on this sentence. Not knowing much about acrylic paints (which is why I was reading the article) I have no clue what you are referring to.

It would make more sense to write specific pages about the techniques and cross-link to the Acrylic Paint article Rawbear 22:57, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

yes, exactly, and my link - www.gailart.biz - is one that discusses many of the unique features of acrylic painting - artistically or otherwise. i've been painting with acrylics for over 20 years. more often now i use it as an underbase for an oil painting but i also use it on painted furniture. the applications are endless and the experimentation isn't over yet. i look forward to learning more about it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.226.177.16 (talk) 16:29, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Contradiction

The following two statements seem to contradict eachother.

"one of the disadvantages of this medium is that paintings can crack and be corrupted much sooner than with oil."

"Although the permanency of acrylics is sometimes debated by conservators, they appear more stable than oil paints. Whereas oil paints normally turn yellow as they age/dry(oxidize), acrylic paints, at least in the 50 years since invention, do not yellow, crack, or change."

I'd guess the second is more accurate.

I've never heard the first statement from knowlegable sources, nor scene evidence of it! Sounds very biased and unsupported, is someone talking about cheap beginner grade paint slapped on with lots of water?

There are a lot of ways to make acrylic painting 'unstable' and cause it to crack or fall off. For instance, trying to paint over any kind of oily base will not work. Nor on most metals that haven't been primed for it and protected after. Any kind of paint has its preferred methods and MEDIUMS for best results. And there are a few colors that do seem to yellow with time - according to my own work. But generally, a decent acrylic will last a very long time and doesn't seem affected by sunlight or humidity like other paints. - 20+ years painting experience —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.226.177.16 (talk) 16:34, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Acrylic paint is not plastic.

"...and the fact that acrylic paints dry to a shiny, smooth effect—not surprising since acrylic paints are, basically, plastic"

Yes and no. Paint is a combination of the pigment(s) and the binder. Acrylic paint pigments are the same pigments used in oil and watercolor paints. The acrylic binder is what defines an acrylic paint. It's more accurate to say that the binder (not the paint) is plastic.

"Another one of the disadvantages of this medium is that paintings can crack and be corrupted much sooner than with oil, however, using suitable extenders that increase the thickness of the paint but make it remain plastic-like, or by applying the paint in thinner layers removes this problem to a large extent. Most painters outside of the 20th Century have mixed their own paints to increase the longevity of the artwork, and suitable mediums and powder colours are available for producing your own acrylic paint."

Almost all this paragraph is untrue. Acrylics do not crack or become "corrupted" sooner than oil. Oils are notorious for cracking with time and tend to yellow. The purpose of extenders is not to extend the life of the acrylic. Most painters outside the 20th century (do you mean before the 20th century?) mixed their own paint because of the lack of commercial sources, not to increase the longevity of their work. It would be really useful to list the many advantages of acrylic paint (rapid drying time, relative lack of toxicity, solubility/cleanup with water, color saturation and brightness).

---

--the paragraph about "another one of the disadvantages of this medium..." sounded awful, so I reworded it. and there is no such thing as "powder colours" in an artist's vocabulary. there are 'pigments' which are good, and "dry tempera" which you only buy by mistake then have to use up teaching kid's classes. --Kyle Clements - BFA

Techniques Section

Formatted the article but the Techniques section needs more work doing to it.--Artypants 10:50, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Plagiarism

Does Answers.com usually plagiarize Wikipedia?

http://www.answers.com/topic/acrylic-paint-1

It's not plagiarism. but laziness, possibly , Yes, it usually uses Wiki's entries along with other web dictionary resources and credits the source.

http://www.answers.com/topic/plagiarism?cat=biz-fin

Rrose Selavy

Does wikipedia plagiarize everyone, and everything? Of course it does! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.235.73.194 (talk) 22:12, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Image

I added a photograph of acrylic for better illustration. Hariadhi 07:38, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

It's a nice image, but it seems like it could use a caption. Particularly since it's in the "Differences between acrylic and oil paint" section. Is one of those paint smears oil and one acrylic? Trilink 19:47, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Can anyone take a photo of acrylic paint being made? Erudecorp ? * 21:33, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

