Two layer stacks on canvas: oil paint over an acrylic ground is marked correct and common with a good-quality ground; acrylic paint over an oil ground or oil paint is marked wrong, as conservators advise against it.

Concept · Working With Each

Mixing the Two in Layers

Oil can go over acrylic, but acrylic should not go over oil.

Research finds oil on a good-quality, well-applied acrylic ground holds up fairly well. Keep acrylic mediums out of oil paint.

  • Why oil sometimes peels off acrylic is debated: additives in cheap grounds, or compounds forming in the oil.
  • In Christina Young's lab tests, fresh oil gripped acrylic relatively poorly; aged oil gripped better but could crack the primer beneath.
  • Thin acrylic underpainting can go under oil, but only on an acrylic ground.

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