How to Paint With Acrylics
Get your painting surface., For wood, consider layering the surface., Sand the surface., Make sure your paint stays in good condition., Manipulate the opacity of the paint with water., Paint with large brushes first, then work your way to the...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Get your painting surface.
You can either paint on a piece of plywood (or sections of wood with cross supports) or paint on canvas board or stretch canvas.
Choose any medium onto which acrylic paint will easily adhere -
Step 2: For wood
Find textured or origami paper for the surface.
For a plain background, paint the surface white.
For paper, cover the wood in Mod Podge and lay the paper on top of it.
Use a book or other object to ensure that there are no bubbles.
Allow it to dry, then add ten or so layers of Mod Podge. , Wet the surface, then sand with 120-grit sandpaper.
You want to paint on as smooth a surface as possible. , Acrylic paint dries quite easily, rendering it harder to work with.
Make sure you keep your paint workable by doing the following:
Spray your palette with water every now and then while you paint.
Having a small spray bottle filled with water at hand helps greatly.
Only squeeze a small amount of acrylic paint at a time.
There's no need to get zealous; work only with the amount of paints you need.
You can purchase a stay-wet palette that helps keep moisture in your paint.
These palettes usually come with both blotting paper (for underneath) and greaseproof paper (for on top).
The blotting paper is briefly soaked in water and the greaseproof paper is laid out on top of it. , Applied straight from the tube, or mixed with a solid white, all acrylic paints can look opaque.
Manipulate the opacity by adding more water.
The more water added to the paint, the more transparent the color becomes.
Use transparent paints for watercolor or airbrush effects. , Begin with larger outlines and then work your way to more detail.
You might find it helpful to work with opaques while doing outlining, and then work with more transparent colors for detailing. , After rinsing out the color of your brushes in water, lightly dab or blot your clean brushes on a clean cloth.
This will keep water from running up and down the heel of the brush, creating blotchy paint on the canvas. , There are relatively few rules when it comes to acrylic painting, but one of them is that when mixing acrylic out of the tube, to use no more than 20% water by volume (compared to the paint).
Any more than 20% water or mineral spirits and the binding agent that makes the paint stick to the surface might fail, causing the paint to peel off at some later date.
Mix in other mediums, such as glaze or texture paste, when thinning the acrylic.
Glazes give the acrylic a variety of effects, including marbling, trompe l'oeil, and glazing.
Texture pastes add texture to the color, only dampening the color a bit after drying; they can be made more glossy by applying a varnish on top. , This can help reveal any imbalances in your piece, and also point out any mistakes you may have made. , Blending acrylic colors is both fun and fascinating; at times, it can be difficult.
With a little bit of patience, and a lot of experimentation, you'll start blending with verisimilitude quickly.
Use an extender when blending.
An extender is an acrylic medium that slows drying time while increasing "open time" of paints, allowing them to blend easier.
Extender can be used both on the canvas and on brushes.
Use the side of your brush to distribute the paint.
Use the tip of toe or your brush tends to scrape paint off instead of evenly distributing paint.
Blend two colors together by drying your paint brush and tugging on the under blended line until the two colors start blending.
Sometimes, you'll want to soften the two colors so that the blending is even and uniform; other times, you'll want the blending to be harder, so that the effect is less noticeable. , Masking tape can be used like painters use painter's tape when outlining the edge of a ceiling, for example.
Masking tape can be applied to already dried paint without damaging it; simply press down the tape so that no paint escapes under its surface, bleeding underneath.
Then, after you've painted your hard edge, remove the masking tape to reveal your perfectly straight line. , So you have the base of a lovely green, but you want to make it lighter; or you have the base of a wispy fuscia, but you want to make it darker.
Painters working with acrylic paints can lighten or darken their colors by either adding white or adding black.
Lightening colors is called "tinting"; darkening colors is called "shading." Tinting is limited by the color you're using.
Light colors can only be tinted so much; darker colors can be tinted more because there's more to work with in the beginning.
A little bit of white can go a long way, so start off conservatively at first.
Shading can darken colors.
Add only a bit of dark to begin with, even more conservatively than when adding white.
Mix thoroughly or you'll find small streaks of black in your final color. , -
Step 3: consider layering the surface.
-
Step 4: Sand the surface.
-
Step 5: Make sure your paint stays in good condition.
-
Step 6: Manipulate the opacity of the paint with water.
-
Step 7: Paint with large brushes first
-
Step 8: then work your way to the smaller
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Step 9: detail brushes.
