Start an Acrylic Painting Practice
Practicing creativity is an exercise in self care that boosts your mental and emotional wellbeing. Multiple studies have affirmed the benefits of practicing creativity — from reducing stress and anxiety, to improving cognition and problem-solving. And you don’t need to be a talented artist with loads of artistic skills to practice creativity since creativity is merely using your imaginative capabilities to generate original ideas. Anyone can be creative and practice creativity.
If you’re looking to start your own creative practice, acrylic painting is a fun and accessible way to begin.
Acrylic Paint
Acrylic paint is a water-soluble (i.e. the paint can be dissolved in water), water-based paint medium. Acrylics dry quickly, create long-lasting effects, and resist water once dried. Once dried, it’s also easy to paint completely over acrylics with another color so it’s a good choice for painting beginners. Acrylics are also great for mixing with other acrylic paints, with water, and with gel mediums to add body to the paint.
Types of Acrylic Paint
Acrylics come in fluid acrylics and heavy body acrylics; the main difference between these types is the viscosity, or thickness of the paint:
Heavy Body Acrylics have a thick consistency and are great for blending with other colors. It can be thinned down with water without diluting the color and are great for combining with gel mediums.
Fluid Acrylics have a much thinner consistency than heavy body acrylics and are suited for detailed paint work. Both fluid and heavy body acrylics can be used for watercolor effects, but artists prefer the fluid acrylics for watercolor work over the heavy body.
Heavy body acrylics are best for those starting out with acrylics since the thicker consistency allows for more control over the paint. High-quality, professional grade acrylic paints have more pigmentation (the color is richer) and tend to dry opaque (meaning that the color underneath the paint will not show through). The professional grade acrylics tend to be more expensive of course, so if you’re just starting with acrylics and don’t want to spend too much, here’s a few brands that are very low cost you can use starting out:
· Folk Art
· Caliart
· Magicfly
· Artecho
You can buy these paints in 2-ounce bottles from Amazon, Michaels, the Dollar Store, or another hobby store. I’ve personally used both Apple Barrel and Folk Art when I first started out painting as a kid. Since these paint brands are much more affordable, they’re great for big craft projects and come in a wide variety of colors.
One downside to consider with these lower-cost brands is the paint quality and how they look when dried. These paints tend to dry translucent so you will need several coats of paint to completely cover the area. Wait for the paint to completely dry between coats, these paints tend to clump up if you apply new paint or water over an area that isn’t completely dried.
The other downside is the look of the paint when dried. The paint dries matte (i.e. no gloss) and feels dry and slightly rough to the touch. Higher-quality acrylics feel smooth and have a slight shine to it when dried, which creates a more professional look.
If you decide to go for the higher-quality acrylics, I recommend these brands:
· Liquitex
· Golden
· Winsor & Newton, Winsor & Newton Galeria (I’ve only used Winsor & Newton so I don’t know the difference between the 2 brands in terms of paint quality)
I currently use Liquitex and Golden heavy body paint, but any professional grade acrylic paint is good.
Colors to Start With
You don’t need 15 different colors to begin (unless you decide to go with an acrylic paint set) painting.
Get a few colors to start out with:
· Primary colors (Red, Blue, Yellow) — You can mix these colors to create green, orange, and purple. Select a medium red hue, medium yellow, and an ultramarine blue as your starter colors.
o If you want to create different shades of orange, green, and purple (secondary colors), then I recommend buying 2 different shades of red, blue, or yellow so you have more variety and flexibility in your color mixing.
· White — Mix white with your primary or secondary colors to lighten them. Add a very small amount of the pure color to white instead of adding the white into the pure color. Gradually add more color if needed.
o Remember that white will increase the opacity of any pure color you add it to.
· Black — Use black as a color or for detailing. Select a pure black color that looks like liquid darkness instead of something on the gray spectrum.
o If you want to darken a color, do not add black to it. Adding black to another pure color will make create a gray-toned color instead of darkening the pure color.
· Brown — Brown is a helpful color to keep on hand to mix with another pure color to create a more earthy tone. Or use brown on its own. Select a burnt umber brown instead of a sienna brown color which has a heavier red tone to it.
o If you don’t have brown on hand, mix all the colors you do have (except for black or white) to create brown.
Brushes for Acrylic Painting
The right brush makes painting much easier and gives you more control when you paint. Brush quality makes a big difference in painting, but as an intro acrylic painter, you don’t need expensive, amazing brushes.
You can purchase a low-cost set of brushes that contain what you need:
· Soucolor Acrylic Paint Brushes Set (20-brush set)
· BOSOBO Paint Brushes Set (20-brush set)
These brush sets are a little more pricey, but you can get better brush bristle quality for the higher price:
· Nylon Hair Rosmax Life Artist Paint Brushes (15-brush set)
· Benicci Professional Artist Paint Brushes (12-brush set)
I’ve used some of the cheaper-quality brushes for years and gradually switched them out for higher-quality brushes. Don’t throw out your old brushes if you can’t paint well with them anymore, I used dried, worn-out brushes in many of my paintings to create interesting visual textures.
Make sure your set contains a mix of flat brushes, round brushes (including pointed round brushes), and at least 1 Filbert brush (a flat brush with a rounded head of bristles) so you can make large, sweeping brushstrokes and do detail work on your painting.
While painting, keep a dish of water nearby to let your brushes sit in right after painting. Acrylic paint dries quickly so it’s important to not let the paint sit on the brush; keeping them dipped in water while you paint lets the bristles stay moist. Otherwise, the paint will dry and make the bristles unusable.
Clean your brushes immediately after painting with water and some hand or dish soap. Or, you can purchase and use Pink Soap to clean and rinse your brushes.
Start Painting!
Once you’ve selected your paint and brushes, start painting! You can paint with acrylics on stretched, stapled canvas, canvas boards/panels, or even sheets of discarded cardboard (keep in mind that cardboard will absorb the paint which will cause the colors to be less vibrant).
Enjoy the process of painting, experiment with the colors and different brushes to see the effects you create. A creative practice helps quiet the mind (much like mediation would) and brings mindfulness and joy.
Happy painting!
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