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390 Paint Basics
Yuri talks about the difference with watercolors and oil-based paints.
Shirley: Hello, I'm Shirley from Scotland, and I'm speaking with Yuri from Italy. Yuri's an artist. So Yuri, can you tell me something about the difference between water color painting and oil painting, the difficulties between the two, and where should a beginner start?

Yuri: That's a good and complicated question. So, first of all, water color of course are made with, usually they are on paper, and made with a water colors. It is much weaker to make a painting because it dries very quickly. In few hours, usually.

Oil paintings are a little bit technically complicated, starting with, they have the disadvantage, they dry much slower, but the advantage is that actually you can correct many things and change it very easily, which is impossible with water colors.

Shirley: So with water colors you said it's easier to correct. Can you explain a bit more how easy it is to correct the oil painting?

Yuri: Well let's say that I'm making a portrait, okay? And I'm making an eye, and then I do a big mistake, I don't like it. I can either take a piece of cloth, rub the color completely off and start again. With water color, it's very much more complicated, because once the paint is in the paper, it's almost impossible to take it off.

Shirley: So how would you correct that mistake with a water color then?

Yuri: Well you try not to make mistakes first. You can maybe use a knife and take it off, but it's very dangerous.

Shirley: And what kind of knife, a kitchen knife?

Yuri: No, there are usually special knives.

Shirley: So if I go to the museum and I'm looking and trying to appreciate the art. How can I tell the difference between say an oil painting or a painting down with acrylic color.

Yuri: Okay well, first you check on what kind of material are done. Usually, let us say before, if a work is made on paper, it's most probably a water color.

Okay? Acrylic, it depends. It almost like oil, but it is different kind of shiny quality.

Shirley: And can you correct mistakes if you're using acrylic?

Yuri: Yeah. Very much it's like oil colors.