10 Tips Acrylic Painting for Beginners

What is acrylic paint and what is the difference?

Acrylic paint refers to painting with acrylic paint. These paints consist of pigments, binders and solvents and are soluble in water.

Acrylic paint is a young painting technique. It is popular with both beginners and more experienced hobby painters and professional artists, especially because of its versatility: if you work with a lot of water and glaze, the colours are transparent and radiant as in a watercolor. If you thicken the paint and work with impasto, you get an effect similar to that of classic oil paintings. With structure and modeling pastes or the addition of other materials such as sand or coffee grounds, you get a variety of surface structures. Acrylic paint is also excellent for collages.

Moreover, painting with acrylic paint is very suitable fornovice painters. The basic equipment is not expensive, the processing is easy and the colours dry quickly. You can paint over it again and again without the paint cracking and, unlike oil paint, you do not have to work with harmful substances such as solvents. Unlike watercolor painting, where learning the basic techniques takes some practice, beautiful results can be achieved easily and quickly with acrylic paint.

What do you need for acrylic painting?

The basic equipment includes only a few colours, brushes, painting ground, a water cup and a mixing palette. Below we give you some recommendationswhich can be ordered online and which are very suitable for practice in terms of price-performance ratio.

In particular, we recommend the purchase or purchase of the following materials as basic equipment:

1. Colours: black, white, magenta, cyan and yellow.
2. Brushes: a larger flat brush of about 30 to 40 centimeters, a narrow round brush for the details (about size 2 or 3) and a medium cat tongue brush (about size 12).
3. Stretched DIN A 4 tension frame
4. DIN A 4 block acrylic paper
5. Paper towel or an old cloth for wiping the brushes
6. Water cup
7. Mixing palette (or an old board, wooden plank or similar)

Acrylic paint products

Colours

For the beginning, the three basic colours magenta, cyan and yellow, as well as black and white are sufficient. All other colours can be mixed with this. You can buy the colours individually or in sets. When choosing the sets, make sure that the above colours are included. Most sets contain a fairly random selection of red, green, purple, etc.

Brushes

If you continue to paint, at some point buy individual better brushes. The last good one we allowed cost 10 euros. These are more than sufficient for the beginning.

Click here to contact us brush range to view. Extremely suitable for painting with acrylic paint.

Acrylic painting accessories: About the quality of the products?

Our experiences with the quality of the accessories: Don't store in the wrong place. Of course you don't need the professional version if you don'tI'm sure if painting or acrylic painting is for you, or if you're just starting out. We have recommended products here that are suitable for beginners or for study-quality paints. You can also get good results with this and supplement later if necessary.

Acrylic painting accessories: brushes

The brushes are particularly close to my heart when it comes to accessories, because even for laymen the biggest quality differences between cheap and more expensive products are noticeable here. After all, nothing is more annoying than when you have finished your work and brush hairs remain stuck under the paint.

Editor's Tip: Create your own unique artwork with Paint by Numbers (Ideal for beginners who want to start painting with acrylics)

Do you want to have an unforgettable art experience? Try our Paint by Numbers sets for adults and children:

1. Paint by Numbers with your own photo: Transform your personal photos into unique Paint by Numbers canvases. Relive special moments and add a personal touch to your interior.
2. Choose from different motifs: Select beautiful animals, flowers  and enchanting landscapes  that have been carefully selected. Discover the relaxing benefits of being creative.

Painting onnumber is a great way to reduce stress and stimulate your creativity. In addition, our sets are carefully put together and contain everything you need to get started right away.

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Acrylic painting: What should you pay attention to with brushes?

A good brush is characterized by stability, precision, durability and the ability to absorb and release paint. There are animal and synthetic hair brushes and they come in many different sizes and shapes. It consists of the hair body, the ferrule (i.e. the metal part that holds the hair together) and the handle.

Animal hair has a rough texture that dyes betterholds more than synthetic hair, and therefore it is considered of better quality. However, we mainly use brushes made of synthetic fibers and prefer to pay attention to other quality features.

An important point is the length of the bristle or the processing under the sleeve. With a bad brush, the bristles are just long enough for the sleeve to hold them together, they have no wire collar, and there is a hollow space between the bristles and the handle. This type of finish means that the hairs are not as strong, fall out easily and spread across the paper as you paint. The sleeve must be made of nickel-plated brassor stainless aluminum. It often comes into contact with water and paint, and this prevents it from rusting or disintegrating into its component parts. We don't think the shape and material of the brush handle is that essential when you're starting out. Just choose a brush that feels comfortable in your hand.

Our conclusion: it does not have to be the best brush on offer, but also not the cheapest. Invest in a good hair body because it is worth it.

Which brushes belong in the accessory set for beginners in acrylic painting?

Our suggestion is: a larger flat brush of about 30 to 40 centimeters, a narrow round brush for the details (about size 3) and a medium-sized cat tongue brush (about size 12).

The brush size is printed as a small number on the stem and indicates the diameter or, in the case of flat brushes, the width of the sleeve. You will usually also find the serial number and the type of hair of the brush. Sometimes it is also indicated for which type of painting the brush is suitable.

Acrylic paint: What should you pay attention to with paint?

Acrylic paint consists largely of pigments and binder. The pigmentsare the pulverized dyes, so to speak, the visible part of the colour. The binder holds the pigments together and ensures that they adhere to the painting surface.

In the store, you will see the symbols on the paint bottles and buckets. They describe the properties of the paints. A small circle or square, filled, half-filled with a cross stroke, or unfilled, indicates the opacity of the paint. The stars or crosses represent the lightfastness of the colours.