House paint

Am I the only one whose main experience with paint is for walls (both interior and exterior)? This article has a lot of good information on art, but what about paint as used on houses? Derekt75 (talk) 00:40, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

A discussion of acrylic paint on houses (walls, i presume) would largely talk about mural work or decorative arts. You're not going to paint a whole wall with acrylic paint. I'm a house painter as well as artist, so I've done both. Wall paint is latex (usually), a different subject entirely. We could start another topic here on mural or decorative painting, as the surfaces are much different to deal with than canvas/objects d'arte. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.226.177.16 (talk) 16:38, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm confused by the fact that 'Latex Paint' diverts to this 'Acrylic Paint' article; but the contributor above says that latex [paint] is a different subject entirely. The term latex wall paint seems to be commonly used in the US, but I'm trying to find out if what we call 'Masonry Paint' in the UK is the same thing? Can anyone help out here? Andywebby (talk) 23:29, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Latex house paint is based on acrylic polymer emulsions, so the redirect is logical, but I agree this article needs expansion with regard to house paints... as well as the technical chemistry of acrylic (or acrylate) polymers and the substitution binders and fillers we commonly find in commercial house paints. If one investigates the history of acrylic paint, we find that Rohm was but one of the main contributors to the development of acrylic paints and it wasn't as simple as "invent[ing] acrylic resin, which quickly transformed into acrylic paint". Rohm and Haas were the first to commercially sell acrylic paint in something like 1953, and their motivating factor was to provide an alternative house paint during the post war housing boom. I must also point out that the first reference in this wiki-article is not a reliable source and it will be deleted. The related content should be rewritten or it too will be removed. Luminaux (talk) 22:36, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm sorry to see that not much has been changed or added since these comments were made. Since that time, the 'problem' has only grown worse. As a result of chemical innovations, new legal restrictions and consumer demand, acrylic paints have all but taken over from the older alkyd-based house paints and latex based wall paints. In fact, painting doors, furniture and walls is now the MAIN use of acrylic paints and the term itself, until a decade ago or so only used by artists, is increasingly known and used by the DIY-minded public. Personally, I know only little of these matters I can but hope that some knowledgeable person will review this article (and the other articles, notably on latex paint, wall paint, alkyd paint, etc) with these developments in mind as well as the changes in the use of the word. As it stands, it's all very unclear to me. I know that I can dilute acrylic paint with water; I know I can clean my brush with water instead of turpentine. But that's about it. I have no idea what makes the difference between the paint artists use, the paint I put on my door and the paint I put on my wall. Still less what makes these paints glossy or matte, and what are the consequences thereof. I used to know the difference between paint, lacquer and varnish - but not anymore. At the moment, wikipedia is of little practial help in this area and I, for one, made some time-consuming and costly mistakes as a result of the general confusion and lack of sound information. Mabel2 (talk) 19:02, 18 July 2013 (UTC)

I too am sorry to see that not much has been added about house paint, wheter it is oil based or water bourne. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Borgward (talk • contribs) 16:27, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

If latex-based interior house paint does get some attention, I hope it contains something about changes in shade as it dries. At least when they were first commercially available (early 1960s) there was a sigificant change in shade as it dried (becoming lighter, I believe). So midway through a job, it would look very uneven, only to be just fine when completely dry. Are artists' acrylics similar? BMJ-pdx (talk) 05:37, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

acrylic paint and varnish

Just a quick question. Do you have to varnish an acrylic painting? If so, why?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.12.42.112 (talk) 09:24, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

It is not really necessary. However, I know of two rational reasons to varnish. In some cases the surface of the painting can show differences in gloss; if this is undesired to obtain a uniform reflection you'll have to varnish. The other reason is that though dirt can easily be removed from the acrylic paint layer using water as a solvent, the water may degrade the carrier, e.g. canvas or paper. Organic solvents pose less of a threat in this respect — but they'll temporarily soften the acrylic, making it slightly susceptible to abrasion during the cleaning process. Nothing much to worry about but precious museum pieces had better be varnished, if this can be reconciled with the authenticity of the artwork.--MWAK (talk) 16:33, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Actually, varnishing is very important for acrylic paintings. When acrylic cures, even though to the eye it seems smooth and impermeable, it is actually quite porous. This allows surface dirt, dust, smoke, etc to penetrate the surface of the painting, making it extremely hard to clean. Removable archival varnish not only smooths out the finish, it seals the surface pores so that cleaning is much easier. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.247.74.217 (talk) 04:15, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I have removed this unreferenced section it has little value as far as I van see?Teapotgeorge^Talk 22:11, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

