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Here is 13 basic acrylic painting techniques to learn or refine.

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You've got your acrylic paint, your work surface, and you're really inspired to paint. But how exactly do you do get started? Here's a guide to acrylic painting techniques for beginners that will help you begin your artistic journey. Want more? Check out our other resources for beginning acrylic painters!

Once you've assembled all of the necessary tools for acrylic painting, you're ready for the fun part: putting paint to paper or canvas. Here, we'll explore some easy key techniques for applying paint, mixing color, and building paintings so that you can paint like a pro in no time.

Techniques for paint application

The most basic supplies (brush, acrylic paint and paper) can be used in a variety of ways. These are some accessible techniques for applying paint to paper in a variety of styles.

Dry brush

When paint is applied to canvas or work surface using a dry brush and paint undiluted by water, you'll create a strong current of color on the page. Your lines will be uneven, as they won't have water to soften the edges, but this can be a purposeful painterly effect. Dry brush application lends texture and movement to lines.

Washing

You can treat acrylic somewhat like watercolor when you dilute the paint with enough water. You can use the watered down paint to apply translucent washes on your surface. However, unlike watercolor, the acrylic paint will set permanently. Mixing wash and dry brush methods can be very effective in creating a variety of textures in a single piece.

Stippling

This method, often used in drawing, can also be used with paint (Georges Seurat's work is a fine and famous example). Creating an assemblage of tiny dots to create imagery can be an effective way to show texture and to create a compelling scene with subtle variations in color.

Splattering

Using a fairly wet brush, you can flick or splatter paint onto a work surface for an uneven splatter effect. It's fantastic for creating an abstract landscape or a starry night or for just adding texture to a piece.

Dabbing

Using a corner of a sponge or even a piece of paper towel, you can dab on accents of color. Think of it like very artistic sponge painting. Dabbing adds a lot of texture and movement to a piece. For instance, on the painting above, dabbing with a sponge perfectly captured the texture and movement of trees swaying in a light breeze.

Palette knife

Applying paint with a palette knife is an instant way to make your painting "artsy." It might seem intimidating or advanced, but it's a technique accessible even to beginners. Simply use the palette knife to scrape up a bit of paint and apply it to your work surface. Pretend that you're artfully spreading buttercream on a cake or even butter on bread, and you'll get the idea pretty quickly.

Detailing

A small, fine brush can be used to apply details, such as the whites of eyes or the glisten on the wing of a bird. In our tutorial on how to draw eyes, you'll get a fantastic primer on detail work in acrylic, which can carry over to different subject matters.

Techniques for building a painting

One of the great things about these techniques for building a painting is that they will grow as your skills develop. Mastering these basic techniques is like laying a groundwork for your future painting. These techniques can become more involved complex as you advance.

Underpainting

Start your painting by creating a "sketch" of the image in paint. Often this is done in a color that contrasts with the palette you have in mind for the finished piece. You can paint over the underpainting entirely using opaque acrylic to cover any evidence of the paint below, or you can let parts of it shine through for a dimensional effect.

Glazing

By incorporating matte medium into your paint, you can create luminous scenes. The technique, which is detailed in this tutorial, is simple: Mix acrylic paint with a small amount of matte medium and apply the paint in thin layers, building the color until it creates a rich, complex color.

Layering

Layering, which can be combined with either of the two above methods, is simply to paint in layers. This means that you'll build the painting from the bottom up. You'll start by painting big blocks of color, often as washes, and then adding more and more refinement as you add layers.

The technique is detailed in this post about how to paint a self portrait, but the method could be applied to paint other subject matter.

Paint in blocks of color

This is a fantastic method for beginners. Trace your image, separating each color or tone into separate shapes. Create a palette, and then paint in the shapes as if it were your own DIY paint by numbers piece. This is an easy method with monochromatic palettes or can be employed with a variety of colors, too.

Color mixing techniques

Mixing acrylic colors is fairly simple: Combine colors and mix using a palette knife. But once you've mastered color mixing, you can explore some more creative methods. Here are just two.

