The Art of Acrylics - Techniques and Mediums

Acrylic paint is a very versatile medium. If used straight from the tube it handles like oil paint, when diluted with water it’s more similar to watercolor.

Here are samples of the techniques that you can achieve with acrylic paint. You can often take them further by adding mediums to the paint.

Acrylic paints are particularly suitable for applying layers of transparent color. Since they dry quickly and they are waterproof once drying, you can paint one transparent color over another subsequently without having to wait a long time for the previous one to dry. For a very fluid transparent glaze, dilute the paint with water. Water will make your paint very liquid and runny, a very thin layer can get quite often hard to control, drying in unexpected ways but that can be exactly the effect you are after. :) To maintain control while increasing the transparency, add an acrylic gloss medium.

Of course there is always the middle way: add both water and medium to the paint to thin your color.

You can build up a thick, textured surface by applying the paint straight from the tube or thickening with a gel medium. In order to manipulate the paint, you may want to add retarder.

For a more dramatic textured effect you can mix the color with acrylic impasto medium, especially indicated for knife painting.

For a really pronounced effect you can use modeling paste. This will build a sculptural effect; you can model while wet, and carve or sand once dry. Mix the paste with color before applying, or alternatively, build the texture, and paint once the paste is dry. Modeling paste is white and matte, and can lighten the color of the paint. Be aware that thick layers of modeling paste are not flexible and might crack once dry. Mixing the paste with gel mediums helps preventing the cracking.

Knife painting is a form of impasto painting where the paint is applied using a painting knife, or palette knife. The paint is applied in thick layers using the edge of the knife. Impasto mediums (above) can be mixed with the paint to increase thickness.

Acrylics have a high degree of opacity and can easily produce a flat, even area of color. This property is ideal for abstract techniques and contemporary paintings that feature flat areas of color with crisp, precise edges. To achieve a strike free flat color area, make sure that the colors you are using are opaque, not transparent - the information on the tube should tell you. To make a transparent color more opaque, you’ll have to mix an opaque color with it.

Sgraffito is a painting technique where the artist scratches the top layer of paint, while still wet, to reveal a bottom layer of a different color. The background needs to be completely dry before you can start applying to top layer. To keep the acrylic paint of the top layer wet long enough to finish the sgraffito, you may add a retarder medium.

To obtain the sgraffito effect, you can use a variety of tools, like the edge of a painting knife, the tip of a brush handle, a wire brush, or any sharp tool that serves the purpose.

Acrylic paint is an excellent adhesive and can be used for binding papers, fabrics, sand, and other material to the support, and serve as a main bonding element in collages. Acrylic gel medium or texture paste can be used to stick larger objects. Lightweight objects are obviously best. If the object is quite heavy, you may need extra support, like nails or wires.

Pouring paint is an innovative way to use fluid acrylic paint to create art, where the application takes advantage of gravity. You can mix acrylic paint with a pourable acrylic gloss medium to make it fluid. Pour the paint and tilt the support around to make the paint flow in the desire directions. This will create smooth colorful shapes. If you pour multiple colors, the colors will blend and mix. You can vary the intervals of the pourings, choosing if you want the previous layer to be dry or still wet.

Dripping is a variation of pouring. Mix your fluid paint in small containers. A good medium to add to acrylic paint to make it fluid is clear tar gel. Set your support horizontally, load your palette knife with fluid paint and let the paint drizzle from the knife onto the surface, moving the knife gently around to create a stringy effect.
Let one layer of drizzled acrylic dry before you apply another layer. Layers can be of the same color or different colors.

Splattering is a technique for applying splashes or small droplets of paint on your surface. You can use your fingers to splatter the paint from any stiff brush dipped in thin acrylic paint, a painting brush, a toothbrush, or a stencil brush will work. Load the brush with watery paint and flick the bristles of the brush with your fingertip, or flick your wrist while holding the brush, to let the splatter fly from the brush to the support. You can also hit your brush handle with a stick to generate the splash.
Splattering can add texture to a flat color area, and can also be used to obtain a nice stone or marble effect.

In stenciling you cut our shapes or forms from a flat material like paper, plastic or similar, and use it as a mask to apply paint only in some areas of the surface, creating simple monotone shapes. You can create more complex patterns by applying different stencils in layers.

Make sure the paint is not too runny, or it might “bleed” under the stencil. You can also apply the paint using sponges, palette knifes or sprays.

Many materials, tools, and techniques can be used to obtain the most creative textures on an acrylic painting, your imagination is the limit for what you can use. Some of the things I like to use are:

Sandpaper. Once a layer of paint is dry, you can use sandpaper to distress the paint and uncover an earlier layer. If sanding large areas, spray with water and use water resistant sandpaper, in order to minimize the particles of paint flying around. (Not the best thing to breathe.)

Wire brushes, pot scrapers, and other abrasive tools, can produce interesting effect both on wet or dry paint layers. Whether you want to create texture, partially reveal a background layer of paint, or produce a distress look, you can really get creative finding a scratchy tool to use.

Cloth and plastic wrap can be used to produce unique textures in your painting.
Examples:

• Rub textured cloth on wet paint to create texture.
• Press gauze or stings into wet paint and, after it dries, pull it out.
• Scrunch a piece of plastic wrap in your hands, unfold it loosely and gently tap it down onto wet paint, keeping the wrinkles. Before the paint dries remove the plastic wrap.