Acrylic Painting Tips & Articles

Acrylic Painting

By Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (stephlaw@shadowscapes.com)

Introduction

To cover all the techniques available to an acrylic painter in a short article would be next to impossible, but I can cover how to get yourself started, what tools you need, and talk a bit about various methods, styles, and techniques. Of course, the best teacher for any kind of art and any medium of art is practice. Only by actually working with a medium will you learn the little quirks of that medium, and learn to use those quirks as part of your art. That is what makes any medium special, and why an artist would choose pastels over colored pencils for one piece, and acrylics over oils in some other.

The methods I will outline are not the only ways to utilize acrylic paints. My own style is rather controlled, and so I am slightly biased towards the more traditional techniques. I will try to cover as much as I can. Although for basic drawing skills you will have to look to the sketching section of FARP. This is about acrylics and the techniques specific to that medium.

What are acrylics?

Acrylics are similar to oil paints in many ways, and in others, the farthest thing from oils that you can get. As a fellow Elfwood artist once said, "The major advantage of acrylics is that they dry really fast. The major disadvantage of acrylics is that they dry really fast!" Acrylic paints are water based, and though they may not smell as much as oil paints and there are no messy solvents, note that acrylics still are slightly toxic. So just don’t do anything stupid like eating your paints and lick your brushes (Really, I knew idiots who would do this). Having a ventilated workspace is always advisable.

Tools of the Trade

The Paints!

What you have to keep in mind when selecting your colors, is to not become overwhelmed too many colors. If you have worked with color or paint before, you know this. If this is your first foray out from the world of black and white, don’t fret. Usually paints are ~$4 (US) per tube. Don’t panic if your wallet is rather thin. You only need a few colors, and by mixing colors, you can create any hue you want.

Recommended colors would be: Burnt Umber , Ultramarine Blue Titanium White Alizirean Crimson or Cadmium Red , Cadmium Yellow (or some approximate color…Cadmium pigments are expensive but very beautiful and toxic as well), and Lamp Black

And if you want additional colors, here are a few more pigments that I have found to be extremely useful, and very good for mixing: Naples Yellow Payne's Gray Burnt Sienna Pthalo Blue, some kind of Green (Just to round out your palatte) and anything else that catches your fancy.

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