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Step 10: Get in the habit of blotting your paintbrushes.
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Step 11: Learn how to thin out acrylics.
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Step 12: As you paint
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Step 13: occasionally look at the image in the mirror.
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Step 14: Start learning how to blend acrylic colors together.
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Step 15: Make hard edges with masking tape.
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Step 16: Learn how to tint and shade.
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Step 17: Finished.
Detailed Guide
You can either paint on a piece of plywood (or sections of wood with cross supports) or paint on canvas board or stretch canvas.
Choose any medium onto which acrylic paint will easily adhere
Find textured or origami paper for the surface.
For a plain background, paint the surface white.
For paper, cover the wood in Mod Podge and lay the paper on top of it.
Use a book or other object to ensure that there are no bubbles.
Allow it to dry, then add ten or so layers of Mod Podge. , Wet the surface, then sand with 120-grit sandpaper.
You want to paint on as smooth a surface as possible. , Acrylic paint dries quite easily, rendering it harder to work with.
Make sure you keep your paint workable by doing the following:
Spray your palette with water every now and then while you paint.
Having a small spray bottle filled with water at hand helps greatly.
Only squeeze a small amount of acrylic paint at a time.
There's no need to get zealous; work only with the amount of paints you need.
You can purchase a stay-wet palette that helps keep moisture in your paint.
These palettes usually come with both blotting paper (for underneath) and greaseproof paper (for on top).
The blotting paper is briefly soaked in water and the greaseproof paper is laid out on top of it. , Applied straight from the tube, or mixed with a solid white, all acrylic paints can look opaque.
Manipulate the opacity by adding more water.
The more water added to the paint, the more transparent the color becomes.
Use transparent paints for watercolor or airbrush effects. , Begin with larger outlines and then work your way to more detail.
You might find it helpful to work with opaques while doing outlining, and then work with more transparent colors for detailing. , After rinsing out the color of your brushes in water, lightly dab or blot your clean brushes on a clean cloth.
This will keep water from running up and down the heel of the brush, creating blotchy paint on the canvas. , There are relatively few rules when it comes to acrylic painting, but one of them is that when mixing acrylic out of the tube, to use no more than 20% water by volume (compared to the paint).
Any more than 20% water or mineral spirits and the binding agent that makes the paint stick to the surface might fail, causing the paint to peel off at some later date.
Mix in other mediums, such as glaze or texture paste, when thinning the acrylic.
Glazes give the acrylic a variety of effects, including marbling, trompe l'oeil, and glazing.
Texture pastes add texture to the color, only dampening the color a bit after drying; they can be made more glossy by applying a varnish on top. , This can help reveal any imbalances in your piece, and also point out any mistakes you may have made. , Blending acrylic colors is both fun and fascinating; at times, it can be difficult.
With a little bit of patience, and a lot of experimentation, you'll start blending with verisimilitude quickly.
Use an extender when blending.
An extender is an acrylic medium that slows drying time while increasing "open time" of paints, allowing them to blend easier.
Extender can be used both on the canvas and on brushes.
Use the side of your brush to distribute the paint.
Use the tip of toe or your brush tends to scrape paint off instead of evenly distributing paint.
Blend two colors together by drying your paint brush and tugging on the under blended line until the two colors start blending.
Sometimes, you'll want to soften the two colors so that the blending is even and uniform; other times, you'll want the blending to be harder, so that the effect is less noticeable. , Masking tape can be used like painters use painter's tape when outlining the edge of a ceiling, for example.
Masking tape can be applied to already dried paint without damaging it; simply press down the tape so that no paint escapes under its surface, bleeding underneath.
Then, after you've painted your hard edge, remove the masking tape to reveal your perfectly straight line. , So you have the base of a lovely green, but you want to make it lighter; or you have the base of a wispy fuscia, but you want to make it darker.
Painters working with acrylic paints can lighten or darken their colors by either adding white or adding black.
Lightening colors is called "tinting"; darkening colors is called "shading." Tinting is limited by the color you're using.
Light colors can only be tinted so much; darker colors can be tinted more because there's more to work with in the beginning.
A little bit of white can go a long way, so start off conservatively at first.
Shading can darken colors.
Add only a bit of dark to begin with, even more conservatively than when adding white.
Mix thoroughly or you'll find small streaks of black in your final color. ,
About the Author
Gregory Wood
Dedicated to helping readers learn new skills in pet care and beyond.
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