Oil Paint vs Acrylic vs Watercolor vs Oil Pastels: My Honest Comparison and the Best Brands

As an artist, choosing the right medium is one of the most exciting and sometimes most confusing parts of creating. Each medium has its own personality, challenges, and rewards. After years of experimenting and painting, here’s how I break down four popular choices: oil paint, acrylic paint, watercolor, and oil pastels and the brands I trust most.

 

OIL PAINT

Brands I Love: Griffin Aklkyd Fast Drying Oils by Winsor & Newton & anything Gamblin

 

The Good @ Oils

Oil paint is rich, buttery, and luxurious. The colors are deep and luminous with an unmatched ability to blend seamlessly. Because oil dries slowly, you have time to manipulate edges, build transitions, and work wet-into-wet. I particularly love how forgiving it feels when building layers and glazing.

 

The Challenges @ Oils

• Slow drying time - which is a blessing and a curse. It’s great for blending but means waiting days (or weeks depending on your climate) to fully dry.  This is why I have used the ‘fast drying oils’ in my work.  It gives the depth of oil while faster dry times of 2 days.  Standard oil dry times, for each layer, is 5-15 days depending on many factors like: thickness of paint applied, climate, where it’s being dried, and type/brand of paint being used. 
• Solvents - turpentine or mineral spirits are often required to work with oil paints, which can be tricky if you need a low-odor setup.  I prefer mineral spirits as there is no odor but turpentine is stronger and sometimes needed. 
• Setup & cleanup - a bit more involved than other mediums.  You can’t really ‘save’ oils after you have dispensed them from the tube.  Standard oils can be covered with plastic wrap on a palette and will last a few days.  Trying to ‘reconstitute’ them with solvents doesn’t really work.  Gives a weird consistency and not optimum.  Also, with clean up you have to use a solvent, either turpentine or mineral spirits, to properly clean your brushes, palette, palette knife, etc. 

 

Why I Choose These Brands

Winsor & Newton offers a classic quality with beautifully consistent pigments. Also, it saves me time with their fast drying line of oils.  Gamblin has become a favorite for its buttery feel, modern formulations/pigments, and thoughtful approach to materials and safety.

ACRYLIC PAINT

Brands I Use: Golden Acrylics & Liquitex Acrylics

 

The Good @ Acrylics

Acrylics are SUPER versatile:

• Fast drying - great for layering without waiting. 
• Easy cleanup with just soap and water.
• Works well on canvas, paper, wood, fabric… literally almost anything.

Acrylics can mimic watercolors when diluted or act like thick oils depending on how you use them.

 

The Challenges @ Acrylics

• They dry fast - sometimes TOO fast. You have less time to blend/work on the canvas unless you use retarders or slow-dry mediums.
• Color shifts slightly darker as it dries.
• Some cheaper brands can feel “plasticky” and less high end.
• Also can change color over time if not varnished properly. 

 

Why I Use These

Golden has unbeatable pigment load and consistency. Liquitex is also fantastic, especially if you’re experimenting or layering with mediums.

WATERCOLOR PAINT

Top Brands I Recommend: Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, Winsor & Newton Professional

 

The Good @ Watercolors

Although watercolors have never been my friend, watercolor is pure magic when in the right hands - transparent, luminous, and spontaneous. There’s nothing quite like the glow you get when light travels through paint and reflects off white paper. I love the fluidity, transparency, unpredictability, and freshness this medium offers.  Clean up is easy with water and soap. 

 

The Challenges @ Watercolors

• Control is tricky - once pigment hits water, it does what it wants.
• Mistakes are hard to hide - little room for correction.  I would say almost no room for mistakes as you can’t take it off easily unless you catch it right away.  You can turn those mistakes into something else on your piece but many times have to start over. 
• You must understand water, paper, and brush to really make it sing.  This takes a lot of time to understand all the elements so when you paint something you know how everything works together to get the results you want. 

 

Why These Brands?

When experimenting with watercolors on occasion, Daniel Smith is my go-to for unique granulating pigments and stellar quality. Schmincke Horadam feels creamy and rich. Winsor & Newton Professional offers reliability and range—especially helpful in landscape work.

OIL PASTELS

Best Brands I Recommend: Sennelier, Holbein, Caran d’Ache

 

The Good @ Oil Pastels

Oil pastels are bold, buttery, and immediate. You don’t need brushes or solvents, and there’s an addictive tactile quality to working directly with pigment. Almost like coloring with crayons when you were young.  They layer beautifully and can be blended with fingers, tools, or even solvents.

 

The Challenges @ Oil Pastels

• Can be messy—hands get colorful!  In my book this is ok but you can wear gloves to keep your hands from getting stained. 
• Hard to achieve very fine detail.  Just like with coloring crayons you can’t get high detail unless your piece is particularly large.  But you can use oil pastels as the base and then go over it with other mediums to get high detail. 
• Some brands can feel waxy or stiff.  It depends on the brand, but some lower level brands the oil pastels have rough edges when using them and can look unfinished but for some artists they want that effect. 

 

Why these brands?

Sennelier are the creamest, richest pastels hands down. Holbein offers great control and vibrant hues. Caran d’Ache is pricey but so smooth and refined — perfect for serious pastel lovers.

Final Thoughts

Each medium has a voice—and discovering yours is part of the artistic journey!

 

Medium	Best For	Biggest Drawback
Oil Paint	Rich blends & slow layering	Slow dry time
Acrylic	Versatility & quick results	Fast drying can limit blending
Watercolor	Transparency & luminosity	Hard to correct mistakes
Oil Pastels	Bold, expressive marks	Less fine line control

 

No matter what surface you choose to paint on, the joy comes from experimenting, playing, and letting the materials teach you what they can do and what you prefer. Try all four—even if just once—and you may find your voice changes depending on your mood or subject.

 

Paint bravely!