Acrylic painting for beginners: student vs artist paints, surfaces, brushes and drying

TUREFF• •0

Acrylic paint is the easiest way into painting for many people. It cleans up with water, dries quickly, sticks to almost anything and needs no solvents. The one thing beginners struggle with is the speed: it can dry on the palette before you have finished mixing. This guide covers what to buy and how to keep paint workable.

Student or artist-grade paint?

Student grade acrylics are cheaper and often contain less pigment. Colours may be weaker and dry less vividly, but they are perfectly good for learning.
Artist grade (also called professional) acrylics carry more pigment, cover better and mix more cleanly.
Many people use student-grade white, which you use most, with a few artist-grade colours.

Acrylics also come in different body types:

Heavy body: thick, like butter, and holds brush marks.
Soft body or fluid: thinner and smoother, good for glazing and fine work.

Colour shift: why your colours change

Acrylic paint usually dries a little darker than it looks wet. The binder is milky when wet and clears as it dries. Mix slightly lighter than you want, and test on a scrap before painting a big area. Some paints are formulated to shift less.

A starter palette

titanium white
a cool yellow and a warm yellow
a warm red and a cool red
ultramarine blue and a cool blue such as phthalo blue
burnt umber or burnt sienna

Phthalo colours are extremely strong; use a tiny amount in mixes.

Surfaces

Canvas boards and stretched canvas, sold already primed with acrylic gesso.
Acrylic or mixed-media paper: heavy paper that does not buckle much, ideal for practice.
Wood, MDF and card, primed with gesso first.
Acrylic sticks to most surfaces that are clean and not oily or glossy.

Brushes

Synthetic brushes are the usual choice: they cope with water and acrylic paint well.
Start with a large flat, a medium flat or filbert, a round, and a small detail brush.
Never let paint dry in a brush. Dried acrylic is plastic and is very hard to remove. Keep brushes damp while you work and rinse them as soon as you put one down.
Do not leave brushes standing on their bristles in water for long; it bends them.

Keeping paint wet

A stay-wet palette: a shallow tray with a damp sponge or several layers of damp paper towel, topped with baking paper or palette membrane. The paint stays workable for hours, and with a lid often for days.
Mist lightly with a spray bottle of water now and then.
Squeeze out small amounts and add more as needed.
Use a retarder or slow-drying medium to extend working time, in the amounts the maker recommends.
Avoid painting in direct sun or in front of a heater or fan.

Cleaning up

Wipe excess paint from brushes on paper before rinsing.
Wash brushes with soap and lukewarm water.
Do not pour lots of paint water down the sink; let it settle or dry out first (see the pouring guide in this room for more on disposal).

First exercises

Paint a value scale using one colour and white.
Mix a simple colour wheel from your primaries.
Paint a simple landscape in three values: sky, distance, foreground.

What are you finding hardest about acrylics so far? Ask in the comments below.