Partially mix colors before painting

Instead of fully mixing the two colors, just give them a brief mix with your palette knife. Then, use the partially mixed colors to paint. You'll get a fascinating mingling of colors as you apply the paint to your work surface.

Create a family of colors

Creating a family of colors or tones to work with in a painting can help you create subtle variances in your painting. Whether it's slight varieties of skin tones or varying shades of pink, having a family of tones pre-mixed before you paint can really help streamline the process.

Then, get creative

While there are a few tried-and-true techniques all beginners should try out, don't limit yourself to the basics! Mix and match these methods and techniques, exploring the ways of painting that feel right to you. As you develop your skills, you'll notice that your techniques will become refined into your own unique method of creating art.

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13 Must- Know Acrylic Painting Techniques for Beginners

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You've got your acrylic paint, your work surface, and you're really inspired to paint. But how exactly do you do get started? Here's a guide to acrylic painting techniques for beginners that will help you begin your artistic journey. Want more? Check out our other resources for beginning acrylic painters!

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Some basic acrylic brush techniques to help advance artwork.

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Trying to keep a page about brush technique concise is somewhat of a struggle. Those who know me, know that it is not easy for me to keep things short. Even harder when it is a subject as big as this one.

I never cease to be amazed at how many experienced painters struggle with their paintbrushes. I firmly believe that most people never push their brushes to the limit, they never take the time to understand the possibilities of just one brush.

Keep it simple. Particularly when just starting out. This means knowing exactly what each brush will and wonʼt do. I use chisels (flats), and mostly a 2, 4, 8, 10 + one whacking great house paint brush. I do occasionally use other brushes, but I know I can do almost whatever I want with those 5.

When you have worked with brushes for a long time, it becomes more about " will this brush do the job I need it to do?". You develop an instinctive understanding of your needs, and the brushes capabilities. Your brush technique becomes honed.

Sorry for shouting, but..... THIS NEXT BIT IS IMPORTANT!

Get out a blank canvas, and find out.

Find a photo, and try to paint the image using just one paint brush.
Try and achieve the effect of rocks, of leaves, of branches........

What ways can YOU come up to develop your own brush technique?

We like to paint for a reason. We tend to put pressure on ourselves to achieve something "finished".

What if we just got some paint and pushed it around for a while for no reason?

What if we were just trying to find out what our brushes would do?

When you really know what your brushes will do, you will find a lot more versatility, control and confidence.

Your paintings will reflect that.

Let's look at a few basic concepts that will improve our brush technique:

Use as big a brush as possible

Understanding the functions of your paintbrush

Subtlety

Use As Big a Brush As Possible

Using an "appropriate" size brush will expedite the process of making a painting. You will cover more canvas, faster.

Using a larger brush for as long as possible, will make you a better painter.

You will learn to control a brush in ways you never thought possible. As a bonus, the less often you have to change brushes, the easier it is to stay in the zone.

I sometimes find that changing brushes is a little jarring, and wrecks the continuity.

Understanding The Functions Of Your Paintbrush
We're going to break the process of using any paintbrush into three broad groups, and further develop your brush technique:
Amount of Product Your Brush Holds:

The bristles and size of your brush will determine how much product it holds.

A large brush can either be used as a trowel, or a tool for creating subtlety. A larger brush with relatively stiff bristles will pick up a huge amount of undiluted paint. It can also deliver the most minuscule amounts. Obviously a small soft liner will need a lot of thinning agent in order for the brush to hold paint. It's bristles are not strong enough to "scoop" up solid blobs of paint.

Amount of Thinning Agent You Add to Your Product:

A softer brush will need the paint to be thinned in some way, in order to allow it to penetrate into the brush and be "held" by it. Watercolour brushes are a case in point.

Softer bristles and thinned paint allows the brush to "flow". This creates wonderful opportunities for you to create thinner and thicker lines, by adjusting the pressure.

