painting techniques

Acrylic Painting Tips

Acrylic painting is a fast and fun medium for artists of all skill levels. These water-based paints are easy to use and easy to clean up. If you are unfamiliar with acrylic paints, there are some basic tips that will help you improve your work and protect your paints.

Acrylic Painting Instructions

Acrylic paint is a common medium in use by artists since the 1950s and 1960s. In this article, you will learn what materials you will need to make an acrylic painting, how to set up your painting area, and how to make a painting from start to completion.

Beginners Acrylic Painting

Acrylic paints are water soluble, fast drying and can be used on almost any surface, which makes them a popular choice for many artists. It doesn't take a lot of special skill to learn how to use acrylics to create eye-catching works of art.

Make Your Own Oil Paint

For artists, making oil paints can offer several benefits. It is more economical, as one can control the quantity, avoiding waste and spoilage. Making oil paint also allows an artist to gain specific knowledge of the medium and to create paints that will meet her requirements for different projects.

How to Make My Own Oil Paint Brush

Good oil paint brushes can be expensive. Making your own oil paint brushes is a way to save money and make your own artistic statement, both at the same time. Depending on your skill level, it may also be an effective way of adding a personal creative touch to your oil paintings.

Basic People Painting Techniques in Watercolor

Since watercolor is a fast-moving medium, as well as often unforgiving, many novice watercolorists avoid painting people. New painters are typically afraid to paint people or portraits, fearing they won't be able to paint all the details or skin tones correctly.

About Oil Painting Cleaners

An oil painting is about more than just finding a work of art. It's investment in your home. And just like any investment, you want to take care of it the best way you can. That means cleaning it, but a lot of people don't like to clean oil paintings because they don't want to ruin the art work.

How to Use Oil Paints

Use oil paints to recreate the techniques of great art masters. The smell of turpentine, slow drying times, assumed more complicated technique and mystery of oil paints often keep people from trying them.

How Much to Charge for Painting a Portrait

A portrait is a painting that seeks to capture an individual's unique attributes in either a figurative or literal way. It can be difficult to decide how much to charge for painting a portrait as there is no standard rate.

Acrylic Painting Tips for Beginners

Acrylic paint is a versatile medium that is excellent for beginning painters. They are made with synthetic ingredients, as opposed to oil paints which are based on natural oils. Acrylic paint dries faster than oil paint and can be thinned with water to achieve different techniques.

Acrylic Painting Techniques

Acrylic paints are an increasingly popular alternative to oil paints. These polymer-based paints dry quickly and are water-soluble, allowing for several different techniques that can change the look of your painting.

Acrylic Landscape Painting Techniques

Acrylic paints have unique features that allow for different techniques than oil paints. They dry quickly and blend with water, allowing them to be thinned easily. Acrylic paint is a wonderful way for beginners to explore landscape painting.

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.

Glazing Techniques Acrylic Paint

Because acrylic paint is water-soluble, it can be thinned down to achieve a variety of textures and looks. Glazing with acrylic paint is one of the most popular techniques. It changes the appearance of an entire painting and can soften colors and shapes.

Techniques to Use Acrylic Paints

Though many painting purists would argue that oil paints are the best medium, acrylic paints are versatile and can be used with a variety of techniques to create interesting results. They dry faster than oil paints, allowing several layers to be added to a canvas over the course of a day.

How to Paint Leaves

There are thousands upon thousands of different species of trees and plants, and therefore thousands of different leaves an artist could paint. If you are intending to paint a specific species of leaf, then it is important to study this species before painting.

What is Oil Paint?

There are many different kinds of paints out there, each one lending unique properties to what it helps produce. Oil paint is one of the oldest and most widely used of these. Whether it is used in fine art or in painting a home, oil paint is unique for many reasons, making it the prime choice for many types of paint jobs.

Art Materials for Painting

Painting is often seen as an elusive field. Would-be painters rarely know where to start. You can get started painting in acrylic, oil or watercolors with only a few standard items. If you want to start creating your own masterpieces out of paint, pick up these basic items.

How Do You Realise Your Ideas, by Painting, Drawing or Computer?

The entire world is made up of ideas that were only visions and imaginations in someone's mind before being put on paper. Inside each of us is a creative genius that beckons to be expressed. Part of becoming an artist or realizing any dream is learning how to take those ideas and put them on paper.

Painting or Drawing on Canvas Ideas

Canvas is a wonderful support medium for painting and drawing because it is easy to form into project-specific shapes such as rectangles or ovals, its texture provides an extra dimension to the final product, and the weight of the material can easily hold a lot of paint or charcoal.

Creative Drawing Ideas

Simply drawing need not be boring. Many ideas exist and with practice, many more will come to you. Drawing techniques provide a variety of effects from texture to color-blending to design. Drawing tools include pencil, colored pencil, charcoal, permanent ink and oil or chalk pastels.

How to Paint Flowers With Watercolors

Painting is a relaxing, rewarding and sometimes profitable hobby. Watercolor painting lends itself to an array of artistic possibilities. Flowers never seem to lose their popularity as a subject matter for paintings, and watercolors are a natural medium for creating beautiful floral elegance.

