Mixing Acrylic Paints
You can mix colors with a paint brush but many painters prefer to use a palette knife as it is the easiest way to mix acrylics.
- Keep your paints and your brushes moist. Acrylic paints have a fast drying time so to save your paint and brushes from drying out, keep the brushes in a jar of clean water while painting and use a spray bottle to lightly spray your paints while working.
- After you have finished working, clean all your brushes with soap and warm water.
- You can use a retarding agent which is added to the paint to increase the drying time a little.
A great way to keep your paints from drying out both when working and when you are not painting is to use a sealable paint palette. You can either buy one or make your own, but always read acrylic paint reviews before you are out to buy the acrylic paints.
Add Paper Towels Or Tissues To Your Art Supplies
When you are painting, keep a box of tissues or paper towels next to your equipment. Every time you spill a bit of paint, you can use a tissue to wipe it up straight away. Also, it’s good to get into the habit of wiping dry your paintbrushes after every time you rinse them off in water. It takes away the excess water and cleans off any residue paint.
Thin acrylic paints with water or acrylic medium. Some acrylic colors are very fluid and are easy to use straight from the tube. Others are very thick and may need a little water to make them more fluid and easier to use. Just remember, not to add more than 50% water or you will break down the binding agent that helps the paint to adhere to your painting surface.
Some artists prefer to use acrylic paint mediums to retain the richness of the pigment and to avoid over-thinning the paint.
Matting Mediums reduce the glossy look of acrylic paint. If you don’t like the glossy look of acrylic paints, then you can add a matting medium to the paint to reduce the glossy finish. A matte varnish can also be used over your finished work to reduce the gloss and to seal your work.
How acrylic paints dry. Acrylic paints dry in stages. The top layer of the paint usually dries first creating a skin over the underlayer due to evaporation of water in the paint. The acrylic polymers take longer to completely dry: times can vary a lot, from a couple of days to weeks depending on how thick the layers of paint have been applied.
Leave your work in a ventilated dust-free place to allow the drying process to proceed.
- Don’t overpaint your work. Don’t keep working over an area where the paint has become tacky because this will cause the paint to become streaky or to lift off from the canvas by your continued brush.
- If you need to do more work on the area, leave it to dry completely and then restart painting. You could speed up the process by using a hairdryer over the area.
- Creating hard edges
- To make it easy to produce a hard edge, you can either use masking fluid or masking tape, to protect those areas of your painting that you don’t want painted. Just remember to make sure the surface is dry before applying the fluid or tape. The masking tape won’t damage your work. You can wash off the masking fluid and clean your brush with some kitchen washing-up soap.