Are you ready to try acrylic painting but not sure where to start? Or maybe you have already started painting, but just need a few pointers.
Acrylics are great for beginners. They are fairly easy to use, dry quickly, and are cheaper to buy than oils or watercolours. A few simple acrylic painting tips will help you get started and enjoy the creative process.
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Acrylic Paint
1. If you can afford it, use professional-grade paint, not craft paint.
Many good brands are available at various prices.
Professional artist paint has more pigment, which makes it easier to blend and provides better coverage. Most major brands also have decent student-grade paints that are good paints for beginners.
2. Acrylic paint dries fast.
This can be great if you don’t want to wait days for a layer to dry, as you would with oil paints, but it can be a little frustrating when you want to blend.
It’s best to work quickly with acrylics or use an extender designed to slow the drying time.
The fast drying time is also not great if you happen to spill paint on your clothes. This post has a few tips on how to remove acrylic paint from clothes.
If you are really impatient, you can use a hair dryer on the low setting to speed up drying time.
3. Learn how to mix colours.
Learning to mix your own colours and shades will save you money and expand your palette. You can learn to mix any colour from the three primary colours: red, blue, and yellow.
I have a post on colour theory you can read to get an idea about colour mixing.
I also have a YouTube channel with a whole playlist devoted to colour mixing. Trembeling Art YouTube
4. Acrylic paint generally dries a little darker.
The cheaper the paint, the darker it will dry because the paint contains less pigment and more filler.
5. Buy basic colours to begin with.
Red, blue, yellow, black, white, and an earthy tone like burnt umber are good choices. You can mix other colours as needed.
Eventually, you will figure out which colours you use most, and you can buy those. There are often starter sets available in student-grade paint, such as this one from Liquitex, which is a good place to start.
Liquitex Basics acrylics are student-quality paint, but with the same high-quality pigments as professional-grade. An excellent paint for beginning artists.
6. If you are using cheaper craft-type paints ( because of cost or availability), you can try adding a tiny bit of white to make them more opaque. Cheaper paints have less pigment and are, therefore, more transparent.
White will lighten the paint, so you might consider using a slightly darker shade or applying multiple layers to achieve the tone you want.
Brushes
7. Clean your brushes with mild soap and water after each painting session. Dried paint is almost impossible to remove from brushes.
Lay your brushes flat to dry to prevent water from getting into the ferrule and loosen the glue. Water will also cause the wood to swell and the lacquer on the handle to peel.
Never leave your brushes sitting in water for long periods of time for this reason.
For more information about cleaning your brushes, see my post titled “The Best Way to Clean Brushes.”
8. Store your brushes with the bristles facing up.
The bristles can become splayed and bent if they are stored with the bristles down in a jar. Make sure they are clean and dry, and then store the bristles in a jar or other container.
9. Synthetic brushes are best for acrylic painting. You need a brush that isn’t stiff or too soft.
The brushes don’t need to be expensive, but avoid the cheap dollar-store brushes. They frequently shed hair into your paint, and the bristles separate after a few uses.
10. Just a few brushes are all you need to begin with. Filbert brushes (flat with an oval top) in a few different sizes are good to start with.
Also, a larger flat wash brush and a fine detail brush are good to have. You can often buy these in sets that are fairly inexpensive but still good for beginners.
You can add to your collection over time and develop your own preferences for brushes.
This set includes round, angle, filbert, flat, fan, rigger, and cat’s tongue brushes in useful sizes. The variety gives you options for broad strokes, curved marks, clean edges, texture, fine lines, and small details without having to buy each brush style separately.
11. Mix paint with a palette knife.
These are also inexpensive and easy to use for mixing and painting. ( See my post on How to Use a Palette Knife).
If you don’t have a palette knife, you can use a plastic knife, or even an old credit card, or a craft stick.
Painting knives are great for adding different textures to a painting. You can add thick layers of paint with a painting knife for things like mountains, rocks, or other interesting textures.
A quality set of painting and palette knives used for applying paint to the canvas, shaping colours once they're applied, and mixing paints on the palette.
More Painting Tips
12. Don’t compare yourself to others. Your art and your art journey are unique to you. It is unfair to yourself to compare your artwork to someone who has been painting for years.
Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.
13. Sign and date your artwork….even your first attempts at painting. Signing your painting gives you a sense of ownership and makes you feel like the artist you are.
Dating each piece gives you a reference point so you can look back and see how far your skills have grown over the years.
14. Take pictures of your artwork. Pictures provide a visual record for yourself and can be used for social media posts, online portfolios, and web pages.
15. Make notes as you paint for future reference. Jot down how you mixed colours, what composition you liked, and where you got your reference photo or something you learned or observed while you painted. You can refer back to these notes in future painting sessions.
16. If you make mistakes and want to paint over them, you can usually cover most paintings with a coat or two of gesso. (See my post on How To Gesso A Canvas). Give the gesso a light sanding, and you can start over again.
