4. You can paint oil-based paints over acrylics but you cannot paint acrylics over oil-based paints.
Acrylic Painting Easy Ideas For Beginners Step by Step [2023]
Acrylic painting easy ideas for beginners step by step 2023 tutorials on canvas and easy acrylic landscape painting. Nowadays acrylic painting becomes most popular all over the world. This medium of painting has quick drying time and its versatility of use in specific cases.
This blog post helps you to understand the wonderful world of realistic acrylic portrait painting techniques, tips, advantages, disadvantages, and how to use and how to buy Acrylic paints, quality, permanence, brands, and viscosity.
Table Of Content
History of Acrylic Painting Easy Ideas For Beginners
The history of acrylic painting is around 1934, The first acrylic dispersion was developed by a German chemical company and later it was commercially available in the year 1950 under the brand Magna paints.
Acrylic paint is not only used for art canvas but also for some special acrylic paint that has been developed for a variety of uses which turns an ordinary piece of glass or product into an elegant and expansive.
Learning acrylic painting is not as easy as it sounds, mini experience artist and instructors have created their methods, techniques, and tools in their artwork.
To become a professional artist always have to be practicing and never hesitate to try freehand painting. there are so many designs and themes are available at various sizes from small to very large.
Acrylic Painting Easy Ideas For New Artist
Acrylic painting tips and techniques to improve your portrait painting skills, follow the below tips and ideas to get perfection to become a professional artist.
If you are new to acrylic painting. You get techniques and tips for acrylic painting easy ideas for beginners, one thing you must do is.. practice! practice! practice! and practice!
Be always patient with yourself. As a famous saying …” practice makes everyone perfect.” This is true in the art world also. Practice on clear acrylic sheets (available from your craft suppliers). You can play the sheet over the design of your painting and follow the pattern.
If you are reluctant to paint ‘freehand’, transfer your design to the object you are decorating. Another suggestion is to practice on glass plates, plastic items, metal, or other non-porous surfaces which you can easily rinse if you don’t like the results, then just dry them well and start over.
Acrylic Painting Tips & Techniques For Beginners
Acrylic paint, when compared with other mediums like oil paint, is a fairly new addition to the world of painting. It has only been around since the 1950’s . It has been continually under development and refinement since that time. Just because acrylic paint has not been around as long as oils, does not make these paints less important or enjoyable.
Some of the wonderful benefits of using acrylic paints are their versatility, permanence and ease of use. These paints can be applied thickly as an impasto or in thin washes similar to watercolor. Acrylic paint does not yellow or harden with age like oils.
Another reason artists love to work with acrylics is their fast drying time. Since acrylic paint dries so quickly, colors can be applied and layered quicker than oil paints. But with this fast drying time comes a few disadvantages:
1) The paint will not remain workable for very long, so you have to work fast.
2) Brushes can be ruined if you do not clean them right away.
3) If you plan to paint outdoors, then acrylic paint is probably not the best medium to use, especially on a hot sunny day. When you lay out your colors on a palette or other surface, they will begin to dry quickly forming skins on the surface, making them quite difficult to work with.
Acrylic Painting Techniques
Watercolor Effects
Many artists like to use acrylics in a fluid state, similar to watercolor. There is a notable difference though. With acrylics, washes can be layered on top of one another without fear of disturbing the colors underneath. You must wait for one layer to dry completely before applying another of course. Once each layer dries it becomes insoluble in water.
One disadvantage to using acrylics as a watercolor medium is the difficulty in modifying the color. Once acrylic paint begins to dry it becomes very difficult to modify and washes can sometime dry with unwanted hard edges. You can avoid this problem in one of two ways. You can either dampen the paper before the paint is applied or you can use an additional brush dampened with water. Use one brush to apply the paint and immediately soften the edge with the other brush that has been dampened with the water.
Videos covering this technique:
Pouring & Dripping Technique
This technique was made popular by the master painter Jackson Pollock in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. You use a very fluid acrylic paint for this technique. You can pour it directly on the canvas or dip a brush into the paint and let it drip down onto the canvas. You can create some very interesting effects with this technique. Check out Jackson Pollocks work to see this technique in action.
