acrylic paint canvas ideas for beginners

#ACRYLIC PAINT CANVAS IDEAS FOR BEGINNERS HOW TO#

Because acrylic doesn’t rehydrate with water, it’s almost impossible to get out of carpets and clothes. It’s child-friendly, too, although younger kids will need to be supervised, and dressed up in overalls. Also, the fact it’s water-mixable means you can avoid the toxic, odorous substances required for oils. What are the advantages of acrylic paint?Īcrylic’s greatest strength is its rapid drying time, which means that acrylic painting is perfect for beginners. This is great fun, and you can get eye-catching results fast - but you’ll need to invest in some pouring medium in order to make the paint behave the right way. This is where highly viscous acrylics are poured over a surface and left to dry in sumptuous, marbled patterns. Acrylic tends to shine when it’s applied in discrete, broken strokes of colour (which is why we’d happily bet that the impressionists would have used acrylics, had they been available back in the nineteenth century).Īcrylic pouring is proving an increasingly popular home activity – and one that’s great to do with kids. With acrylics, you can bypass one of the problems that oil painters run into, which is overworking a surface covered in still-wet paint, until the colours become churned and muddy. But if you want to paint images with smooth gradients of colours – a sunset, for example – you might find the fast-drying properties of acrylic prevent you from achieving the flawless transitions that you’re after. Indeed, if you want to work in thick, textured layers, acrylic is a particularly good choice, since that speedy drying time lets you build layer upon layer quickly. (Like oils, acrylic works best 'fat-over-lean', which means each succeeding layer you apply should get thicker.) As well as with brushes, you can applied it in fun, satisfying thick dollops with a palette knife.

#ACRYLIC PAINT CANVAS IDEAS FOR BEGINNERS HOW TO#

How to use acrylic paintĪcrylic paint is a remarkably versatile medium, and can be applied with any degree of thickness: you can dilute it to a wash with water, or use it straight out of the tube. Where a layer of oil paint might take anywhere between several hours and several months to dry, acrylic paint, depending on the thickness, will dry in 5 to 20 minutes.

Just as crucial is acrylic's drying time. That’s as scientific as we’ll get: the important difference is that acrylic paints can be mixed with water, versus the turpentine and other oil-based liquids that oil paints require. With oil paint, those molecules of pigment are suspended in oil-based solution with acrylics, they're suspended in an acrylic polymer. What is acrylic paint?Īcrylic paint is like every other paint: pigment mixed into a binder. We've also put together a collection of easy watercolour painting ideas and art journal ideas to inspire you. Take a look at our watercolour painting for beginners guide, oil painting for beginners guide or our beginner's guide to gouache to boost your artistic skills.

Acrylic paint canvas ideas for beginners