Can Water Soluble Oils be mixed with Acrylic paints?

As per Winsor & Newton:

"Artisan (or any other type of oil colour) cannot be mixed with acrylics on the palette. However, it is possible to apply Artisan (or any other type of oil colour) on top of acrylic, but never acrylic on top of oil colour. It is best to ensure that the lower layers of acrylic are kept as thin as possible."

As per Holbein Duo Aqua:

"DUO is not classified as a water base color, like gouache, watercolor or acrylic, but all of these blend perfectly with DUO while wet (add a few drops of water when blending with acrylic). DUO starts to dry slowly and after the water dries out, the oil that remains continues to dry by oxidation in the same manner as traditional oil and with the same result."

As I recall, H2Oil is another that can be mixed with acrylics (from Sean Dye's book?.) I once tested the mix with some Duos and acrylic paints I had and it did seem to work. I certainly wouldn't try it with any other brands. Maybe if you have an acrylic color you need in a pinch, but it's not something I'd feel comfortable doing.

Thank you for the info on the H2Oils being one of the others that can be mixed with acrylics. I would be reluctant to work in layers mixing acrylics with WSOs I think the whole fat over lean thing would become a nightmare. I'll be testing it out at some point just to see what the results are.

You won't believe what I did! Was painting background in WSO and came back a couple of days later picked up a tube and continued painting for a short while but had visitors so stopped. Came back a few days later and realised I had put acrylic over WSO, so tried to clean it off. I now have a small portion of "crazed" painting which I haven't been able to fix. Any suggestions? It feels touch dry, looks a bit antique.....I'll probably give it to one of the family.

Patricia - would you want to post a photo so we can see what this looks like?

I'm wondering if you might be able to sand it (using fine s. paper or even a green scrubby pad), just enough to take most of the acrylic off (brush off the sanded paint, then wipe with a damp rag). Then you could re-paint with the oils.

You might be able to soften the acrylic enough to scrape it off using acetone. I've used it to clean dried acrylic from paintbrushes. I just use a cheap 100% acetone nailpolish remover I picked up at the Dollar Store.

Interesting - that sounds worth a try (will have to remember to experiment with this tomorrow).
Patricia - I hope you'll let us know what you end up doing, and if it worked out OK.

Acetone will likely take off some oil paint also, but might be worth a shot if you don't mind retouching it. Diluted alcohol might work without damaging the oil as badly. That would be my first recommendation.

Thanks for the suggestions, it's only a little bit about 2" square and is at the bottom in the background. I might not bother to change it as I have a taker (stepdaughter) and she seems to like it! Says it looks like an old master now. I painted something else a while back and used Ws satin medium to varnish instead of the right varnish, would you know, it's still sticky! Going to have to watch myself, too much of a hurry trying to fit everything into my day. Still laughing about that, well it is only a hobby!. Merry Xmas, hope it's not too cold if you live up north. Patricia.

Patricia,
It sounds like your life is like the rest of us...so much to do and not enough time. The acetone sounds like a good solution, but is extemely toxic so if you have any sensitivities to different things and are still having the asthma problems you had, it would probably not be a good choice.

Judy Happy Holidays!

Patricia, I'm up north it's not warm but not extremely cold. Merry Xmas to you as well. I'm glad your daughter liked your painting as is. So do we get a peak at it?

I remember one oops when painting. I painted six fingers on a woman and didn't even notice until I posted the painting and someone pointed it out to me.

< 6 fingers! I can't help it, that's too funny!

Patricia - glad your painting found a home

Callie, I had the same reaction to the six fingers and my husband got a kick out of it too. I'll see if I can find the painting for the down the drain thread. I was just starting to work with WSOs and working Alla Prima and it's a really good example of muddied colors.

Sounds like Modern Art to me - I think it will make a very nice addition to our D-the-D collection!

I could make a whole series and call it the mutants.

I just came across this quote on Dick Blick.com Holbein. I thought it some of you might be iterested.

Quote :

Duo Aqua Oils can be mixed with acrylics, watercolors, gouache,
and oils, to create a variety of effects and make possible a variety of
techniques. They can even be mixed with metallic and pearlescent
watercolors to create colors that do not normally exist in oil color
palettes. Duo Aqua Oil Colors are no longer watersoluble when mixed with
more than 30% traditional oil color.

Judy