Sgraffito Technique
Sgraffito is a scratching technique. It got its name from the Italian word graffiare which literally means to scratch. Just as the name implies it involves scratching into the surface of the wet paint which reveals either the ground or layer of dry color underneath. There are a number of different tools that can be used for this technique. Tools like screwdrivers or the sharpened end of an old paintbrush handle can work.
Using a Squeegee
A regular squeegee that you can buy at any hardware or auto store has the ability to create some interesting effects. First squeeze out some paint blobs directly along one edge of your support. You can layout whatever colors you wish. Then with one fluid motion drag the paint across the surface with your squeegee smearing and mixing the paint as you go.
Acrylic Painting Tips
Variety
One of the things that makes a painting interesting is variety. Use a variety of different brushstrokes, techniques and values in your paintings. Change the direction of your brushstrokes or mix different techniques in the same painting.
Don’t Copy
Don’t copy other artists. Allow other artists to influence you and paint your own impression of what you see from your heart and soul. This is how your inner creativity shines on the canvas. It is what set painters like Vincent van Gogh and Salvador Dali apart from the rest. They each injected their own style and heart into their work.
Observe Your Surroundings
Spend time observing and studying your subjects and surroundings. Landscape artists spend a great deal of time outdoors studying nature. Figure and portrait artists spend a great deal of time studying the human anatomy. If you aren’t spending enough time observing the subjects that you wish to paint, then you won’t have the necessary knowledge to paint them.
Art Supplies
Are you using quality acrylic painting supplies? In the beginning when you are experimenting, it is ok to use cheaper supplies, but as you become more experienced, you may want to consider investing in better quality. When it comes to fine art supplies, you usually get what you pay for. If you buy cheap brushes, they will more than likely begin to fall apart. The ferrule of the brush can loosen and the hairs can fall out. If you use cheap paint, you will get cheap looking results. The colors will not have the same brilliance or the right consistency.
Don’t Be Afraid To Use Your Paint
Lets face it, good paint does not come cheap, so in an effort to conserve our paint, some artists will use as little paint as possible. This is a reasonable concern, but the truth however, is that your paintings will be more interesting if you lay down the brush stroke, leave it alone, and then reload your brush. Don’t try and scrub the paint into the canvas, otherwise you are just staining, and not painting.
Don’t Over Think
Don’t overly criticize or judge your own work while you are painting. This will discourage and frustrate you. Just relax and let go. Trust yourself and your abilities.
Comments
- Deej says August 22, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Hey!
I am a beginner in fine-arts.. I love to paint, and I always imitate other artist’s work, as I dont have enough courage to portray my own thoughts and ideas on canvas.. Usually I paint in Oil medium, as in oil paintings its easy to correct your faults- =$
Tell me what to do?? please i need help!
The pictures and ideas fight in my mind, but I am scared to draw them.. I think I am scared of ppl around me, dey might misunderstood me..
Also, I have not enough home to keep my accessories safe from my younger brother.. give me idea, should I hide my paint kits and brushes under my bed?? or to dig them in lawn :s .. I am very confused!
I really enjoyed the tips I just got some watercolor oils for a present so I really needed the tips as I tend to use acrylic and water color. I also enjoyed the instructional videos on you tube. I love using different techniques and it was great seeing some new ideas for acrylic
.-= Warroya´s last blog ..RE-MEMEBER NEVER FORGET =-.
Great tips! I love acrylics because they are so versatile and the clean-up is so easy!
.-= Miranda´s last blog ..Portrait Giveaway – Work in Progress 2 =-.
I have to say I’m still a big fan of watercolor painting and like the fact it’s more eco-friendly. In college I even experimented with creating paints out of natural juices such as beet juice and carrot juice! Try it out!
I actually think this particular blog post , “Acrylic Painting Tips & Techniques For
Beginners”, very compelling and it was in fact a remarkable read.
Thanks a lot-Damaris