A fantastic way to assess how your brush technique is developing. Even a stiff bristled brush will hold a surprising amount of paint.
The marks you make will be completely different from those using undiluted paint.
Amount of Pressure You Apply:

As a general rule the more pressure you apply - the more paint you put onto the surface, the less important the shape of the brush. Force will change the shape of the softest part of the brush. The stiffness of the bristles will probably be more noticeable than the shape, when you start applying more pressure. Spend some time experimenting with this. It will help you understand more of the nuances of your brushes.

All of this is obvious, and most of the problems we face with our brush technique can be solved by knowing these principles. Knowing what you want your brush to do and using these concepts, will usually get you out of trouble. When you get stuck, go back to the basics.

CAUTION: While apparently simple, it is also very complicated. So many different combinations of the above applications are possible your head spins. But that's the beauty of it. Your solution is there amongst those possibilities. Often, the solution is in the next subject. (!)

The concept of a "feather touch" seems very difficult to grasp in the early stages of developing your brush technique, particularly when using a larger brush.

It seems particularly difficult to go from the process of blocking in (using your paintbrush like a house painter - lots of paint and a loose approach), to a more subtle and gentle approach when moving to more detailed work.

An Exercise In Subtlety:

This exercise creates some wonderful effects that can be immediately useful for your paintings. It requires a very soft approach.

Grab yourself a size 12 brush. Dry it completely. Dip the tip of the brush into undiluted paint (whatever colour works for you). Work off most of the paint so that you have a tiny quantity remaining. Drag the brush very gently over the surface. You will notice that the brush picks up only the highest parts of the canvas. See how little paint you can apply.

The less paint on the brush, the more passes you will have to make over the surface. It sounds obvious, and it happens to be a sensational technique. You can add "grain" to a very flat surface with one (very soft) sweep.

Add a tiny bit of thinner (water or medium). Apply the same process using the tip of the brush very gently, and you have just recreated the wonderful seagrass that grows all over our beaches. A gentle and judicious application of this technique allows you to form sand dunes, or the sunlit tips of long grass.

All of this highlights the versatility of one paintbrush.

All we've done so far is explored some simple applications of the three functions above.

Next time you struggle with something, look at these three functions.

If you adjust one of them, will it get you what you want? Will it solve your problem?

My advice: learn to master a few paintbrushes, before investing in a pile of very expensive ones. I'm not saying you shouldn't buy expensive brushes, and I'm not saying you shouldn't have a large amount of different brushes. BUT. Know the ones you have, intimately.

When you understand the possibilities of one paintbrush, and you can skillfully manipulate that brush, your ability to pick up any paintbrush and use it well increases. You develop a "feel" for how much paint it will hold; how much pressure to apply, and whether to thin the paint to achieve a desired effect.

A racing car driver can probably drive your old bomb a lot faster than you can, despite never having driven it before. He understands his medium. He has a feel for the tools of his trade. Remember also, he did not do all his practice in actual races.

The subject of brush technique is huge. I've tried to break it down to the basics. Hopefully, some of the pain may now be gone, and you can get back to doing what you should be, which is having fun poking paint around!
Top of Brush Technique Back To Acrylic Painting Techniques Back to Explore Acrylic Painting Home Page

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Your Brush Technique. An Important Foundation.

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Trying to keep a page about brush technique concise is somewhat of a struggle. Those who know me, know that it is not easy for me to keep things short. Even harder when it is a subject as big as this one. I never cease to be amazed at how many experienced painters struggle with their paintbrushes.

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Here is some basic layering techniques that can be used when working with acrylic paint.

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How to Paint with Layers - in Acrylic & Oil ~ Nancy Reyner

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Layering techniques will differ depending on whether you are using oil paint, watercolor, encaustic or acrylic. When you paint with oil paints, due to the long drying time of oils, you need to make sure you are always applying a layer of paint that is more flexible than the one below it.

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There are countless ways to blend acrylic paints. Some are listed here.

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One of the most common things I hear about why artists use acrylic is that it's versatile. You can use it in many different ways, including blending it as you would oil paint. See what I mean in this lesson on how to blend acrylic from Acrylic Revolution by Nancy Reyner.