How to Do Folk Art Painting on Wood

Do folk art painting on wood for a simple, colorful piece of artwork. Folk art began with rural artists who practiced and perfected their skills without the help of formal training. Folk painting is marked by simple country scenes and characters.

Expressionist Portrait Painting: Color Palette

The color palette is a crucial aspect of a piece of art, as it is often the first thing that unites the painting as a whole. Artist Andrew Davis offers valuable information about putting together a color palette and mixing oil paints.

Expressionist Portrait Painting: Mixing Colors

Mixing paint is an art in and of itself, and understanding the sublties of how colors blend can take practice. Andrew Davis, an active atist, explains the step-by-step process of mixing oil paint colors on an artist's palette in this helpful video. Understand the nuances of mixing flesh tones with his expert advice.

How to Paint on Canvas

Painting is a timeless craft. For centuries, people have painted on a variety of mediums and used many types of paint to portray a thought, a person, a landscape or an object. If you would like to try your hand at this craft, gather the materials, find a quiet location and start painting.

How to Paint Roses in Oil

The rose is a classic symbol used in all media of artwork, and oil paint delivers a vibrant depiction of the flower. People generally consider oil a difficult medium to work with because it is not removable with water and it dries slowly.

How to to Clean an Oil Painting

Oil paintings have unique textures that collect dust and dirt particles. It can be difficult to clean an oil painting without damaging the fragile surface. Learning how to clean an oil painting is easy, but remember that valuable artwork should always be cleaned and restored by a professional.

How to Paint Sunflowers

Sunflowers are an ideal flower to present in a painting. The traditional color of the sunflower is yellow. The tiny outer florets within the circular head can be maroon, yellow, or orange. Sunflowers face the sunrise in the east and turn throughout the day to the west.

How to Paint Flowers in Oil

Paint palettes are easily made by using a Styrofoam plate, a sheet of freezer paper (wax side up) or even a glass plate. If you have an old cookie sheet, that will also do for mixing your colors. Mixed colors allow for ease when painting.

How to Paint in Mixed Media

Mixed media works have become desirable to many art collectors, especially those who enjoy modern avant-garde pieces. The term "mixed media" refers to art that could be considered "outside the box" of traditional art.

Types of Acrylic Paint

Acrylic paint is a fine medium for any artist to use no matter their experience level. Acrylics are fast-drying and can be purchased relatively cheap making them ideal for beginners or those wishing to experiment.

How to Mix Acrylic Paints

You can mix acrylic paints to create richer, more natural looking colors than those found in tubes. With just five basic colors, it is easy to create a natural looking palette to complement any subject matter.

Paint Brushes

Art brushes come in various shapes, sizes and textures. Because one brush can't perform all jobs or be used with all painting mediums, there are many brushes, each designed for different types of pigments and functions.

Clean Oil Paint Brushes

A paintbrush is one of an artist's main tools, and having brushes that are clean and well taken care is a must. Cleaning a paintbrush properly is important in order to make it last as long as possible.

How to Clean Old Paintbrushes

Paintbrushes are often expensive, so they'll turn into an investment if you paint frequently. Cleaning your brushes properly is the best thing you can do to keep them in good condition. Old ones need especially good care while cleaning--their bristles are more likely to fall out or get damaged during the process.

How Is Oil Paint Made?

Oil paints can be made with materials readily available online or at art supply retail stores. Various colors of paint pigment are mixed with a binder, such as linseed oil. The binder may vary depending on the pigment.

How to Understand Color Theory & Pigments

What is color? Color theory is by far the most fundamental aspect of any art form. Explore color theory as Danny Page, a professional cartoonist and illustrator, explains how colors relate to each other.

How Do Mural Artists Paint on Curved Walls?

Murals are those large pictures that are painted on walls in cities, buildings and other locations. They can be large, grand works of art (the Sistine Chapel is a very famous mural) or more local affairs such as a local artist decorating an otherwise blank wall at a park.

Watercolor Painting Techniques

Watercolor offers a wide range of creativity, making it an art medium of wide diversity. Because watercolor involves water, the process goes quickly and is one of the most free forms of painting. Unlike acrylics and oils, it's not as easy to cover up mistakes as many watercolor pigments are transparent and staining.

Watercolor Paint Stain Removal

Both children and adults enjoy painting with watercolors. This paint looks beautiful whether used on canvas by a trained artist or stroked onto white paper by little hands. When paint gets spilled onto a table or dripped on the floor, though, the result is not so appealing.

How to Use Watercolor Paints

Watercolor paints are convenient and relatively economical. Watercolors, particularly pan watercolors, travel and clean up easily and need only a small container of water. Practice using them and realize their surprising versatility.

How to Make Oil Paint Dry Faster?

Oil paint is known for its slow drying time, which enables artists to work on and rework their paintings for an extended period. Unlike other paints that dry through evaporation, oil paint hardens during a slow oxidation process.

How to Oil Paint Flowers

Oil painting, like most other art forms, can be tricky for the beginner. Techniques vary greatly and often take years to master, particularly for those who paint only as an occasional hobby. There are some projects that are easily adapted to a beginner's skills, however.

History of Japanese Prints

Japanese prints are time-honored artistic symbols and can be found today on a variety of decorative products from calendars to posters. Yet these woodblock paintings also have a rich history influenced by Japanese culture over the course of three centuries.