Acrylic Painting Techniques and Textures

Acrylics are water-based paints that are popular because they're so easy to use. Besides being easier to clean than oils, acrylics offer a wide range of paints. Acrylics can be as thick as oil paints, or as thin as watercolors, when diluted with enough water. Different techniques produce different results, so find the techniques that produce the acrylic paintings you want to create.

Unlike oils, which take much longer to dry, acrylics dry quickly, usually within ten minutes. Water-soluble acrylics do not need gesso and turpentine as oils do, but can be directly applied to canvas. Besides painting concentrated colors, acrylics can also be used for glazing by adding more water.

Glazing is a technique used to give more depth as well as realism to an image. Glazed paints should be transparent or light enough when brushed onto the canvas to show underlying layers. When painted over bright or dark images, light-colored glazes give a softening effect. It's usually challenging to get the right consistency of liquid when making glazes. The wet-into-wet technique involves mixing colors on your canvas rather than the palette, applying one application over another. This method is often used to control drying by brushing when using fast-drying acrylics. Use this technique for creating soft effects. Stippling is a technique that's ideal for painting foliage. Use older brushes, as this method can be hard on bristles. Hold the brush at a 90-degree angle to the painting surface and then apply paint as you load the brush. First, splat the brush down on a neutral surface, breaking up the paint to produce the desired effect. The amount of water used is important, as it has to be just right and not too dry, yet not too wet. Leave plenty of "see-through" spots (negative space) so the background of the canvas can shine through. After stippling, change to tiny brushes for finer delineation of forms. Scratching is a method for producing the illusion of grass. Usually, it works best over fresh paint, scratching rapidly. It's done using the end of a brush handle or another tool that can scratch. Work from the bottom up, varying scratches so it looks more realistic. Work in small areas at a time, because acrylics dry fast. Sgraffito is a scratching technique that is done onto a surface's wet paint so the background of dry color underneath shows. You can use various tools such as screwdrivers or the ends of old paintbrush handles to do this.

Use a cutting technique to create hard edges such as building edges by placing an index card where you want to protect an area from paint running into it. Friskets, which are liquid masking solutions, are applied over smaller objects to create a plastic film. This allows an area that surrounds the object to be painted with consistency. Once the paint dries, remove the frisket, using a rubber cement product which picks it up. Fingertips can work, too, when painting on hard boards.

One way to slow down fast-drying acrylic paint is to spray your painting surface with water using a fine-mist bottle.

Because acrylic paints dry quickly, plan your picture in advance. If you try to correct a mistake, it's easy to have your paints turn into a muddy color because of too much experimentation. Always read all the labels on pigments, as they should include valuable information such as the lightfastness rating.