Acrylic Painting Techniques for Beginners
Whether you’re picking up a brush for the first time or looking to refine your skills, acrylic paints offer vibrant colors, quick drying times, and easy application. In this guide, we’ll explore beginner-friendly acrylic painting techniques that will help you build confidence and create your own acrylic art.
What are Acrylic Paints?
- Acrylic paints are water-based, making them easy to clean and work with. They are versatile and can be used on traditional surfaces like paper and canvas, and many other surfaces like glass, fabric, and wood. Acrylic paints dry quickly, which can be both an advantage and a challenge.
- You can thin them with water or acrylic mediums to create different effects, from thick impasto to transparent washes.
Basic Supplies
- Acrylic paints: starter sets with primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) are great for mixing any color. Daler-Rowney has a great System3 Acrylic Starter Set with 6 tubes.
- Brushes: a variety of flat and round brushes are great to start with.
- Canvas or acrylic paper: Our favorite is the 300 Series Stretched Canvas or 400 Series Acrylic Pads from Strathmore Paper.
- Palette for mixing colors
- Water container for rinsing brushes
- Paper towels or a rag
- Palette knife: optional for texture and mixing colors on your palette.
Our Favorite Beginner Acrylic Paint Brushes and Tools
- Princeton Select Brushes: An affordable and beginner-friendly option. They’re durable and offered in 108 different shapes and sizes.
- Princeton Velvetouch Brushes: You can get either the short handle if you’re painting on a pad or long handle if you’re painting on a canvas. These are Princeton’s best quality brushes for all mediums so you can use them for more than just acrylic!
- Catalyst Wedges and Blades: Play around with different textures or add thick layers of paint with wedges and blades. And they’re silicone so they’re super easy to clean!