Terri Ficenec: Saying Hello!

[Terri Ficenec]

I am really excited to be joining this forum!

My previous painting experience has been primarily for my own enjoyment. Recently, I started receiving requests for portraits after people noticed a portrait of mine (attached below) while it was at the local frameshop. I've always wanted to paint professionally, but until now lacked the confidence. Somehow this unexpected interest in my work, combined with turning 40 prompted me to actually try to make a go of it. (Call it a mid-life crisis, I guess it's now or never!)

I was somewhat at a loss as to how to price my work, how to structure contracts, etc. but browsing around this site and has already been very helpful! And the work I've seen posted is inspiring.

One thing I've noticed is that hardly anyone else seems to do portraits in acrylic. I would be interested in understanding why no one seems attracted to this medium? Is there less of a market for it?

"First Communion", Acrylic, 20" x 16"

[Kimberly Dow]

Welcome Terri!

I paint in acrylic, but only for landscapes or more graphic work. The few times I have tried it for figurative or portraits I just could not get it to blend well enough before it dried - this didn't work well for the skin especially. Plus it just has a different look to it for me. I enjoy switching back and forth between oils, acrylics and liquid (ink-type) acrylics on paper.

Good luck!

[Terri Ficenec]

Thanks Kim! I'll need it!

By the way, I visited your web site. Your work is beautiful. I especially like the way you captured the reflectiveness of the water in the "Nueces River". It reminds me of kayaking with my kids.

[Holly Snyder]

Hi Terri and welcome to the forum, it's a wonderful learning tool. I also began painting in acrylics, and have very recently switched over to oils. I found acrylics to be limiting in that it was much harder to blend than oils because of the fast drying time, and it was difficult to compensate for the fact that acrylics can dry a couple shades darker. I have only done a couple paintings in oil, but I love blending wet-in-wet, it's soo much easier and faster. When I first signed on to the forum I was also very aware of how few acrylic portrait artists there were, now I'm beginning to see why!

[Terri Ficenec]

Hi Holly!

Before you posted a reply, I had noticed some of your acrylic paintings in various places on the forum, and was comforted to see that at least someone else was using acrylics for portraits (and it appeared very successfully!) But now I learn that you are switching to oils and I worry that I am making a big mistake getting into this with acrylics!

I would love to know more specifically about your experience converting to oils. How difficult was the transition to something that is wet for so long? (I think it would drive me crazy to have to wait even overnight or worse days to fix something I was unhappy with!) And, for comparable pieces, would you have a sense of how much time you might have spent using acrylic vs. what it would now take you in oil?

I've read your thread in the Media section on which oil paints to use (very helpful, by the way!) and have also experienced some of the same frustrations you mention: darkening paint as it dries, need to blend quickly or use glazing techniques to blend, etc. So now you've got me wondering whether I should be switching to oils.

I think my biggest concern -besides the initial expense of switching and adapting techniques- is storing (wet!) works in progress so that they are safe from my high spirited kids(8 & 9 years old)! I am just working in a corner of the kitchen right now.

Thanks so much for your thoughts!

[Steven Sweeney]

Hi, Terri, and welcome.

I can't speak to the use of acrylics, but your comment about using oils, that:

(I think it would drive me crazy to have to wait even overnight or worse days to fix something I was unhappy with!)

caught my eye. In oils, you usually don't have to wait to fix something -- that's one of the pleasures of the medium. In fact, usually you wouldn't want to wait until the paint is dry before you repaint. If you're painting thickly, you can apply a thick layer of new paint on any time. If thinly, you might need to scrape off the still-wet paint that's in the area you want to rework.

About the only in-progess waiting time is a 10 or 15-minute break to let the paint you've applied "set" a little, so that you can paint over it without just winding up with a muddy mix.

In fact, you'll find many posts here in which hints are given to keep the paint from drying too fast and making it difficult to come back later and paint "wet in wet", or blend, or whatever else a workable medium will allow. A dry oil painting actually creates its own troubles with respect to getting additional paint layers to adhere. This often requires the use of a tooth-restorative application of oil or retouch varnish.

At least you have young kids to blame for smears in the oil paint surface. It's my own fingerprints indicting me on most of my paintings.

Again, welcome. Have some fun here (it's a requirement of membership). You've already begun learning.

Cheers

[Holly Snyder]

Terri,

I had (and still have) many of your same concerns. As to the drying time, I have found that Winsor & Newton Artist's Oil paint mixed with flake white (which of course occurs all over the face), to dry overnight. This is when used with no medium or with just a little cold-pressed linseed oil for thinning, however I've applied the paint somewhat thinly. If there's no flake white, such as in a background I'm working on, it's taking several days to dry. I think it depends alot on the type of climate you're in, dry or humid. Although working wet-in-wet is wonderful, you can still rework an area that's wet by painting over top of it, but not pressing as hard so as not to mix with the paint below. I haven't tried scraping yet, as Steven said.

It's hard to give you an idea of time, as I really haven't used oils enough yet. However I would guesstimate that I could do the same oil painting in 1/3 to possibly 1/2 the time as acrylics.

Do what you enjoy and what works for you. If you're comfortable in acrylics, all the more power to you. However if you're interested in oils, what you could do to cheaply check it out is what I did. I bought several tubes (terra rosa, indian red, yellow ocher, cobalt blue, flake white 2), and did a rough painting of myself with an acrylic brush, just to see what it felt like. I was happy at how fast it came together. However I did it in one sitting, applying successive layers (which gave me some definite mush), and it took several days to dry. Then I ended up taking a portrait workshop, which for me worked out very well.

I do suspect that one could command a higher price for an oil portrait over an acrylic portrait, as oil is a more traditional medium, however that is up to debate.

As far as storage, perhaps you could use half of a closet (non-kid space that is) and rig a rack where canvases are placed vertically, but stacked basically with some air space in between, all facing a closet wall where they won't be accidentally touched.

Hope that helps some,

[Terri Ficenec]

Holly - That's a huge time savings!

I think I'll be heading over to DickBlick.com to order a few Oil Colors so I can give it a try once I've finished the project I'm in the middle of now.

Thanks so much for the feedback and the encouragement! It makes me a little braver to hear your success and excitement with the switch!

It'll probably be a couple of weeks before I'm able to get into it with the oils, but I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Thanks again!

[Terri Ficenec]

Steven - Hi and thanks so much for your feedback!

(I almost missed it as I scrolled right down to the bottom of the thread and Holly's was below yours. )

I'm not sure it would ever have occurred to me to scrape off the paint in order to rework the area. Wet-on-wet is sounding more and more appealing!

I'm excited about the project I'm working on now, but am finding myself antsy to be done with it so that I can get right to the oils!

You've been really helpful.

[Jean Kelly]

Hi and welcome,

I've also changed to oil from an acrylic based fabric paint. Oil has a warmth that acrylic can't touch, you'll love it. There is a wealth of info here on paint, mediums, care and cleaning of brushes, just keep reading till your eyes fall out!

Jean