I want to leave a comment about this information: " For instance, Prussian blue is not generally available due to chemical incompatibility with the acrylic binder". Actually I paint with acrylic, and my box paint contain the Prussian Blue color. Check the Boldmere mark for acrylic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.135.22.81 (talk) 12:16, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I use Cryla acrylic paint and can confirm they have Prussian Blue in the range. It is listed as "Normally Permanent" in their lightfastness guide, which ranges from Permanent, though Normally Permanent, Moderately Permanent, to Fugitive. SamXT (talk) 06:55, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

Some popular manufacturers of artist acrylics

ColArt is a leading supplier of art materials, and has several brands which include lines of acrylic paints. The Winsor & Newton brand includes the Galeria and Artists' Acrylic lines, Liquitex consists of the Liquitex Professional Colors and Liquitex BASICS lines, Lefranc & Bourgeois includes the Flashe, FINE Acrylic, and Louvre lines, and Reeves includes a line of acrylic sets and loose colors.

Royal Talens of the Netherlands (owned by Sakura Color Products Corporation) manufactures the Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Amsterdam (Standard and Expert), and ArtCreation (Expression and Essentials) lines of acrylic paints and mediums.

Daler-Rowney (Cryla and System 3) is an English manufacturer of acrylic paint, so as Spectrum, that offer a range of acrylics for professionals and an economy line for students. A Spanish manufacturer is Acrylicos Vallejo which offers an extensive line of paints of different textures and color.

In India Camlin Ltd. makes 60 excellent shades of artist acrylic colors in addition to student grade colors and all kinds of acrylic mediums. This is a company which makes more than 2000 separate art and hobby range of products.

In the United States, manufacturers of artist acrylic paints include Golden Artist Colors, based in New Berlin, New York, Liquitex, Nova Color Artists Acrylic Paint and Daniel Smith Artists' Materials. These offer a full range of professional paints and media. M. Graham, based in Oregon, also produces a limited range of professional-quality acrylics. In 2012, Ronald Wheeler a former US producer of Politec Acrylic Artists Colors, will re-establish the distribution of these first (1953) acrylic emulsion paints with the imported product line and then later establishing again US production.

Grumbacher Academy Acrylics, also manufactured in the United States Leeds, Massachusetts, offer a 24 color collegiate grade line with matching media.

D. L. Stevenson & Son Ltd., manufacturers of professional artist quality acrylics, are located in Toronto, Canada. Stevenson Acrylics consists of a line of 64 colors as well as a variety of media.

Chroma is the Australian manufacturer of the Atelier Interactive Artists' Acrylics line of paint. Chroma also has facilities in North America. Other acrylics made by Chroma include A>2 Lightfast Heavy Body Artist Acrylics and Chroma's Jo Sonja Artists' Colours. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Painter2014 (talk • contribs) 13:01, 25 July 2013 (UTC)

Established in 1964 - one of the oldest manufacturers of professional artist acrylics Matisse Derivan - artist acrylic paints based in Australia with facilities in north America and is still owned and run by some of the founding families. They produce the Matisse line of acrylics which as well as keeping with the sustainable ethics of the company also has several uniquely Australian colors

The most expensive acrylics in the market are from Old Holland (New Masters) and Golden Artist Colors and they are advertised as of the best quality.

Technical aspects need filling in

The article has practically on the technical (chemistry and physics) of acrylic paints. Even the work "acrylic" is linked to the Wikitionary instead of the proper chemistry/plastics article. --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 04:24, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Colour chart is an advert

The unexplained dumping of a colour chart in the middle of the article is (i) unnecessary (other articles about artists mediums neither include nor need such a chart - yes, paints do come in colours!), (ii) a blatant, if slightly subtle advert for one particular brand of paint, as a Google search on the product codes quickly identifies - the specific codes have nothing to do with acrylic paints per se.

Suggest removing the chart. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.160.86.109 (talk) 20:01, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Agreed. Luminaux (talk) 22:04, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

"Sealing, Staining, and Filling" reference doesn't illustrate point.

