First of all, any primed canvas (coated with 2 coats of white gesso) will be fine for any oil painting. You can give it extra coats, sanding smooth when dry (careful not to sand the fabric) until you have a smooth-as-glass finish. Professional portrait painters use linen instead of canvas as the texture is less pronounced (smaller threads are woven more tightly). You can also paint on sealed board (such as mdf or masonite) and use the sanded gesso technique above.

To begin an oil, I use pure turpentine (or odorless solvent) mixed with a dab of mid-value colour (like burnt sienna) to "block in" my composition & give me an idea of the values. This will dry fairly quickly, then the background is worked, followed by the middle, then foreground. Keep in mind that oil paint will dry MUCH slower than acrylics - some layers could take weeks before they dry enough to add another layer. Even after adding Alkyd medium to speed up drying, you will have about 8 to 20 hours for blending before the layer is dry.

If this sounds like too long to wait, try your acrylics again using a Glazing Medium mixed with your paint. Don't use water for thinning - it makes the paint dry even faster! Glazing medium has a retarder added to slow the drying of acrylics, and aids greatly in blending.

Unnatural colours in acrylics are often caused by the use of craft or student-grade paint (they are usually opaque and contain too many pigments to make natural-looking mixtures), the use of too many opaque colours (instead of transparent), or mixing with black pigment (deadens the colours) causing the painting to lose its glow.

Which ever you choose, use the best paint and painting surface you can afford. It will make your experience easier & improve your results. And have fun while you're at it!

Hi,

Great answer from Joyfulpaints.
If you ever buy unprepared canvas i.e. without primer (gesso) mind the following : if using an acrylic primer, you can apply directly, but if you use an oil primer, you'll have to size the canvas using rabbit skin glue or a good acid free PVA glue.

Kind regards,

José

Forget painting on canvas, for starters.
Ask your local art store for artboard, gessoboard, or clayboard. They will all work well for oil painting. And, they have little or no surface texture.

If you are concerned with the amout of time it takes to paint (prismacolors took too long?) get ready to wait. Oil paint takes forever to dry.

My advice: Keep the acrylic you have, and use a "retarder" that will keep the paint from drying so fast. Also, it helps to use a "atomizer" (or plant sprayer) to keep the surface of the painting moist.