Acrylic Painting For Dummies

Colette Pitcher

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780470526484
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

Hands-on, full-color instruction in this versatile painting medium

Acrylic paint is easy to use, quick to dry, a cinch to clean up, and relatively inexpensive–which makes it a great medium for amateur artists. Following a simple step-by-step approach, Acrylic Painting For Dummies provides hands-on instruction and easy-to-follow exercises in acrylic painting techniques and styles, making the medium accessible to would-be artists at all levels. Featuring large-scale projects at the end of most chapters and ample additional opportunities for readers to paint along, this friendly guide will help anyone discover the artist within.

Part I

Getting Acquainted with Acrylics

In this part . . .

Amazing acrylics await you! These first chapters are all about the acrylic medium (another word for type of paint) and the brushes, surfaces, and additives that make acrylic work for every occasion. These three chapters offer a basic understanding of all the supplies you need, as well as the properties of acrylic paint and the plethora of paint choices you face. And, of course, they start you painting.

Chapter 1

Acrylics Are Awesome!

In This Chapter

Discovering the wonders of acrylic painting

Uncovering your artistic instincts

Jumping right in to get painting

Have you ever thought, “I could paint like that” (or, “I wish I could paint like that”) as you walked through an art show? If so, you’ve expressed a desire to delve into the arts — even if only by looking at this book. There’s a romantic view of artists as paint-covered, canvas-focused geniuses drawing inspiration from some beautiful muse. And why not? Often that’s exactly what an artist is doing.

In this chapter, I show you a few of the reasons acrylics are amazing as well as explore what subject types make interesting paintings. You discover how to develop your talent and style and collect the images that interest you. Finally, you even personalize a sketchbook in order to get familar with your acrylic paint (and then give you a place to collect sketches for painting ideas).

What’s So Awesome About Acrylic Paint?

Have you walked into a well-stocked art supply store recently? It’s very exciting, but it can also be a bit overwhelming to see all your choices. You’re bombarded with watercolor, tempera, oil, water-soluble oil, heat set oil, casein, gouache, inks . . . and acrylic paints.

Acrylic paint is a perfect choice for beginners and experts alike. Why? You can apply it in layers, which means you can make changes easily. It dries fast, so you don’t have to wait long between layers. Cleanup is easy — just soap and water; the lack of harsh, smelly solvents means acrylic paint is better for your health than oil. Acrylics adhere to most everything (and when they don’t, you can get special products to help fix that), so you can paint on a traditional canvas or a decorative box. They can be used straight from the tube or bottle, but you can also add mediums, gels, and pastes that can change the paint’s thickness or finish to make it do just what you want it to do. For safe, easy, flexible, permanent, versatile painting, acrylic paint is a fantastic choice.

The following sections give you more information on just what is so great about acrylic paints.

Versatility

Acrylic paint is versatile. You can thin it with water to make it resemble watercolor (see Chapter 10 for more on mimicking watercolor painting with acrylic paint). You can also paint it on thick to give the impression of an oil painting (see Chapter 11 for that). You can paint it on many surfaces; it works fine with watercolor paper, canvas, and wood, among other things.

Acrylic is such a master of disguise that it may be difficult to decipher what a finished artwork was painted with. It’s all in the hands of the artist — you. The paint does whatever you ask of it.

Acrylic painting also creates quality works no matter how much time you choose to spend on a painting or what mood you’re in. If you have time and want to paint detailed precise paintings, you can work slowly and carefully to do just that. If you want to achieve a looser look and simplify the detail, acrylic still looks great. Take a look at the two styles of paintings in Figure 1-1. I love to paint flowers. The two styles in that figure indicate what mood I was in (and the amount of time I spent) when I painted each painting. I painted the sweetheart roses by taking my time and paying close attention to detail. Notice the heart-shaped dewdrop on the lower petal. The wheelbarrow was a quicker, faster-flowing painting. When I stopped, I thought I hadn’t finished it, but when I came back to it, I decided it didn’t need any more. Acrylic paint will accommodate either style and amount of detail.

Figure 1-1: Two styles of painting: one is tight and realistic, one is loose and soft.

Fast drying time

Acrylic dries quickly, so you don’t spend a lot of time waiting for it to dry. That lets you paint layers much more quickly than you can with oil paint. You can even manipulate the drying time if necessary for a particular project. (In Chapter 3, I discuss attributes and additives of acrylic paint.)

Because acrylic does dry quickly, get into the habit of soaking acrylic paint-loaded brushes in water when not in use. If you leave wet paint in brushes to dry, they become useless.

Durable finish

Acrylic is also lightfast, meaning it doesn’t fade significantly over time. You don’t want to sell your masterpiece for beaucoup bucks and then have it disappear before the client’s eyes. Plus, acrylic’s tough finish means you don’t necessarily need to frame your finished acrylic artwork behind glass — even if it’s a work on paper. If you varnish your finished acrylic masterpiece, you can frame it without a mat (a cardboard-like border) or glass. In fact, many viewers complain that glass creates a glare. Another bonus is that this easier framing is also less expensive framing because you don’t have the extra expense of mat and glass. Chapter 4 discusses the final presentation of acrylic paintings.

Resistance to cracking

Acrylic is thermoplastic. Thermo indicates “heat,” and plastic means “moveable.” Basically, acrylic paint becomes flexible when it gets warm. This flexibility is helpful compared to other kinds of paint because acrylic is less likely to crack when dry. However, with flexibility comes caution: Acrylic paint also runs the risk of becoming tacky when warm. So don’t stack thick paintings face to face in a hot attic or garage because they may...

Table of contents

• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I : Getting Acquainted with Acrylics
• Part II : Exploring Tricks and Techniques
• Part III : Finding the Fun in Fundamentals
• Part IV : Acrylic’s Versatile Styles
• Part V : Projects for Different Surfaces
• Part VI : The Part of Tens
• : Further Reading