I recently became interested in painting but am not sure what paint to buy for painting on canvas. There are so many different kinds of paint which make it that much hard to decide. Please Help!
Oils and acrylics are best for canvas. You might want to buy a small starter set of each, and see which works best for you.
Oils and acrylics are your best bet for painting on canvas. I've worked with both, and each have their advantages and disadvantages. Oils take FOREVER to dry. (Some take up to a week, even longer.) This is bad if you're impatient, but it's also good if you paint one day, stop, and then come back the next to finish. (Your paint will still be wet on your canvas AND your palette.) Oil paints are pretty toxic, so be careful when you work with them. Also, you'll need a mineral spirit/paint thinner of some sort to clean out your brushes. (Try to get odorless mineral spirits if you can. Either way, you'll still need good ventilation when working with oil paints.) If you want to thin your paint, I recommend using an oil painting medium instead of the paint thinner. It'll add some oomph to your piece. Acrylics are great to work with too. They dry pretty fast, can be thinned and cleaned up with water, and are quite a bit safer than oils. (They turn to plastic when they dry, so be careful not to get any on your clothing or else it probably won't come out.) Hope that helps!
