Table of Contents
Have you bought your first acrylic paint set and now ready for a few acrylic painting tips for beginners before getting started?
Then you are in the right place. This will be an overview of the best tips that will improve your experience with acrylic painting.
Acrylic paint is a great medium for beginners. Some of the tips below will help you to make your learning experience much better and ensure that you are improving faster.
8 Acrylic Painting Tips for Beginners:
Tip 1: Mix enough paint
Make sure you have enough paint in your paint mix.
It is so easy to not mix enough, and then the whole mix dries up really fast. There are a few ways to get around that.
- Mist color mixes on your palette regularly.
- Mix enough paint
- Set up a tracing paper palette for your paints.
Tip 2: Get your water consistency right
It is very difficult to get right the first time for beginners. But this is the key element to a successful artwork.
Sometimes there is too much water or too little. That is normal, just keep in mind that the right amount of water is needed in order to create your desired looks and textures.
Play around and experiment until you get it right.
Tip 3: Acrylic paint will dry darker
Simply, do not believe what you see.
That was very frustrating for me, as well as for my art students. I started with watercolors personally, and was very used to seeing the color and they looked the same on paper.
Acrylics are different.
This is why it is recommend to put a swatch of color mix on a piece of paper and letting it dry.
Then, see if it is the correct color. Only after you are satisfied, apply it to the final piece/paper.
Tip 4: Build up textures in layers
Rule of thumb when it comes to acrylic paintings, more depth the artwork has, the better it will look.
To do that, you can use a palette knife to add different dimensions, and layer on different surfaces for abstract and realistic outcomes.
Tip 5: Take your time to mix colours
It is so common for beginners to just take the paint from the paint tube and put it on canvas. Colors end up looking very plain and simple.
Difference between beautiful artwork is the colors that we see. More complex they are, the better your final result will be.
So take your time with it and mix the colors!
Tip 6: Do not paint from your memory
Although it is tempting to think that we know how things look, we actually do not.
I urge you to use google and the internet for the reference photos.
It will uplevel your artwork!
Tip 7: Wash up!
Yes, no one likes it but painting with brushes that have paint stuck on them is not very amusing.
It is very important to look after your supplies.
They will influence your final results and how your artwork turns out. If your small brush gets dry with old psint, then it will be hard to do details.
Tip 8: Take an art class (seriously)
Let’s be honest here. Now taking a class is VERY affordable. If you have some spare time and you would like results fast then this is the route to take.
People who put together classes spent hours themselves experimenting and learning about the medium. As a result you can hear and learn from their mistakes, so you do not have to learn from your own.
My personal favorite is: “The Acrylic Painting Academy:”
“The Acrylic Painting Academy” is a comprehensive painting course designed to guide absolute beginners to a level of producing professional quality acrylic paintings through concise and “easy to digest” modules that include HD videos and Ebooks.
Designed for beginners, this course lays the foundation required for success with acrylics and painting in general.
That is it! Have fun and do not overthink it!
Start painting with acrylics TODAY!
