Acrylic Tools & Materials
Acrylic paints can produce a wide range of painterly effects—from thin but vibrant layers to thick, buttery strokes. Acrylics dry quickly, allowing you to apply new layers of paint or rework underlying layers without muddying the colors. They also clean up easily with soap and water. Acrylic paints are relatively inexpensive compared with oil paints, and only a few basic supplies are needed: paints, brushes, supports, and water. For these reasons and more, acrylic is a great medium for beginners.
ACRYLIC PAINTS
Acrylic paints are thinned with water and come in jars, cans, and tubes. Most artists prefer tubes, as they make it easy to squeeze out the appropriate amount of paint onto your palette. Acrylic paints also come in artist’s grade and student’s grade—choose artist’s grade paints, as they are more vibrant and produce richer mixes.
PAINTBRUSHES
Like oil brushes, acrylic paintbrushes are categorized by hair type (soft or stiff bristles and natural or synthetic hair), style (filbert, flat, or round), and size. For the projects in this book, we recommend small, medium, and large sizes of both soft and stiff brushes. Synthetic-hair brushes work well with acrylic, as the bristles are soft but springy enough to return to their original form. In addition to buying brushes, you’ll also want to purchase a palette knife or painting knife for mixing colors on your palette and experimenting with textural effects on your canvas.
Filberts
Flats
Rounds
CHOOSING YOUR COLORS
Colors can be referred to in terms of “temperature”: Warm colors tend to advance forward in a painting, making them good for foreground objects. Cool colors tend to recede, making them best for distant objects. Reds, yellows, and oranges are considered warm; whereas blues, greens, and purples are considered cool. However, there are variations within each color family; for example, alizarin crimson has more blue in it, making it a cool red. A good beginner’s palette of acrylic colors consists of one warm and one cool version of each of the primary colors (yellow, red, and blue). In addition to these warm and cool versions of the primaries, you’ll also want to include white, black, and a few browns, such as burnt sienna or raw umber. From these basics, you should be able to mix just about any color. Shown here is a good beginner’s palette for acrylic painting. (Note: Although you can purchase black acrylic paint, many artists prefer to mix their own using a mixture of colors such as phthalo green, phthalo blue, violet, and burnt sienna.)
Cerulean blue (cool)
Ultramarine blue (warm)
Black
Lemon yellow (cool)
Cadmium yellow medium (warm)
Burnt sienna (warm)
Raw umber (cool)
Crimson (cool)
Cadmium red light (warm)
White
The simplest way to transfer a sketch is to use transfer paper—thin sheets of paper that are coated on one side with an even application of graphite. Place the transfer paper onto your painting surface, graphite-side down. Use artist’s tape to hold the transfer paper in place. Then place the sketch on top of the transfer paper and lightly trace over the lines with a pencil. While tracing, occasionally lift the corner of the sketch (and the transfer paper) to make sure the lines are transferring correctly.
MIXING PALETTES
Palettes are available in all shapes, sizes, and materials—an enameled butcher’s tray is a favorite of many acrylic artists because it can hold a lot of paint and it cleans up easily. Glass and disposable paper palettes also are good choices for acrylic paint. (Plastic should be avoided because the acrylic paint will adhere to it.) Because acrylic dries so quickly, it’s important to keep your paints moist during a painting session. Many artists simply mist their paints with clean water, but some prefer to buy or make a special palette that keeps the paints moist (often referred to as a “stay wet” palette).
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
You’ll need two jars of water: one for adding to your paint mixes and one for rinsing out your brushes. A spray bottle will help keep the paints and mixes on your palette moist, and paper towels or rags will help with cleanup. It’s also a good idea to use a permanent (waterproof) felt-tip marker for sketching your composition onto your support.
EXPERIMENTING WITH MEDIUMS
All you really need to thin acrylic paint is water. But water isn’t the only substance that alters the consistency of the paint. There is a range of mediums that can be added to acrylic paint to increase the flow of paint, act as a varnish, and even affect the paint’s drying time. As you gain experience with the various mediums, you’ll soon be able to choose the one that’s appropriate for your painting subject.
GLOSS MEDIUM Useful for thinning acrylic paint while maintaining its luster, gloss medium is made from the same acrylic emulsion as the paint is. Although gloss medium has a slightly milky appearance, it dries clear.
MATTE MEDIUM Similar to gloss medium, matte medium has an added ingredient that makes the paint dry to a soft, satiny sheen. You also can mix gloss and matte mediums to obtain a shine that is somewhere between the two.
GEL MEDIUM With more body than gloss or matte mediums, gel medium gives the paint a thick, buttery texture. Mixing gel medium with acrylic makes the paint’s consistency closer to that of oil paint.
RETARDING MEDIUM This medium helps slow down the drying time of acrylic and also can be added to acrylic as a thinner, allowing you to layer more translucent glazes. Using too much retarder can cause uneven drying, though, so use it sparingly.
PAINTING SURFACES
Acrylic can be applied to almost any surface that has first been primed. Illustration board and canvas are the best choices for beginners, as they are ready to accept paint at the time of purchase. Pre-primed canvases provide a fine-fabric surface with a slight grain. Primed pressed-wood panels offer a smoother alternative to canvas, as they have a fine-grained, less coarse surface. When using diluted paints for an effect that looks similar to watercolor, you can use acid-free 140- or 300-lb cold-press watercolor paper (see page 18) or canvas paper. (When using more opaque paint or paint straight from the tube, you’ll need a stronger surface to hold the paint.)
Primed hardwood panel (smooth side)
Primed hardwood panel (rough side)
Illustration board
Canvas
SURFACE TEXTURES The surface you paint on determines the textures of your strokes and washes. In the examples above, you can see how thick (left) and thin (right) applications of paint appear on various supports.