Acrylic paint: quality and consistency

In the art supplies, acrylic paints are offered in artists' andstudy quality. They differ in quality and in the ratio of pigments. For the beginning, the quality of the study is quite sufficient.

The main consistencies of acrylic paint are pasty (paintable), liquid (softer and smoother) and fluid (more like ink). When choosing paint, it is advisable to consider in advance how you prefer to paint so that you can choose your accessories accordingly. Do you prefer to paint with a palette knife technique or do you want to paint opaque or glazed?

And what colours do you need to get started?

We recommend black and titanium white. If you paid attention in art class, you know that you can mix all other colours with the primary colours yellow, magenta, and cyan. Of course, if you immediately have concrete ideas about what colour you want to start with, you can jump straight to these colours and not have to spend time mixing them first. In order to gain some experience in the practical handling of colours and mixing ratios, we recommend that you do not immediately purchase so many ready-made colours.

 

Painting bases for acrylic paint

Acrylic paint can be used to paint on all grease-free surfaces. We willHere we will first discuss the two most important ones: Paper and cloth. Paper consists mainly of fibers, fillers such as kaolin or chalk, and glue to hold the fibers together.

There are different finishes (satin, matte, and rough). Which one you prefer depends on the painter himself. It's best to just try it out a bit.

The weight on the paper indicates the "gram weight", i.e. the weight per square meter. It is best to invest in a heavier paper (350 g/m² or more), because at this grammage the paper is less likely to curl and is also better suited for structural techniques.

Other quality features are aging and light resistance. Especially in the beginning, this is the area where you are most likely to make concessions. Acrylic paper is suitable for acrylic painting, but also watercolor paper of 400 g/m².

Our tip: paper is cheaper, but also paint times on a canvas at the beginning. It's just an amazing feeling. Ready-made stretched ones in study quality are available in various sizes.

Primer on surfaces?

Those painting on other surfaces, such as wood, must pre-prime the surface to smooth out the basic structure of the painting surface, prevent the paint from being too strongly absorbed by the material and create a suitable, usually white, surface for glaze painting techniques. Even unprimed canvases are usually primed to prevent paint from soaking through. If you just buy a primed cloth, you can save yourself the purchase of the primer for the time being.

Practical tip: What should you pay attention to when painting with acrylic paint?

1. Protect your surface and painting environment well and aim for old onesclothes. Acrylic paint is not or hardly washable - both dry and wet.
2. Only use as much paint as you really need and don't forget to rinse your brushes and palettes. Acrylic paint dries quickly and makes palettes and brushes unusable. Once it dries, you can't liquefy it again.

What techniques are there?

1.) Opaque paint application

With opaque paint application, the acrylic paint is applied undiluted to the painting surface, often directly from the bottle or tube. The background no longer shines through, it is completely covered - hence the name.Because the colours are not diluted, this technique is characterized by the special intensity and appearance of the colours.

2.) Applying glaze paint

With this technique you paint with highly diluted acrylic paint. Water is usually used for thinning. Since the colours do not adhere to pre-coated paint surfaces, it is best to add some acrylic binder in this case. With the glazing technique you get an impression that is reminiscent of watercolor paint. One works with diluted colours on dry canvas. Before you apply one layer of paint on top of the next, the first one must be completely dry. To avoid unintentionally getting "dirty" colours, it is important to have the colour wheel in mind; for radiant colour combinations it is important to consciously layer the right colours on top of each other.

3.) Laviering

With the lavur technique you wipe colours together. Lavur means something like washed out. As the word suggests, the colours must still be wet for this, so that the transitions are soft and contourless. The lavur technique works as follows: The painting ground is moistened and the acrylic paint is applied with a damp brush. A flat brush is then lightly stroked over the still damp colour transitions to blend them together and to make hard contours disappear.

4.) Filling technique

With the spatula technique, the acrylic paint is thickened with texture paste, sand or other suitablematerials and then applied to the painting surface in thick layers with a painting knife or spatula. For example, you can spread the mass over a large surface, dab it or carve shapes into it. There are no limits to your imagination. Depending on which materials are added, different surface structures and consistencies are created: coarse-grained, smooth, cracked, etc. The most commonly used spatulas are the following:

• Painting knife: small spatula surface and a handle with a grip for more detailed application.
• Paint spatulas: wider surface with a wooden stem; are more suitable for working on large surfaces.
• Rubber spatulas: resemble brushes in shape; instead of bristles they have a smooth rubber surface; they are also more suitable for large surfaces.
• Japanese spatulas: consist only of a spatula surface; some have a handle; more suitable for rough work.
• With each of these spatulas you can also freely experiment, scratch, paint, etc. Other objects can also be used as a spatula: Spoons, combs or kitchen knives. Tryit just.

Acrylic paint is particularly suitable for the spatula technique because the paint dries very quickly and you do not have to wait that long between applying layers. Moreover, you can apply as thick a layer as you want, without unwanted cracks, as is the case with oil paint. Since filler is much heavier than pure paint and the filler technique usually requires a coarser application, paper is not suitable as a painting surface. Use wooden planks, painting panels or stretched stretcher frames.

Paint by Numbers with acrylic paint

At the painting onnumber the motif you choose uses only water-based acrylic paint. The reason we use watercolor is that it is the easiest form of painting at an amateur level. Do you want to start Paint by Numbers? Then first read our essential Paint by Numbers tips.