Watercolor paintings are known for having vibrant colors and an expressive style. Since acrylics are water-based, you may be wondering how you can make them behave more like watercolors. How do you make acrylics look like watercolors? To make acrylics look like watercolor, it’s important to begin with an acrylic paint that has a thin consistency. Soft body acrylics, fluid …
8 Tips on How to Prevent Acrylics From Drying on the Palette
Acrylics dry fast which is an advantage when you want to work quickly. However, it’s frustrating when your paint dries on the palette before you have a chance to use it. Below are 8 tips that will help you to keep your acrylic paints wet on the palette. How do you keep acrylic paint from drying out on the palette? …
Does Acrylic Paint Come Out in the Wash?
It happens every artist. You decide to work on a painting without changing into old clothes. Of course, this is when you accidentally get paint on yourself. Does acrylic paint come out in the wash? Once acrylic paint dries on clothing it’s very difficult to remove. Your best option is to wash it while the paint is still wet. First, …
Does Acrylic Paint Have an Odor?
I prefer to work with art materials that don’t have any odors. Even non toxic odors can deter me from working in my studio because I find them irritating to my nose and throat. Do acrylic paints have an odor? Most acrylic paints have very little or no detectable odors. If a tube of acrylic paint has a strong odor, …
Gesso Alternatives: How to Prime a Canvas Without Gesso
Many artists prime their canvases with gesso and never consider the alternatives. There are a number of reasons why you may not want to use gesso, such as not wanting to work on a pure white surface. Some artists prefer the natural beige color of the canvas, and want it to show through in the final painting. What are the …
The Difference Between Mars Black and Ivory Black
At first glance, choosing a black paint seems like an easy decision. The two most popular black pigments are Mars Black and Ivory Black. One is warm and the other is a cool, you just have to decide on which one you want to use…right? Not exactly, It’s a little more complex than that. So what’s the difference between Mars …
Yellow and Black Makes Green
You may find it perplexing that yellow turns green when you mix it with black. Some artists use this to their advantage when painting with a limited palette, but it can catch you by surprise if you aren’t expecting it. So, why does yellow turn green when you add black to it? Dull olive green is an accurate representation of …
Acrylic Color Mixing Chart: Free PDF Download
My free color mixing chart contains 29 color mixing recipes for mixing the most common colors used in painting. You can download it by subscribing to my email newsletter. Once the signup is complete, you will receive a welcome email that contains a link to the PDF. Please read the section on acceptable uses for the chart (basically, you can’t …
9 Acrylic Blending Techniques
There are a number of blending techniques that you can use with acrylics. In this post, I demonstrate 9 ways to blend acrylics using a different brands of regular and slow drying acrylics. I demonstrate each blending technique by creating a simple gradient on a canvas panel. Throughout the post, I also provide a few examples of my paintings that …
Magenta Is the Secret to Mixing Purple
If you’re having trouble mixing purple, it’s probably because you’re mixing red with blue. For reasons explained in this post, mixing red and blue creates brown. So how do you mix purple? The key to mixing a brilliant purple is using magenta instead of red. You can mix purple from Quinacridone Magenta and Phthalo Blue. Other blues, such as Ultramarine …