17. Keep practicing. Learning to paint is a long process, and the more you paint, the better you get. Try to paint something every day, even if it is only blocks of colour or random shapes.
The more you practice, the more comfortable you will become with the brush and paint.
18. Step back from your painting frequently. From a couple of feet away, you get a better perspective. You can better see the overall composition and how well the colours are working together.
19. Keep a spray bottle of water handy to mist your paints and keep them from drying out. You can also mist your painting surface to keep your paints wetter for blending. Try to find a bottle with a fine-mist sprayer to avoid large water droplets. Find out more about palettes to keep your paint wet in my post on palettes.
I use an empty body spray bottle that has been thoroughly cleaned.
20. Take time to practice blending. Since acrylics dry so fast, there is a learning curve to getting the blending down.
Wet-into-wet blending requires some planning to get the paint colours down quickly and blend them before they dry.
21. You can paint on just about anything. Canvas is the usual surface for an artist, but wood, paper, or anything that paint will stick to can also be used.
My first painting was done on an old ceiling tile. For more ideas for painting surfaces, read my post on unique painting surfaces.
22. Work on large areas first and then the smaller details. This method will save on paint since acrylics dry so fast, and it is easier to add fine detail on top of the larger background area.
You can also use a thin wash of paint (paint mixed with water) to cover up the white of the canvas before you start the actual painting.
23. Keep two jars of water handy. One for cleaning brushes and one for clean water to dilute your paint. Any jar will do, such as a large mason jar.
You can buy brush basins for cleaning brushes, but they are an unnecessary expense.
24. Purchase a colour wheel to help you mix colours and guide you in deciding which colours you should use in your painting.
25. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Most paint manufacturers are happy to help if you email them your question.
They also usually have many valuable resources, such as fact sheets and how-to videos on their sites. Below are links to a few.
26. Use the biggest brush you can for the area you are painting. Don’t try to paint a background with a small brush. It will take you longer and leave more brushstrokes in the paint. Use larger brushes for large areas and save the detail brush for the smaller details.
27. You can add contrast to your work by learning about warm and cool shades and complementary colours. Warm colours are reds, yellows, and oranges. Cool shades are blues, greens, and violets. Complementary colours are colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel, such as red and green, for example.
28. Learn how to do an underpainting. This is a thin wash of colour, usually a neutral or earth tone, but can be any colour. An underpainting is helpful because it covers the white of the canvas and can help you define lights, darks, and midtones.
I have a YouTube video on my channel showing how to do an underpainting.
29. Make colour swatches of your paint so you can see what they look like when they are dry. It is also a good idea to make swatches of your colour mixes, along with a note of the colours and ratios you used to create them. A watercolour pad or mixed media pad is a good place to record your paint swatches.
30. Work from back to front. For example, if you are painting a landscape, start with the mountains or trees in the distance and then paint the objects closer to you.
31. To keep your paint wet on the palette, occasionally spray it with a fine mist sprayer. You can also use a stay-wet palette, which can keep your acrylic paint wet and workable for days.
This guide to different types of paint palettes explains what palettes are and how to make your own stay-wet palette.
32. If you get frustrated and can’t figure out what’s wrong with your painting, there are a couple of tricks you can try. First, take a picture with your phone. The painting often looks different on a phone for some reason, maybe because you are not as close to it and can see it as a viewer would.
Second, turn that picture into a black-and-white photo on your phone. You will be able to see from that photo if your values (lights and darks) are off, and maybe a little tweak in the values is all you need.
If these don’t work, you can try turning your painting upside down. It seems odd, but it often works to give you a different perspective on your painting.
33. Use a reference photo. A reference photo makes it so much easier for beginners to see where highlights and shadows are, get proportions right, and see values more clearly.
34. Speaking of values, it is a good idea to learn about them, what they are, and how to use value in your artwork.
35. Keep a sketchbook. Carry a small sketchbook to jot down ideas or do quick sketches of something you might like to paint later.
36. Understand Colour Theory. Learn the basics of colour mixing and the colour wheel.
37. Join an Art Community. Being part of a group can provide support and constructive feedback. I have a very active group on Facebook that is free to join. Trembling Art Creative Corner is a great group of supportive, helpful artists across all genres.
38. Keep Your Workspace Organized. A tidy space can improve your focus and efficiency.
39. Experiment with Composition. Try different layouts to see what works best for your subject.
40. Embrace Mistakes. Learn from errors and view them as part of the creative process.
I hope you found some of these tips useful in your painting. If you have any questions, I would love to hear from you.
We also have a private Facebook group, Trembeling Art Creative Corner, where you can post your work, ask questions and interact with artists of all levels. Everyone interested in art is welcome. 😊
Just found your site this morning. You have a very easy way of explaining things not to mention easy to understand and encouraging. I started going to an art class every Monday about a year ago and every now and again wonder if I’m wasting my money and the tutors time . There are some very talented artists in my class and can’t imagine ever being as good as they are. However I do enjoy their company.
