Incorporate muted tones to create a contrast, and keep the bright color tones for focal points to stand out.
8 Ultimate Best Acrylic Paint Tips for Beginners
As many of you may already know, I have painted using acrylics for over 7 years. It’s one of my top recommended paint mediums for beginners because it’s so easy, much cheaper compared to oil paint, dries a lot faster, and is super practical for long practice hours as it is scent-free and most brands contain no dangerous chemicals. In this article, I will share with you my 9 ultimate best acrylic paint tips for beginners that will change your painting sessions and elevate your paintings.
Let’s start with the art supplies you need.
Your acrylic paint surface
Always work on a canvas. I personally do not like painting using acrylics on paper and when I do, I make sure the paper is thick and absorbant.
When working on a white canvas, I would always start by staining my canvas using either a muted tan shade or a grey one. For paper, you can buy tan paper. Colors go much more accurately on neutral surfaces vs. white surfaces, and that would be my first acrylic paint (and any other paint) tip for you.
Your acrylic paint
Your next concern is the acrylic paint you’re gonna buy. I do not recommend you opt for the cheapest translucent acrylic paint as it is so annoying to build and comes off as very dull and patchy. However, if that’s what you have on hand, I have this paint hack that is really useful where you add some corn starch to your paint and mix it until you achieve your desired consistency. It works like magic and makes your paint thicker and more opaque.
Some of the reasonably priced brands that you can get are this GenCrafts acrylic set on Amazon and this MagicFly acrylic set. Please keep in mind that these recommendations are for beginners if you are more advanced and looking for high-quality recommendations. Check out these individuals by Daler Rowney.
Your paintbrushes
I have a full guide on paintbrushes and how to choose the perfect long-lasting one and take care of them. But if you are looking for a quick recommendation, this set will do the job just fine.
Let’s move on to the acrylic paint tips for beginners
Beginners usually forget that acrylic paint is so fast drying, if you mix a color today, you won’t be able to use it tomorrow. It will dry in a maximum of 4 hours (if the layer is thick). For that reason, I always recommend my readers mix an as little amount of paint as needed for the session and keep track of the colors and amount needed of each hue to obtain the color mix. I keep swatches of the shades I mixed on my sketchbook alongside the colors I used and an approximate percentage of the amount used.
2- Mix lighter shades of your paint because acrylic paint dries darker
Another reason to avoid buying cheap acrylic paint is the fact that the cheaper it is, the more filler and less pigment it has. So try your paint on a surface and let it dry completely, then compare the outcome to the initial color. You will be making colors way more accurately.
Acrylics are super easy to blend, but because of their dry nature, once blended, they could come off as patchy and streaky. To avoid that, I recommend you mix your transitional shades, and put them on your canvas, then come with a dump, soft yet stiff brush to blend the edges of your elements and achieve a soft coherent look.
Buying Paint and Brushes
Many companies make acrylic paints in a fluid or liquid version as well as with a paste- or butter-like consistency. Artists will have a preferred brand based on aspects such as the colors available and the consistency of the paint. Check the of lightfastness of the pigment by looking for the American Society for Testing and Materials rating on the tube.
You don’t need to buy a box of 64 different colors, though, as unlike the crayons you had as a kid, paints can be mixed for infinite varieties of results. You can start off with 10–12 basic colors and mix shades from there. You could start with even fewer, really, as long as you have some primary colors, white, black, and brown.
You’ll need stiff-bristled brushes for thick acrylic paint and soft-bristled brushes for watercolor effects. You’ll be faced with an array of sizes and shapes (round, flat, pointed), and you also get different lengths of handle. If you’re on a tight budget, start with a small and a medium-sized filbert (a flat, pointed brush). Filberts are a good choice because if you use just the tip, you get a narrow brush mark, and if you push down, you get a broad one. A good medium-sized flat brush will also come in handy. Depending on which edge you paint with, it can give you either a broader or thinner stroke. It will give you a more distinct brushstroke than a filbert brush.
Modern synthetic brushes can be of excellent quality, so don’t restrict your selection to only those brushes made from natural hairs such as sable. Look for brushes where the hairs quickly spring back up when you bend them. With brushes, you tend to get what you pay for, so the cheaper it is, the more likely the hairs are to fall out. Variety packs will often contain a detail brush, a filbert, a medium-sized flat, and a 1-inch flat for prepping large areas.
Other supplies that can be useful include round brushes for drybrush stippling/pouncing (such as in painting fur and texture) and a stylus for placing perfect tiny round dots or transferring drawn designs to a surface with transfer or graphite paper, but you don’t necessarily need these materials at the start.
Supports: Painting Supplies
Suitable supports for acrylics include canvas, canvas boards, wood panels, and paper. Basically, anything to which acrylic paint will stick—test if you’re not sure. If you’re buying a premade canvas or board, check that it’s been primed with something suitable for acrylics (most are).
Wooden, glass, or plastic palettes can be used for acrylics, but it can be tiresome getting all the dried paint off. Disposable palettes—pads of paper where you tear off the top sheet and throw it away—solve this problem. If you find the paint dries out too fast, try a palette designed to keep the paint wet. The paint sits on a sheet of wax paper placed on top of a damp piece of watercolor paper.
Keep Acrylics Wet
One of the pitfalls for beginning painters can be that while they are working slowly and carefully on their painting, the acrylic paint on their palette is drying. When they go to reload their brush with paint, they discover that it has become unworkable, requiring that they mix the color again, which can be challenging. To avoid this, paint the largest shapes of your composition first, and work quickly, with the largest brush you can, for as long as possible. Save the details and smaller brushes for the end. Work from the general to the specific. This will also help keep your painting from becoming too tight.
Have a plant mister on hand to spray the colors on your palette to keep them from drying out as you work. You can also spray water directly onto your canvas or paper to keep the paint workable and for different painting effects, such as drips and smears.
You can also extend their drying time by mixing the colors with the medium aptly called extender, such as Liquitex Slo-Dri Blending Medium.
