Why acrylics?

I have been doing several small sketches in acrylic in the past few months. Normally I am a devout traditionalist, sticking to oil paint (including lead and other hazardous materials), turpentine, gesso, rabbit skin glue, etc...However the realities of working during the winter months in a closed up house with a 6 year don't lend themselves to such chemical brain dulling shitstorms (already too late for me, but looking out for her). Thus I entered the world of acrylic "plastic" paint.

While discovering the multitude of ways that acrylics do not work like oils, I have discovered a great appreciation for their quick drying time. This allows for quickly reworking color/drawing/compositions without making the grey mud that can happen with oil. It means less fear of making mistakes and allows greater risk taking. Not that I really had this issue with oil paint in this regard, but acrylics allow for an exponentially quicker execution and editing. 

Conversely, this also allows for easier destruction of those magic moments where your body and eye discover something before your brain recognizes its value. This is always the battle with us painters; knowing when to stop. One of my mentors instilled the concept that "nothing is precious" in your work. If you have one little part of a painting that is good and you keep struggling with the rest of the painting, then you need to destroy that part. 

In oil, I was occasionally forced to at least pause for a day or two for the paint to set up before reworking whole paintings. This would allow my brain to catch up and realize that something was working much better than I realized in the initial moment. In acrylic, the paint sets up and even dries in minutes. This allows for massive changes in seconds. If your attitude is "nothing is precious" and you can constantly rework everything, it makes it very difficult to find an endpoint. 

I have never been particularly good at finishing anything and with painting I usually need an artificial end point to deem it "finished." I am much more fond of the process and will keep on indefinitely if allowed. In this regard, acrylics have been a boon and a bane for me. I can constantly create, destroy, create, destroy, etc...on the same small panel. With that in mind, here are a few studies that have have landed at this particular state.