How Should You Paint Acrylic for Beginners?

As a painter, of course, you won't miss the opportunity to paint with acrylic. Today, we will introduce some techniques for acrylic painting.

Brief Introduction Of Acrylic Painting

Acrylic painting refers to a painting made of acrylic paint. This pigment is a new type of paint that is a mixture of chemically synthesized latex and color particles that appeared in the 1960s. The polyacrylic acid pigment itself is water-soluble, and after drying, forms a porous film and becomes water resistant. The color is bright, the color is bright, the chemical change is stable, and the layers of the overlapping and soft pigments are bonded to each other to form transparent or translucent, strong adhesion and weather resistance, and durability.

Acrylic Paints And Brushes

Acrylic pigment is the most important resin in the synthetic resin for painting, and is classified into a water-soluble type, a solvent type, and an emulsion type. The water-soluble and solvent-based resins have a bulk or viscous liquid appearance and are colorless and transparent. The emulsion type (acrylic emulsion) is milky white in the undried stage and becomes transparent after drying.

The commonly used acrylic pigment is a polyacrylic acid emulsion as a binder. The main components are polymer and water, the polymer content is 45%, water and other substances are 55%, and the tiny solid particles are 0.1um-0.2um, insoluble in water, but can be dispersed and suspended in water. The film forming properties of the obtained polymer are soft, moderately hard, and hard, depending on the ratio of various acrylate monomers used.

The acrylic pigment is composed of an oil pigment, a body material, a binder, a dispersing agent, a wetting agent, a tackifier, an antifoaming agent, a preservative antifungal agent, a freezing stabilizer, a film forming stabilizer, and a pH adjusting agent. As the polyacrylic acid emulsion of the binder, the essential components of the emulsion polymerization are monomer or monomer mixture deionized water, a surfactant (emulsifier) and a water-soluble initiator.

Acrylic painting does not require a brush. It can be used with water chalk, watercolor brush or oil brush. It can also be used with a scraper to paint when thickly coated.

Selection Of Palettes 

According to the material, it can be divided into wooden palette, plastic palette, paper palette, glass palette, ceramic palette and so on.

Function and cleaning of palettes of different materials: wooden palettes are used for blending oils based on blending oils (oil paints, acrylic paints), wooden palettes are cleaned with blending oils and oil painting knives, and wooden palette is immersed in the blending oil. After the oil paint is softened, the paint is lightly hanged with a knife, dried and used again. Plastic, glass and ceramic palettes are suitable for water-based, water-pigmented pigments. Gouache and watercolor paints are not suitable for wooden palettes. When the wooden palettes are used for a long time, the water absorption is enhanced. After the pigment components are absorbed into the wooden palette, they are easy to mix with the new pigments.

When the color palette is used, it is best to use cold and warm color partitions. The deep and light color partitions are used, so that the colors are not easy to be mixed and the colors are not easy to be grayed out.

Keep acrylic paint moist

(1) Cover the palette with a layer of plastic wrap after painting.

(2) Use a small piece of white paper to soak in water and then place it on the color palette to extend the moisturizing time.

(3) Find a sponge, soak it first, squeeze out the excess water, spread a small piece of white paper on the top, keep the paper moist, and then squeeze the pigment to get a good moisturizing effect.

(4) Find a soft pad, cut into the size of the palette, put it into the palette, pour the water onto the pad, press it evenly, then spread the parchment and flatten it, and finally squeeze the pigment. Cover the plastic wrap when not in use. Moisturizing and drying effect is excellent.

Pigment coloring

Acrylic pigments are well tinted and can be blended with either propylene blending or water. Water is the best medium for propylene to dilute pigments. The amount of water determines the thinness of the pigment. Acrylic paint can be said to be a kind of painting material between watercolor and oil painting, which has strong coverage and quick drying high saturation.

(1) White is usually used to lay the bottom. The picture thus drawn has a high color saturation and the color is easy to express.

(2) The principle of shallow and deep. First draw a light color and then draw a dark color, the picture is not easy to go wrong or dirty.

(3) Light tones and dark colors. To keep the vivid color of the acrylic picture to avoid multi-color mixing, the more the color is mixed, the darker and dirtier it is.

(4) Appropriate use of neutral colors. Neutral color is the color without the relationship between cold and warm, black and white gray is the three neutral colors. Gold and silver are also a neutral color. Appropriate use of neutral colors can enrich the picture and play a role in contrast.

Brush Care

The longer the propylene stays in the brush, the more difficult it is to remove the bristles. If you want to clean quickly, you can wipe the propylene cleaning remover. Remove most of the propylene first, then rinse off with water.

Some Other Tips For Acrylic Painting

(1) The acrylic pigment is blended with water, so the drying speed is fast, and it is not soluble in water after drying, which has a great relationship with the painting technique and the maintenance of the tool. If the technique requires further characterization, add an appropriate amount of slow drying agent (or glycerin).

(2) Before coloring, you don't have to brush your hair. The brush must be cleaned in time after painting. You can soak it in the water. If it doesn't rain, the air will dry and the paint will dry for half an hour.

(3) The transparency of acrylic pigments, like other pigments, also varies to varying degrees: some are transparent and have little hiding power; some are completely silty, with strong coverage and very opaque; others are in both. between. Before painting, you must have a general understanding of the performance of various pigments.

(4) After the first pass of the acrylic painting, the second pass color overlaid on the top is no longer mixed with the base color, and it is repeatedly modified and added without staining the ground color. It is also possible to add a light color to the dark color without being affected by it. If the water is less colored, the effect of the third color after the two colors are overlapped can also be obtained.

(5) The color of acrylic painting is not limited, depending on the artist's habits and screen needs. The method of thin painting is like watercolor, using Chinese brush or pointed watercolor brush; thick painting is like oil painting, with flat oil brush and water chalk. It is better to use a watercolor box or a white enamel dish. Especially the rectangular enamel plate, the color is convenient and comfortable, and it is easy to clean after use, and has its excellent features.

The above content is some advice for beginners of acrylic painting. If you want to find suitable painting materials, please visit our website!