In the paragraph titled "Painters and acrylic" a reference is given to support the statement, "[acrylics] use on engineered woods such as Medium-density fibreboard can be problematic because of the porous nature of those surfaces[6]." The "Sealing, Staining, and Filling" reference gives no information on "engineered woods" and in fact, the only mention of acrylics in the article makes the claim that acrylics are self sealing. It seems to me that if a fiberboard were completely painted (both sides and all edges) the acrylic paint would act as a sealant and minimize the expansion/contraction issues of wood fibers. (To investigate this, perhaps someone in this community focused on the sharing and accumulation of accurate knowledge for all could provide chemical compositions of some common "primers" or "sealers" and some common "paints". As I understand it, many commercial "primers" are heavy in acrylic binders, especially when compared to seemingly acrylic-poor commercial paints, but if this is true the artist acrylic-heavy paints shouldn't need primer... some insight please...) Furthermore, this ref is about stains, not paint, and I believe that it, as well as the above quoted statement, should be removed unless proper reference can be shown. Luminaux (talk) 22:02, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Toxicity

Would be useful to have a section on the toxicity of acrylic paint or lack there of, and to compare it with the toxicity of oil based paints. I presume that the water binder makes exposure to acrylic non-toxic, while I know that some of the oil binders have mildly toxic effects (e.g. glycol ethers). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.235.217.217 (talk) 01:29, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

A number of years ago I researched Acrylic Latex House paint. I found that while it had less VOC's than oil base paint, it was more carcenogenic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Borgward (talk • contribs) 16:23, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

biased

This article is exhibiting a bias that treats the subject solely from a canvas/feature artists point of view. Unlike oil paint, which treats the subject also from an industrial and home applications point of view (paint as a protectant for a surface, or interior design feature) . 70.49.127.65 (talk) 00:14, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

This article is about acrylic paint's use in the fine arts. WP:IDON'TLIKEIT is no reason for this claim of bias. See House painter and decorator for it's industrial use...Modernist (talk) 13:24, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

That is what is called bias. The title "acrylic paint" is a general title and should cover all acrylic paints and its uses, not a restricted topic such as acrylic paints in artwork. If you don't want to cover the entire topic, then the title should be changed to a more restricted one, such as acrylic paint in fine arts. 70.49.127.65 (talk) 21:45, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

Agreed. I came here looking for information about acrylic finishes used in decorating and found and article on acrylic paint that is incomplete as it deals only with acrylic artists' paints. Either it should have scope appropriate to its title or a title appropriate to its scope. Painter and decorator is a person's trade, not a type of paint. Globbet (talk) 21:40, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

There really needs to either be an extension to cover all types of acrylic paints or a separation into pages about Artists acrylics and other types (Hobby, automotive etc) - even the second sentence on the page "Acrylic paints are water-soluble" is incorrect talking about acrylic paints as a whole - acrylic lacquers are not soluble in water for example. It would be more accurate to say 'Artists acrylic paints are soluble in water'Davef68 (talk) 10:46, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

Grading

Hi, the previous "artist grading" included
"Highly pigmented with a focus on single pigment colors for the cleanest mixing results, they tend to have viscosity similar to oil paints and can thus hold a brush stroke for impasto applications. Acrylics can be applied to canvas, boards, paper, panels, wood, and a number of other prepared surfaces."
Viscosity and impasto applications have nothing to do with professional quality, rather they are related to types of acrylic viscosity.

Also, I don't think "scholastic acrylics should be listed on the "grading" section; scholastic falls under "student grade" acrylics.

--Artschool-reject (talk) 14:31, 23 April 2015 (UTC)

I agree and just removed it. I added a book reference that states there are only 2 grades. Feel free to add scholastic back into a proper section with reference if ever available. --CNMall41 (talk) 17:53, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 external links on Acrylic paint. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add {{cbignore}} after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/20111005113656/http://www.tititudorancea.com/z/what_is_acrylic_paint.htm to http://www.tititudorancea.com/z/what_is_acrylic_paint.htm
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/20131102061836/http://www.liquitex.com/techniques/liquitexqa.cfm to http://www.liquitex.com/techniques/liquitexqa.cfm

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Dear cyberbot, I have gone to the trouble of removing the first link because it was a carbon copy of a past Wikipedia article. I changed the date of the archive file on the second link to Jan. 1, 2011 so that it wouldn't lead to a file-not-found page. Bod (talk) 18:05, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

Not all the pigments of oil paints are available in acrylics.

