Once your painting is ready, don’t hesitate to show it to other people and fellow artists.
8 Acrylic Painting Tips for Beginners
Acrylic is usually the medium that beginner painters start with. It’s easy to use, easy to clean up, and super versatile when it comes to painting all sorts of subjects – portrait or landscape.
If you’re stuck on where or how to begin your very first acrylic painting, we recommend trying out paint by numbers. There are plenty of paint by numbers for beginners that will help you learn the very basics before you’re thrown in at the deep end with a blank canvas. This is your learning journey.
In the meantime, we have eight acrylic painting tips that can make the whole beginner process easier.
1. Use synthetic brushes
Make sure you’re using the right kind of brushes. Because it’s a medium-bodied paint, acrylic adheres much better to thicker, more bristly synthetic brushes – any local arts and crafts will have some. You just have to look in the right places.
Even the most talented painters sometimes struggle painting from imagination – so make sure you have a reference in front of you. Don’t make it too hard for yourself.
Use a photo or paint something you can physically see in the room or out the window. That way you can keep referring back to the subject to get the lines and composition just right.
3. Paint fast
The fast-drying nature of acrylic paint means you need to paint relatively fast. Once acrylic has dried on your canvas, that’s it.
If you find your working speed is far too slow for acrylic, try mixing in acrylic paint extenders to add moisture and keep the paint wetter and usable for longer.
Acrylic Painting Tips For Beginners
1) Find A Reference
So, you already have an idea about the painting you want to create. What’s the first thing you should do before you start painting?
The answer to that question is simple – put down the brush!
Before you do anything else, search for references online – the web offers plenty of images similar to the artwork you want to do.
Use that reference to guide and inspire you while working on the painting.
2) Experiment Before You Follow Any Instructions
While using a reference as a blueprint for your painting is important, it shouldn’t be the center of your creative process.
An image reference must boost your creativity, not replace it entirely.
For example, if you want to paint a cat, it’s OK if your artwork looks different than the photo reference you look at through the creating process.
Paint each element as you feel like it.
3) Use Professional Grade Paint
First and foremost, I would never recommend working with craft paint instead of professional grade on:
Sure, grade paint is a bit more expensive, but paying for it will be worth every cent:
Professional-grade paint contains more pigment, and you need that if you want to blend colors and achieve better coverage.
4) Buy The Basic Colors First
It’s tempting to buy as many colors as you can find as a first-time painter, but doing so is far from necessary.
Buying only the basic colors when you’re starting is one of the best acrylic painting tips for beginners I have for you today. Instead of wasting money on many acrylic colors, learn how to mix them and create colors on your own.
Basic colors are yellow, blue, red, and black – there are the only colors you need as a newbie artist.
5) You Can Use Acrylic Paint On Almost Any Surface
Most artists use acrylic paint on canvas. However, you can place acrylic paint on any other kind of surface you can think of.
Wood panels and acrylic paint will look good together, and so will watercolor paper, mixed media paper, and even glass.
Assuming you prefer to work with acrylic paint, don’t hesitate to add it to any surface you have in mind for your future artwork.
6) Create The Large Area First
Here is a quick question – what do you paint first? Do you create the large areas first, or do you start with adding smaller details?
Hopefully, you don’t begin the painting process by wasting time on the tiny details.
It’s always better to create the blogger areas of your painting first. Once they’re ready, you can take your time with placing specific details.
7) Do A Sketch First
Quite frankly, creating a sketch of your painting is not necessary if your niche as an artist is abstract artwork.
With that said, having a sketch that will serve as a draft of your painting is recommended if you prefer to create portraits or landscapes.
Use a pencil for your sketch, so you can easily remove it if the artwork doesn’t look as you intend it to.
Technique Acrylic Painting Tips
8) Start Painting With An Easel
Considering this article is all about acrylic painting tips for beginners, there is no way I wouldn’t mention the easel:
As a beginner artist, using an easel is a must – it will allow you to steady your canvas without risking altering any proportions.
Of course, once you have enough experience as an artist, you can place your canvas on a table or work on the ground.
9) Try Different Acrylic Painting Techniques
When you’re just starting to paint, you don’t know yet all techniques you can do while working with acrylic paints.
That would change as you develop as an artist – the more you paint, the bigger would be the number of techniques you implement during the work process.
Eventually, you’ll probably find a technique you’ll make your own, and that technique might become the signature move behind your unique style.
10) Learn To Mix Colors
Are you sure you know how to mix colors? In case you’re not, pause your painting activities and take the time to master color mixing.
Every artist wants to extend their palette. And the best way to do that is to know how to mix colors well. As a rule of thumb, you can mix any color you can think of from the primary colors (yellow, red, and blue).
Experiment with mixing colors every time you paint. After all, practice makes perfect!
11) Create Texture
Do I have to be the one to tell you that acrylic paint is an excellent medium for creating texture?
The paint is thick enough. Therefore making areas of your painting ticker will look great once your artwork dries.
Of course, you should not add water when creating texture since it will slim the texture down.
12) Use Your Fingers
I know – using your fingers must be one of the weirdest acrylic painting tips for beginners you’ll ever hear.
Be that as it may, I have to mention it for one simple reason:
Not being afraid to use your fingers while working with acrylic paint will result in one-of-a-kind textures and strokes, so go for it!
13) Work Carefully With Pens
Are you using a pen on any of your acrylic paintings? And if you’re, are you doing it carefully?
I’m asking because an acrylic background and a pen are not the best combinations ever.
Markers will do a much better job than ordinary pens, so I suggest using them.
14) Use a Palette Knife For Mixing Colors And Strokes
In my opinion, no respectable artist would ever find themselves without a palette knife.
Palette knives are not expensive and are extremely valuable, especially when creating an acrylic painting.
Feel free to use a palette knife to add texture and mix your paint.
15) Paint Over Mistakes
What do you do when you make a mistake while working on a painting? Do you get a new canvas and start all over again?
You don’t have to do that, considering you can always paint over your mistake and still achieve the result you desire.
Painting over acrylic paint with more acrylic is easier than doing it with oil paint.
Tool Acrylic Painting Tips For Beginners
16) Clean Your Brushes
Quite frankly, I shouldn’t even have to tell you to clean your brushes – that goes without saying.
However, cleaning your brushes well each time you use them is essential because once acrylic paint dries on the brush, you’ll have difficulty removing it.
I clean my brushes with warm water and soap – you might want to give that a try too.
17) Store Your Brushes Properly
Here is a quick question:
What kind of care do your brushes receive? Do you even take a minute to make sure you’re not accidentally destroying them?
Properly storing your brushes is important – it will allow you to keep using them for the longest time possible.
18) Invest In Different Brush Shapes And Sizes
You can’t use a single brush as an artist – serious painters own different brushes in many shapes and sizes.
Working with acrylic paint requires the usage of at least a couple of different brushes to diversify your strokes:
Most artists use smaller brushes for details and bigger ones on larger areas of the painting.
19) Use A Few Brushes
I get it – the previous paragraph in this article about acrylic painting tips for beginners advises you to work with different brushes, while this one insists on using just a few.
That may sound confusing at first, but it’s not really:
Yes, owning brushes in different sizes is unavoidable, but that doesn’t mean you should buy every single brush you see in the art store.
Instead, purchase one brush in each size – that would be enough to begin your journey as a painter.
20) Use Synthetic Brushes
Think what you will, but synthetic brushes are the best – that’s just a fact!
Brushes made out of synthetic hair cost less than other brushes.
More importantly, synthetic brushes work better with the elements of acrylic paint.
