Painting With Acrylics

Those wonderful acrylics are very fast drying, neat and relatively easy to use.  Painting with acrylics is a little different than working with watercolors, pastels or oil paints but when you want to get right at it, there is nothing like painting with acrylics.  Painting with acrylics is easy, easy to learn and neat to work with.

Acrylic paints are water-based which allows the artist to mix them in water for thinning purposes.  The artist’s brushes can also be cleaned in water.  Acrylic paints are made from the pigment and mixed with acrylic resin and emulsion.  As the fastest drying paint, they can be used in thin, watery glazes or impasto.  The effect is powerful and instantaneous.

Most artists who opt to paint with acrylics are influenced by the drying time and the fact that the only solvent necessary is water.  The artist will need stiff-bristled brushes for thick acrylic paints and soft-bristled brushes for watercolor type effects.  The brushes come in many diverse shape and sizes and in many different handle lengths.

To learn all the nuances of acrylic painting techniques, try one of the new-age DVD acrylic oil painting courses.  There are several reviewed on the Internet.  The most revered, Learn and Master Painting, is composed of 20 DVDs, a reference book and accompanying CDs.  The DVD instructor is a talented artist and instructor who has helped design the course and has a great gift fro instruction.  She will even have you completing three paintings before the course is finished.

Each DVD represents a class.  Students love this learning tool because there is absolutely no pressure.  You learn at your own pace, in your own studio or home and can re-visit material whenever you need a refresher.  The reference book is a handy tool, filled with a review of the lessons but also with helpful tips, a handy glossary of painting terms and concepts.

Acrylics require their own, distinct techniques.  Learn why so many artists have converted to acrylic painting.  Save money, learn the right way and learn how to oil paint in the privacy of your home on your own schedule.  That’s the way to do it, enjoy it and remember it.