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by Nancy Reyner; Oil-Like Blending (from click here to tweet this free demonstration) Acrylic Revolution Since oil paint dries much slower than acrylic paint, oil is often considered an easier medium for blending purposes, especially for softening the edges between two colors. This is an acrylic technique that simulates the oil-like blending of wet paint.

Materials: painting support; flat, soft brush; palette knife; acrylic paints; acrylic glazing liquid; paper towels

1. Apply Paint Near the Hard Edge
Where two colors meet with a hard edge, revert the colors with paint right along that edge. (For large areas, add up to one part acrylic glazing liquid to four parts paint before applying the paint.)

Before the paint dries, blend the colors with a soft brush. Gently stroke back and forth along the edge. Extend each stroke beyond the sides of the painting's surface. Turn the brush as needed so the colors on the brush always correspond to the colors to be blended.

Increase Transparency of Paint Colors and Reapply One Color Add acrylic glazing liquid to one of the paint colors and mix well. Apply the colors a bit further from the edge you are blending. Using a clean brush and the brushing technique in step 2, gently stroke the paint back and forth. Slowly move the brush and paint toward the edge you want to blend. Remove any excess paint from your brush by frequently wiping it on a paper towel.

4. Allow Color to Gradually Disappear
Dip your brush into acrylic glazing liquid without adding more colors and stroke this over and a bit beyond the blended area. Let this dry, then repeat steps 3 and 4 for the other color. Add more medium each time. Continue until the blending is acceptable to you.

Acrylic Painting Tricks and Techniques

Capture the beauty of the natural world alongside Lee Hammond as she discusses landscapes "strokes" and color mixing and more.

More Innovative Acrylics

Find more demonstrations within within * Top 10 Acrylic Painting Techniques with Chris Cozen (DVD) the Innovative Acrylic Painting Techniques Premium Palette, exclusive at North Light Shop. It includes all of the following resources:
* Acrylic Painting: Color, Texture and Value with Chris Cozen (DVD)
* Acrylic Painting: Glazing Techniques with Chris Cozen (DVD)

* Acrylic Innovation by Nancy Reyner (Book)
* 500 Acrylic Mixes Book by Sharon Finmark (Book)
* Rethinking Acrylic by Patti Brady (Book)

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Is That Acrylic or Oil? How to Blend Like a Boss

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One of the most common things I hear about why artists use acrylic is that it's versatile. You can use it in many different ways, including blending it as you would oil paint. See what I mean in this lesson from Acrylic Revolution by Nancy Reyner.

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Different Surfaces to use Acrylic Paint On

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Different Surfaces to use Acrylic Paint On

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There are many different surfaces to paint on, here are a few examples.

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Editor's Note: Today's painting advice comes to you from Nancy Reyner's book Acrylic Revolution. Get the book for tips on selecting and priming these painting substrates, and much more advice for painting with acrylic, in Nancy's Acrylic Revolution.

Read through this list for eight surfaces, and see the one thing you don't want to paint on below.

You Can Paint on Anything: Painting Substrates for Acrylic
By Nancy Reyner, from Acrylic Revolution
Acrylic can be painted on just about any support. Select among the many choices in this section for convenience, longevity and aesthetics.
1. Canvas
Canvas is commonly used as a painting surface and offers many advantages: it's absorbent, has a wonderful fabric texture, is lightweight and portable. Canvas supports comes in three types: unstretched, stretched and commercially made canvas boards. Canvas paper also comes in pads, but canvas paper feels very slick, not at all like real canvas fabric.

Stretching it yourself takes practice. You'll need wood stretcher bars, a staple gun and stretcher pliers. Wrap the canvas around the bars and tack it down in the back, pulling it tightly each time. Start from the center and work outward. Stretched canvases can be purchased in standard sizes, or custom-made by your art store or framer. Those that are mass-produced with a machine can sometimes cost about the same or less than supplies for stretching it yourself.
2. Paper and Cardboard
Paper and cardboard are great support choices if you are a beginner or just want to experiment. Both are economical and easy to find. Both have absorbent surfaces that make washes and over-watered acrylic techniques possible. Select acid-free papers or cardboard, which are more archival and will not have impurities that might stain through into your painting.
3. Wood and Composite Panels
Wood is a great support for paintings, especially for thick applications of paint and other techniques that require a rigid, sturdy support. There are many types of natural wood available, as well as composites such as Masonite, high-density fiber board (HDFB) and medium-density fiber board (DFB). Birch makes great thin, lightweight panel for large paintings.

