8 Wonderful Acrylic Painting Tips for Beginners
Purchasing Paint
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When it comes to acrylic painting, it is preferable to invest in high-quality materials. You may be limited by a budget, but investing in decent paints and brushes will save you money in the long run. If you want to sell your work, this is very important. Poor-quality acrylic paint is sometimes translucent, necessitating many layers to achieve an opaque coating of colour. A cheap acrylic yellow, for example, is notoriously translucent. If you're painting yellow on a canvas, you'll need to apply several layers of the colour before it stops exposing the colour or ground behind it. If you're working with a limited budget, the good news is that you don't need a lot of colours right away!
Supports – What To Paint On
When it comes to acrylic painting, you have a variety of surfaces to choose from. Canvas, canvas board, paper, and MDF board are all options.
Cotton is the most common material used by artists while creating acrylic paintings because of its weave, cost and durability therefore it is a popular choice.
Canvas Board – These were initially made for painters to use outdoors. However, some use it consistently in and out of the studio as they are less likely to get damaged than stretched canvas. They are also typically easier to frame than a regular stretched canvas. However, often the surface of canvas boards can be very poor and cheaply made.
Paper – Paper is a great surface to use for acrylic painting! Just like cotton canvas you can apply acrylic paint directly to a paper surface. It can be a good affordable painting surface. Just be sure to use a canvas paper pad or a suitable heavyweight watercolour paper.
MDF – MDF board (medium density fibre board) is also a good option for an acrylic painting surface. Remember to prime your surfaces.
Keeping your Paint Wet
Aren't we all aware of how quickly acrylic paints dry? We are fortunate to be alive in 2021 because artists have devised mediums that make the creating process more efficient for us. Drying Retarder is a material that you can use to delay the drying period of your acrylic paints (similar to oils). This enables the artist to work on their piece for a long time. If you enjoy painting alla prima (wet-on-wet) in Acrylics, this medium is for you.
Blending with Acrylics
Oil paints are famed for their exquisite blending, but acrylic paints may also be blended! Because acrylic paints dry so quickly, you'll merely have to work a little faster than usual to combine colours. With the use of a mop brush (which looks like a cosmetics brush) and a medium added to the paint to loosen the paint and increase the drying period. The paint will then remain moist.
Mixing Colours is Important
Okaaayyyyyyyyyyy, It's easy to master the basics of colour mixing and foundations. As a developing artist, though, combining and broadening your palette can be a lifelong effort. You can get a specific result by following certain procedures and methods. Mixing colours is analogous to following a recipe for baking a cake in that it takes time and mistakes to master. Using a palette knife to blend colours on a palette might be useful. In comparison to mixing with paint brushes, which can become loaded with paint and make cleaning a little more difficult, palette knives are incredibly beneficial because they're easy to wipe clean and ready for your next use. Avoid mixing on your surface unless you're attempting to produce a specific effect because it dries quickly.
Acrylic Paint tends to darken as it dries
Acrylic paints have a propensity to darken as they dry, so keep that in mind. Keep this in mind when painting with acrylics. Allow for a small darkening when blending your colours. This darkening effect is more likely to occur with lighter colours than with darker colours. As you gain more expertise with how your painting darkens, you'll be able to make better decisions about how to mix colours.
Wash your brushes
Raise your hand if you've left your paint brushes after painting, damaged the brushes by leaving dried paint on them or even worse not even been bothered to save your noble sidekick (your paint brush) and thrown them out in the trash because you were too lazy to bring them back from the dead... Yes, I myself am guilty of all of the above however if you plan ahead there are simple methods that can assist with your cleaning process. Keeping a glass jar with water in it in between mixing colours is a timesaver. When the brushes are clean ensure to dry them with a paper towel and store them so the hairs/bristles are protected.
Adventure out when choosing your brush size
Experiment, experiment, experiment! Get out of your comfort zone and go big or home. There are multiple advantages to using larger sized brushes when acrylic painting. They increase brushwork allowing you to cover more of the canvas in a shorter period of time in an expressive style. In comparison to detailed work, larger brushes push the artist to get caught up on the finer details and to process and apply more broadly. Utilising larger brushes assists to simplify objects; much as the old masters have used these techniques over time. In addition, larger sized brushes make you think of each stroke more than when painting with smaller sized brushes.
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