# Why is this happening?



## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

I painted the whole canvas with acrylic...just acrylic and some water and a little gloss fluid medium for acrylic paint. Then I let it dry. After a few days I painted a bird on it with Oil paints After looking at it for a bit I realized the blue back ground and the blue jay bird didn't have any contrast -- DUH - So I decided to put some yellow acrylic in the background around the bird just to make for some contrast.

Well as I was putting the acrylic yellow paint over the blue acrylic paint the bottom paint started flaking off. That has never happened to me before. My first thought was that I got some oil in the area some how but I honestly don't believe that happened at all. There would be no reason to have any oil anything in that area at all.

So now I'm thinking I had the blue undercoat too thinned out. I swear I've done this sort of thing at least 20 times before and it never flaked. I don't understand it. Hope someone here has some ideas.


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## Liz (Jan 10, 2015)

I've never had acrylic paint flake, could it be the fluid medium you are using? I don't use anything with my acrylics except water.


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

*Don't know what happened.*

I've used that medium for months without any problems. I've never had acrylic flake either. It's so weird. 

My son thinks maybe I had some mineral spirits or oil on my hands or something because the only place it is flaking is where I might have placed my hands while working on the bird. I think that if you paint acrylic over any oil it will peel or flake...I'm betting that something like that happened.

My understanding is that it's safe to paint oil over acrylic but you can not paint acrylic over oil. I've done enough wall and woodwork painting to know that is true.


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## Michael Graves (Nov 30, 2011)

What type of canvas are you using? Is it a canvas board. ..ir stretched? My remedy for flaking is always the same....wait til its completely dry and just add more paint. Thick layers of paint dont crack regardless of whats on the canvas.


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

*Thanks Michael*

I'm going to redo the whole background in oils. The canvas is a stretch canvas. Same brand I always use (Fine Touch). I've done this bit of acrylic on acrylic a zillion times and never had it flake or crack. I think I must have had some kind of oil on the canvas in the area where it is flaking. It's only in those two areas. On the other area's of the canvas I can't even scrape it off. I tried scrapping the whole canvas with the idea that if I put oil paint on it I don't want to be putting it on flaking paint.

Thanks for your reply.


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## Liz (Jan 10, 2015)

What is the gloss fluid medium used for?


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

*Gloss Medium*

The acrylic medium I used was "Basics Gloss Fluid Medium". I've been using all the time since I started painting and never had a problem. I'm sure that wasn't it. Whatever it is I'm not worried about it any more. I repainted the whole background with oil.


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

*Oh Miss read your post Liz*

Your question was what I was using the fluid medium for. I used it to thin down the acrylic paint. I wanted kind of a wash background.


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