Helpful Hints for the Artist #5
Advice on using acrylic paints
Acrylic paints (also called polymer or vinyl paints) have become vastly popular, and for good reason. You can mix them with water (or acrylic polymer medium), yet they’re completely waterproof when dry. You can apply them thinly, like watercolor, or you can build them up thickly, like oils, and you can use them in combination with other mediums. They dry quickly and the picture doesn’t have the tendency of oil paintings to crack, chip, or yellow.
Acrylics dry so rapidly that you can paint over a previous layer without disturbing it. You can produce many interesting hues and variations by applying thin transparent washes over your underpainting colors.
Commercially prepared acrylic board is available, but acrylics can be applied to almost any non-oily surface. A butcher’s tray makes a good palette.
You can work with watercolor or oil brushes and painting knives, but brushes need special care, since the medium dries so fast. If you set aside a brush for even a few minutes, suspend it in water. Wash brushes carefully when you finish. You can also obtain special nylon brushes with smooth hairs that resist the binding qualities of the paint and wash easily.
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