Wood has many impurities, resins and other natural elements that may seep through into paint layers, causing stains and yellowing. Always clean the surface first, coast it with a stain sealer, then prime before painting.

Composites are strong and have the feel of wood but don't have a natural wood grain. Another type of composite product is particleboard, which is made of pressured sawdust. Moisture will cause the surface of particleboard to swell, so sand it after the first few coats of sealer and primer to smooth out the rough surface, and it should remain smooth for subsequent coats and painting.
4. Patterned Fabric
I love browsing in fabric stores to get ideas for colors, patterns and textures. Sometimes I buy small pieces of fabric just to hang around my studio for inspiration. A fun technique is to take your favorite fabric and use that as the starting surface to begin a painting. No need to stare at that white canvas with fear. Get a jump-start by beginning your painting with colors and patterns already there!
5. Silk
If you want to paint on silk and hope to keep the fabric soft and freely flowing to use as a banner, fabric installation or wearable art, fluid acrylics offer a more stable alternative than fabric dyes. Dye works well on silk, but is not as lightfast and stable as acrylic. This technique demonstrates how to use acrylic on silk for durable, lightfast, washable color while maintaining the softness of the fabric. This technique may be used on fabrics other than silk.
6. Metal
The two issues of concern for preparing a metal support are adhesion and rust control. This technique works best for ferrous metals like steel and will provide a long-lasting rustproof support for indoor or outdoor use, suitable for coating with acrylic paint. There are many types of metal to choose from. Research safety issues, availability and necessary additional preparation. This demonstration uses 11-gauge, 1 ⁄ 8 -inch (3mm) Mild Steel. Whatever metal you choose, have it professionally cut to your specifications.
7. Glass
One reason to paint on glass is to take advantage of its clarity. The main concern with painting on glass is adhesion. Etching or sandblasting the surface will add tooth. Both methods will make the glass slightly cloudy, so etch only in the areas where paint will be applied.

Purchase glass at any glass supply store and have it cut to size. Float glass and window glass are smooth, clear, inexpensive choices that will work well. Glass also comes colored or textured. If you are sandblasting, use glass that is at least 1⁄4-inch (6mm) thick. If your glass piece will be freestanding, cover the sharp glass edges with framing.
8. Objects
Painting on 3-D sculptures or objects encourages you to think differently because the object needs to be considered from all angles. You can make your own ceramic sculpture, have a metal shop cut shapes according to your template, or just use an interesting shell, branch or rock. You can also purchase ready-made objects in lawn and garden shops or hobby and craft stores. If the ready-made object is already painted, lightly sand it, prime with acrylic gesso and repaint. Contact the manufacturer's technical department to get recommendations for cleaning and priming. If you are placing the finished artwork outdoors, ask about special sealants or protective finishes, and use paints that rate high on light- fastness tests to keep your art from fading quickly. ~ Nancy
Do Not Paint on This >>> >>> >>>
Just being silly! I hope you learned a new variety of painting substrates for acrylic, and that you smiled, at least a little. 🙂

Click here to get your copy of Acrylic Revolution by Nancy Reyner today, and watch the ArtistsNetworkTV video below for some instant art inspiration from Nancy herself. ~ Cherie

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8 Painting Substrates (And the One Thing You Should Never Paint On!)

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Editor's Note: Today's painting advice comes to you from Nancy Reyner's book Acrylic Revolution . Get the book for tips on selecting and priming these painting substrates, and much more advice for painting with acrylic, in Nancy's Acrylic Revolution. Read through this list for eight surfaces, and see the one thing you don't want to paint on below.