MITRA Forum Question Details

​As with all things our general answer to this is: it depends. There is an excellent article on this subject that you can find on Golden's website here​. If you are using high quality acrylics and following the fat over lean rule then your painting is far less likely to experience any issues down the road. Here is an excerpt from our "Mediums and Additives for Painting" that can be found in the Resources section: Oils can be applied over acrylic grounds; however, artists should exercise caution when using low quality acrylic ground formulations and/or preprimed supports as the presence of additives (e.g. surfactants, emulsifiers, antifoaming agents, etc.) can lead to problems including cracking, delamination, and other issues. Some have worried about the advisability of applying oil paint, which will eventually become brittle over time on a ground known to remain flexible; however, four layers of a high quality acrylic dispersion ground is very close in stiffness to a lead white oil paint layer and even stiffer than oil paints comprised of Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, or Raw Umber. These recent studies indicate that proper application combined with a high quality acrylic ground creates a relatively sound paint system. Note that this may not apply to lower quality, commercially preprimed canvases.​