How do I start acrylic painting?

Acrylic is the most forgiving paint to learn on because it dries quickly and covers what is underneath. Those same two properties are also the things that catch beginners out.

What you'll need

• Six tubes plus a large white
• Two or three synthetic brushes
• A canvas board or primed paper
• A water spray bottle and a stay-wet palette or a plate

Step by step

1. Buy a big tube of white and small ones of everything else.White is used in almost every mix. A warm and cool red, yellow and blue, plus white, is a complete palette; black is optional and often best avoided.
2. Use synthetic brushes.Acrylic is hard on natural bristle. Synthetics are cheaper, hold their shape and survive the solvents and the scrubbing.
3. Paint on something primed.Canvas boards, primed canvas or acrylic paper. Unprimed paper absorbs the binder and leaves the colour dull and patchy.
4. Block in dark to light.The opposite of watercolour. Acrylic is opaque, so start with the mid and dark tones and build the lights on top — highlights added last read as light.
5. Tone the canvas first.A thin wash of a mid-tone colour over the whole surface before starting. It removes the intimidating white, and small gaps between later strokes read as unified rather than as bare canvas.
6. Manage the drying time.Acrylic skins over in minutes. Mist the palette with water, use a stay-wet palette or a plate with damp kitchen roll under greaseproof paper, and mix as you go rather than all at once.
7. Use a retarder or flow medium if you want to blend.Blending edges is difficult once the paint has skinned. A retarder extends the working time; a flow improver thins without weakening the film the way excess water does.
8. Thin with medium rather than lots of water.Water beyond about a third breaks down the binder and gives a chalky, weak film that can lift later. Acrylic medium thins it without that problem.
9. Expect the colour to shift as it dries.Most acrylics dry slightly darker and less glossy. Test on a scrap before matching a colour on the painting.
10. Never let paint dry in a brush.Dried acrylic is a plastic and it does not come out. Keep brushes in water while working and wash them properly the moment you stop.
11. Work in layers and be willing to overpaint.The great advantage of acrylic is that you can simply paint over a mistake once it is dry. Use that rather than fighting a wet passage.
12. Varnish when it is fully cured.Touch dry in minutes, but fully cured over days or weeks. Varnishing evens out the sheen and protects the surface.

Tips

• Tone the canvas before you start. It makes everything easier to judge.
• Wash brushes immediately. Dried acrylic never comes out.
• Overpainting is the point of acrylic. Let a mistake dry and paint over it.

Common mistakes

• Thinning acrylic with a lot of water — Water beyond roughly a third of the mix breaks down the acrylic binder, so the paint film is weak, chalky and can lift when a later layer is worked over it.
• Leaving brushes standing in paint or water — Dried acrylic sets as a plastic in the bristles and destroys the brush; standing a brush on its tip in water bends the hairs permanently.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask