Top 5 Tips When Using Acrylic Paints
By Xander Townsend | Misfit Media Editor
I have been painting ever since I was very little, with constant influence from my mother's creative genes. She was a lover of marine biology and I always remember having an almost accidental yet extensive knowledge of marine life . This was mainly due to the fact that we were always painting obscure underwater Australian creatures to hang on our bedroom walls. Our house was always littered with creative projects we had undergone together, with the use of acrylics, charcoals, mosaics, paint pens, and lino.
After working hard to develop extensive digital and 3D art knowledge-base after school, I have been working within the digital field ever since. It has been a while since I had been able to paint traditionally on a canvas like I once did. Until I received a few canvas commissions and decided to take the plunge back into acrylics.
I found that a lot of what I was doing was almost muscle memory from my extensive acrylic experience as a child, so here are my top 5 tips when using Acrylic paints for the first time.
Always lay down a base first.
detail will always go on smoothly if they are being painted on an area that has a base. A lot of the time when applying paint to a canvas, the paint can feel dry and patchy. It can even be as simple as applying some white paint mixed with some water first, but it really does make a difference.
2. Don’t be afraid if your paint is not being perfectly blended.
A lot of the time, people with feel the need to make sure their paints are perfectly blended before applying them to the canvas. There can be an amazing opportunity to showcase texture with colour effortlessly if you allow for your paint to show variation in the shades when applying it. No real world image has flat colour and sometimes the natural blend in the slight variation in mixed colours can add dimension.
3. Learn the difference warm and cool toned paints make when mixing
One thing that really helps me as a painter is that I enjoy colour theory. I mix all my paints from the classic red, yellow, and blue (obviously with some white and black also). It is important to understand the difference between a cool toned red and a warm toned red (same with yellow and blue). A flower being more orange (warm toned) compared to pink (cool toned) makes a massive difference to the overall feel of the painting, especially when mixing tonal variations. Learn your colour theory, even at a basic level.
4. You can never have too much white paint.
There is one colour of paint that I use more than any other colour, and that is white. I will go through a tub of white paint for every tube of colour paint I use. I use it to base the canvas, to mix highlights and adjust shades, and map out the sketch of the composition of my painting. You can never have enough white paint, don’t be shy.
5. You can always paint over it so don’t put pressure on yourself to be perfect.
Some of my canvas mistakes have turned into the most interesting features of my paintings. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, you can always paint over them. It may take a layer or two, but you can always remove something you don’t think feels quite right. Trust your gut, you will know when your painting is complete or if it just needs one more thing.