I've been an acrylic painter mostly, so free hand work for heraldry has been no problem for me. However I've recently been inspired by Hardy Tempest and have switched to oils for clothing because I love the textures I can achieve. I've had good results but I am wanting to paint a medieval knight soon and will have to do some heraldry work. Based on my experience with oils so far it seems that they aren't great for freehand work. Acrylic paint flows better and I would prefer to use it for free hand sketches on my minis.

Can you paint acrylics over oils? If not, is there a trick to getting oil paints to the right consistency for freehand work?

Freehand design work can be done with oils, but I agree with you that acrylics are better suited for this. I've used acrylics over oils and its not a problem. Just make sure the oils are absolutely 100% dry. In fact, you may want to spray the oils with dullcote and then use your acrylics. If I recall correctly that's what I've done in most if not all cases.

Jason

Wouldn't the dullcote mess with the textures I've created in oil? That is what I've read at least. After seeing Hardy Tempest's work I've been using oils for fabrics. The clothing on my minis look more plush now. I don't want to mess that up with an overcoat. Although back when I was an acrylic only painter I would always use dullcote. I love the matte finish it gives me.

As long as your oils are completely dry, dullcoate wont mess with texturing in my experience. I always overcoat with dullcoat spray

Hmmm. I'll have to try it with the fig I'm working on now. I love dullcote but some of the posts I've read on here make it seem like the devil!!