ABOUT ACRYLIC 

Acrylic is a take your time, sit back and relax sort of medium if you're painting in the impasto style.  What I mean by this is that acrylic is a water-based medium, meaning you can thin it down with water and use it just like watercolour.  The other style is the impasto style. You use the paint heavier and more thickly using less water.

 

 

Painting in the impasto style gives you time to correct, change or even remove things in your painting.  Acrylic dries fast, but there are gels out there that slow down the drying time.  Personally, I dont use any gels.  Over the years I've gotten to use it in my own way.  It's common sense really, the heavier you apply the paint on the canvas, the more time it will take to dry rather than a thin layer of paint.

 

 

Like I said about watercolour, there are various techniques to learn in all mediums that make your paintings look more convincing.  The dry brush technique is a godsend, especially for doing hedges, tree branches, far distant trees, etc.  To do the dry brush technique, make sure your brush is a little moist.  Lightly dab your brush in the paint, get an old rag and wipe a little bit of the loose paint off.  Then apply to the canvas in either upward strokes or downward strokes.  Look at the bottom picture of the tree, this was achieved using the dry brush.  In time and with practice, you will master this great technique.

Last but not least, I strongly recommened getting a staywet pallette.  A lot of people use plastic pallettes or even plates, and in about a minute the paint has dried.  By using a staywet pallette this keeps the paint moist for weeks and it saves you paint and money.  WARNING when painting with arcrylics, make sure your brushes are wet at all times.  If you let your brushes dry out with acrylic paint on , your brushes are ruined.  Clean with warm soapy water.

 

 

 

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