Unlike oil paint, where the carrier and binder is linseed oil (or other drying oil), acrylic paint contains water as a carrier for the emulsion of an acrylic polymer dispersion that serves as a binder. Thus, oil paint is called "oil based" while acrylic paint is "water based". The main practical difference between most acrylic paints and oil paints is the drying time. Oil paint allows you to make edits to an already written work, if we talk about painting, over a long time: from several hours to several days, depending on the amount of oil in the paint.