I look forward to receiving emails fromyou. Happy 2022. Norma Dunn
Thank you so much Norma š Remember, when those very talented artists started out they had the same thoughts as you. Practice makes us better at everything, art included. The company of other artists is a bonus. Happy Painting!
I always had the urge to try painting, but never the time or space. Well, I am 74 and I am going to try. Think it’s too late for me? ? Think of Grandma Moses and wish me luck.
Hi Marcia, It’s never too late to try anything. My philosophy for living is Do What Makes You Happy! Happy painting š
I’m so jazzed that I came across your tips for beginners. I’ve saved it for when my head is bogged down from fibro fog I’ll have your tips to fall back on as my “All is not lost go toš§šš. God Bless & Thank You, Kim V
This was very nice to read. Thank you for sharing!
You have a great site. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Marilyn, š to your strength and courage in dealing with the tremors. I have had RA since I was 20, I am 76 and make all kinds of Art. I have started using Acrylics because of their convenience and ease of clean up, intend to try the spray bottle.
Best wishes & donāt give up!
Thank you Patricia. I hope you enjoy acrylics. š
another great post!
Thank You Dear Marilyn ā„
I would say that paint by numbers is actually a great way to learn painting for amateurs. For instance paint by numbers actually helps in teaching that colors are not just individual things but they all work together. A colour on its own would look quite different when it is painted alongside another colour. Furthermore, paint by number helps in developing self-confidence, and once the confidence is up you can actually start to take creative control; experimenting with different types of brush strokes or trying new colors as well.
Thanks for sharing this, I have been painting just less than a year and your tips were still very useful š
very informative nicely & simply explained
It was very simple to follow and I’ve learnt a bit more every day I’m learning and I have found painting is my stress relief. I’ve even started building my small art studio.. Thanks
Very glad to have come across your article. Just a few days ago my daughters and I had an art night and played. I was given a set of art supplies for MD and had been pleasantly surprised with the colors and quality of the set and suggested that playing would be fun. We all have different art styles, and chose different art surfaces to try out painting with acrylics. We researched and found something to paint and eventually finished or stopped at what we were happy with. The next day, I thought the work we did was pretty good. For a first timer, I was impressed with what and how things developed. I know that beginners luck helps to whet the palate, but acrylics turned out to be fun and your points help me to appreciate me. I already have another sketch ready to try out and feel more confident to see how I will grow. The one major suggestion from your article that I will definitely use is too have a sprayer to keep the paints moist. That was my most difficult process when painting with the acrylics. I kept saying, ‘this paint dries so fast.’ Another definite try is to change my brush. My set only has rounds, I will definitely try using the filbert and flat on my next project. The round was not the right type to use for the whole project. You covered pretty much all points a beginner should be aware of. Thank you, I found a great source of advise.
thank you so much for taking the time for all these different explanations. New to painting and want to dive in but afraid of mistakes but this info helped … Thank You =o)
Thanks much for your tips, I think I am already doing most of these, I just do not sign any of my work because I don’t think it is artist quality. I have no real training but I have been painting things like T shirts, bags etc, for years, Both my husband and daughter has been urging me to sign them but now I understand what you are saying too.
Hi Marilyn,
I’m an semi-advanced newbie in drawing & painting. Took a few classes, but haven’t been active for about 7 years now. I am now retired and would like to pick up some sort of art again. I’m now leaning more towards acrylic pouring resin art and before I get started I’m trying to get as much information possible to get off on a good basis & understanding of basic techniques. Thanks for providing such a wide range of information. Much appreciated. Stay safe & God bless!
As i am a beginner this tips will be really useful for me.
thanks for sharing. good work keep it up.
Your suggestions are really useful.
Many thanks.
Iām an absolute beginner, and have seen on other posts that a sealant is used when the painting is finished. Can you please explain what this is about.
Hi Jo; A lot of artists varnish their work when it is dry to protect it from dust, dirt and minor scratches. It is not absolutely necessary but I would recommend it. I have a post about varnishing your painting if you would like to read more about varnishing. https://trembelingart.com/how-to-varnish-acrylic-paintings/ Hope this helps. š
I have been painting for around 11 years now. And I found your blog very helpful. I have always compared myself to other artists. But from now on I won’t. So I want to say thank you very much.
Hi,
These are very helpful tips.Is it required to spray water on the canvas ?
This blog was really inspiring to me. I’m always comparing myself to other artists and start to feel less of myself then I should, but you changed that! Thank you!!
Hi Jo; Thank you š I am so glad I could help. We all have our own creative talent. It’s as individual as a fingerprint and I hope you continue to develop yours. Happy painting. š
Hey Marilyn,
Amazing blog really helpful for any beginner to may their way to paint. looking forward to reading more of your blogs.
Thank you. š
Thank you Marilyn
You are welcome. š