I would have thought the opposite is true. Any sources/examples for this?--93.214.240.122 (talk) 22:04, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

I have no source that explicitly states that there are more of one than another, but in my experience it is true. If you compare the number of pigments available in Schmincke's Mussini series (oil) to their PRIMAcryl for example, then you'll see that there are more oil colours (101) than there are acrylics (84). That's probably WP:OR though.Mduvekot (talk) 22:50, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

So that would be a statement about commercial availability. Both of the Schmincke color sets contain many mixtures of pigments, so it is hard to compare them. Here is a list from the company Kremer about the suitability of their pigments for different media: Kremer. And here a similar one from Sennelier. Examples: Kremer lists green earths as unsuited for Acrylics, Sonnelier doesn't. Sonnelier lists Cobalt pigments as unsuited, Kremer doesn't. --93.214.242.162 (talk) 22:38, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

You raise good points. I'm not sure whey Sennelier lists cobalt pigments as unsuited, cobalt pigments are chemically inert, but can flocculate in water, perhaps that's why. Why Kremer would say that their green earths are unsuitable for use in acrylic mediums, I have no idea. Its clay content causes it to absorb significant amounts of oil , but I can't see why that would be a problem. All I have to offer is unsourced speculation at this point. Sorry.Mduvekot (talk) 16:02, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

Hard to make a statement like that for ALL brands. GOLDEN says they make 101 different colors, 30 mixed pigment, so that EQUALS 71 single-pigment colors(http://www.goldenpaints.com/technicalinfo_hevbod). WINSOR & NEWTON OILS says they have "80 single pigment colours" (http://www.winsornewton.com/na/shop/oil-colour/artists-oil-colour). Therefore, the statement holds, but only slightly. Bod (talk) 21:41, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

Your Gesso is as good as mine...

I've not followed this closely enough to know which contributor added this sentence:

"Gesso alone will not stop SID; a sizing must be applied before using a gesso."

But there is something fundamentally wrong with adding such a fine sentence about the limitations of a gesso... without any reference to what a gesso is in the first place. If someone needs to read a Wiki article about Acrylic paints they probably won't know what a gesso is and a word search shows it mentioned one other time, in a list of mediums, which is fine for all readers to try and extrapolate new knowledge from inference and context, but while that's how intuitive human learning works, that's not the way an Encyclopedia works. If it's specialized vocabulary, especially in the course of explaining a larger subject, it needs to be defined or referenced. APDEF (talk) 14:55, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

Ah, never mind, I now see that the first mention of Gesso links to a page that tells us all about it. All is well. APDEF (talk) 15:02, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

"Refractive index that is less clear ..." is nonsensical.

In the "Differences between acrylic and oil paint" section, the statement that "Oil provides a refractive index that is less clear than acrylic dispersions" is nonsensical. The refractive index is a dimensionless number that gives the indication of the light bending ability of that medium. Calling one index "less clear" than another is at best quite a stretch.

So how do the refractive indexes of oil- vs. acrylic-based paints compare? If one is significantly higher than the other, surface reflectivity and internal reflections will both increase (that is what gives diamonds their "sparkle"). The statement should be reworded in terms of higher/lower, not "less clear". BMJ-pdx (talk) 05:19, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

Artistic India

Rabindranath tagore what kind of painting they are famous for 110.235.232.214 (talk) 16:10, 17 June 2022 (UTC)

Difference between acrylic and watercolor paint

This section is bad, starting with the assertion that acrylics are opaque and watercolors are translucent. Both can be anywhere in the range from transparent to opaque -- according to the very web page cited! (But that cited web page is also a poor reference, containing misleading and contradictory info.) The discussion around making lighter and darker colors for each medium is also oversimplified and misleading. Worse is that the biggest effective difference between the two isn't mentioned: acrylics are permanent once dry while watercolors are not. SmanthaGraves (talk) 17:10, 25 July 2023 (UTC)