Welcome to Painting

Acrylic Painting for Experts and Beginners

If you are a budding artist, especially a painter, you may find it best to start with acrlic paint. Some in the art world would not consider acrylic for an art painting, but more and more artists are choosing acrylic as their first choice before watercolors or oils. Acrylic painting is often the medium of choice for many artists because of the ease of cleaning up and the quick drying time. Since acrylics are water-based, brushes can be cleaned up with water in most cases. Acrylics can also be thinned with water or other substances to create different effects with the paints, such as a watercolor appearance on your canvas.

You can also paint layer upon layer with acrylic painting, which allows an artist to add details to pictures or correct mistakes easily. Because acrylic painting is rather easy to do, they are a popular option for many beginning artists as well as more seasoned painters.

A Step by Step Guide to Acrylic Painting

Before beginning your adventure into acrylic painting, you want to put on appropriate clothing. Acrylic paint is water-soluble only until it dries, making it nearly impossible to wash out of fabric. For this reason, you will want to wear old clothes and a paint smock before beginning any project with acrylic painting.

You can use these paints on nearly any surface, but they work particularly well on textured surfaces like canvas or textured paper. However, with a proper base coat or primer applied, you can use acrylic painting to accent wood, terracotta, and even glass. These paints are a very popular choice for decorative painting projects.

Since acrylics dry quickly, this can pose a challenge for mixing colors. There are special palettes that you can purchase for acrylic painting that will enable the paints to stay wet longer. This can be a wise investment if you are planning to do a lot of painting. Bristle brushes generally work best with this type of paint, and synthetic bristles tend to be preferred over natural materials.

Remember to invest in high quality brushes if you can, since these will last longer and usually give you better results. Look for a stiffer bristle since the paint is thicker, unless you are planning to water it down to the consistency of watercolors.

While you are doing acrylic painting, keep your brushes washed out as soon as you are finished with them. Once the acrylic painting dries, it will be very difficult to get your brushes clean. If you don't want to continue to interrupt your painting session to wash out brushes, keep a cup of water at your easel to leave your brushes in until you can clean them. If the paint is a bit stubborn, a little soap added to your water should clean your brushes out quite nicely.

Acrylic painting is a fun and versatile medium that even a budding artist can learn to master. Invest in a few basic paint colors, brushes and canvas, and see what your creative spirit can invent. You just might surprise yourself with your results! Acrylics clean up easily, are easy to use, and can be purchased much less expensively than oils. If you are learning to be a painter or have been painting for years, acrylic paints just might be your next favorite medium.

Newton police probing thefts of artist's paintings (Daily Record)

NEWTON — Police are investigating the theft of a stolen painting valued at $500 from the Normal Silbert Medical Complex on Wednesday afternoon.

Frame Of Reference (Interior Design)

We last left Karyn Lovegrove and Peter Leak—she a Los Angeles art dealer, he a music manager for Dido and Martha Wainright—at their Los Feliz home, heavy on racy paintings and photography.

Calendar (The Toledo Blade)

ART Toledo Museum of Art: 2445 Monroe St.; 255-8000; Canaday Gallery: Collecting at Winterthur: Henry Francis du Pont's American Vision: through Sept. 7. Gallery 18: Nova (New Species) paintings by Isabella Kirkland: through Oct. 5. Works on Paper Galleries: Inner Space: glimpses of daily life from the 1600s to the present in photographs, prints, and books from Europe and Asia; through Oct. ...

Salute to the Arts highlights local artists (Belleville News-Democrat)

Seventh-graders used to hearing Matt Weld talk about molecules, photosynthesis and the solar system may be surprised to see him displaying pastel paintings at the Midwest Salute to the Arts in Fairview Heights this weekend.

Tamara Browning: Artists’ talents help Darfur (The State Journal-Register)

Retired from state government, DELINDA CHAPMAN has been painting for about three years, showing her artwork in various places in the area, including the Eclectic Gallery in Jacksonville, as well as The Trout Lily Cafe and the MacArthur Boulevard Fair in Springfield. Chapman’s acrylic abstracts — several of which are large and colorful — also will be among artwork displayed to benefit the ...