Acrylic Painting Tips

To be entirely honest, I have always hated acrylic painting. I find it very frustrating and I hate having to wait for the paint to dry before adding another layer, I'm not a patient person. I have made about maybe two successful acrylic paintings, all my other attempts, not so much. I tried though. It's just not my thing I guess. However, through each trial I have learned some tricks along the way. Some of them helped me and well, others just didn't work out.

Tip #1- Always keep a clean, stiff, and dry brush with your paints as you're painting. This brush will come in handy for strong and vibrant brush strokes. However, these strong strokes may not always work with your painting style. For example, if you're going for something hyper realistic, textured brush strokes may not be the way to go. They typically look best with more abstract art. Although, you can also use the dry brush for blending paints on the canvas. Just make sure your brush is clean beforehand.

Tip #2- Do a thin wash of color before focusing on the details. For a thin wash you simply add water to the acrylic paints in a palette. The watered down acrylics will act like watercolor and give you an idea of how the painting will look. It also acts as a nice base for the painting as a whole.

Tip #3- Always have a clean cup of water as you paint. You should be consistently washing your brush out in between different colors. This will keep the colors from mixing and making a muddy mess. It'll give the painting a cleaner finish.

Tip #4- Have a wide range of different sized brushes. Different sized brushes will give you more options as you paint. It'll allow for cleaner lines and details all the way to chunky and textured brush strokes. The smaller acrylic brushes are best for tiny and precise details that would go in the painting at the end. The bigger brushes are used to cover more ground. You use these for base coats, larger areas, and backgrounds because backgrounds aren't typically detailed.

Tip #5- Add layers! Acrylic painting is all about how you layer your colors. Each layer *should* enhance the other. The base layers should be the thin wash. You should build up from the base, going from less detail to more detail. Along with this, the layers should get slightly thicker each time, the more paint the better. Just make sure you don't use too much paint though, you don't want puddled paint on your canvas, just make sure it's enough to cover the canvas. When your painting is done you should be able to hold the canvas up to a light and not see any holes in the canvas.

I hope these tips were helpful in anyway and I hope you have more success with acrylic painting than I did!