are they different kind of paints, different from the normal latex and oil paints?
Emulsion paints are water based acrylics. Emulsion is a term used in the UK, latex is used in the USA, but they are the same thing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulsion_pa... Latex paint is a water-borne dispersion of sub-micrometre polymer particles. The term latex in the context of paint simply means an aqueous dispersion; latex rubber (the sap of the rubber tree that has historically been called latex) is not an ingredient. These dispersions are prepared by emulsion polymerization. Latex paints cure by a process called coalescence where first the water, and then the trace, or coalescing, solvent, evaporate and draw together and soften the latex binder particles and fuse them together into irreversibly bound networked structures, so that the paint will not redissolve in the solvent/water that originally carried it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylic_pai... Acrylics were first made commercially available in the 1950s. These were mineral spirit-based paints called Magna[1] offered by Bocour Artist Colors. Water-based acrylic paints were subsequently sold as latex house paints, although acrylic dispersion uses no latex derived from a rubber tree. Interior latex house paints tend to be a combination of binder (sometimes acrylic, vinyl, pva and others), filler, pigment and water. Exterior latex house paints may also be a co-polymer blend, but the very best exterior water-based paints are 100% acrylic. Soon after the water-based acrylic binders were introduced as house paints, artists (the first of whom were Mexican muralists) and companies alike began to explore the potential of the new binders. Water soluble artist quality acrylic paints became commercially available in the early 1960s, offered by Liquitex.
Emulsion paints refer to the chemical content of acrylic paint. Acrylic paint is basically a polymer resin (or emulsion), water, and pigment (whatever the chemical composition of that pigment may be). Water evaporates, resin hardens and traps the pigment in it. Oil paint is of course different because it is not water based, and you cannot paint with acrylic over oils. (You can, however, paint over acrylic with oil.) Oil paint also usually takes six months or more to completely 100% dry. I've heard from art teachers before that there are paintings in the Louvre that are not 100% dry. Latex is an entirely different story. It's more of a rubbery substance but it's easier to use on skin because it can stretch and move with a person whereas acrylic will crack/crumple and come off with a lot of movement and oil just... wouldn't dry.
