Acrylic paints with utensils

A Beginner’s Guide to Acrylic Painting

Acrylic paints were produced as an alternative for oil paint in the mid-twentieth century. They were fashioned to blend like oil paints and created from synthetic paints. They can also be combined to create a variety of textures and consistency.

This blog explores what acrylic painting is and the types of acrylic paints available.

Types of Acrylic Paints

Artist Quality Paints

Artist-grade paints often contain a higher percentage of lone colors and fewer additives or extenders. The more colors you apply, the more probable that your blends will become flat, muddy, and lifeless.

For developing clean and transparent color blends, single pigment colors are in high demand. Artist paints also allow each pigment’s unique features to show through. As a result, the gloss, texture, and opacity of some hues will alter.

Student Quality Paints

Student quality paints keep their pricing low by replacing more expensive pigments with less expensive ones. They also contain a large number of additives and extenders.

In artist-grade paints, higher series pigments like Cadmium and Cobalt attract a high price. They’ve been replaced in student offerings by hues like Cadmium Red Hue and Cobalt Blue Hue. These alternatives are identical to actual pigments in terms of qualities and hues. However, they are less expensive.

Portrait of a woman painted by Zareena Qureshi

Acrylic Paint Viscosity

Acrylic paints are available in different viscosities. It’s always ideal to choose paint with the right consistency for its required purpose. For example,  water can thin out Heavy Body-Color, but you can easily spot dull spots.

If you need fluid paint, consider a composition with a low viscosity. Here’s a breakdown of different acrylic paint viscosities.

  • Heavy Body: thick and dense
  • Acrylic Inks: fluid acrylic paint
  • Soft Body: low viscosity and a heavy cream-like consistency 
  • Acrylic Gouache: a combination of traditional gouache and acrylic binder

Paint Brushes

You can’t paint without the right brushes. Here are some common types of brushes:

  • Acrylic flat brush
  • Acrylic round brush
  • Acrylic wash brush
  • Acrylic angled brush
  • Acrylic liner brush
  • Acrylic fan brush

Painting with Acrylics

Acrylic paints are used in a very different way than oils or watercolors due to their working properties.

They are the most versatile painting media due to the wide range of paint consistency and mediums available. Acrylics are a good choice for artists sharing studio space or those who find oil paints too harsh. They dry quickly and are water-based. Mistakes are easier to correct because the paint is still wet and can be worked on top of more quickly. Acrylic versatility also allows you to work with oils (via slow drying paints) and watercolors (using inks or soft body color with flow aid mediums).

If you’re in search of exquisite paintings, we’re here to help you.

Purchase animal paintings, portrait oil paintings, bird paintings, floral paintings, and more innovative paintings from Zareena Qureshi online. Check out our online collection and contact us for any queries.

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