8 Tips For Painting With Acrylics

1. Be sure not to mix too much water with acrylics, otherwise they'll lose their thick texture and other apparent qualities. This applies both when mixing paints and when applying the paint to the surface you're painting on

2. Because acrylics dry really fast, it's important for you to work fast. Do this and you should be able to effectively produce the painting you want without running into any problems. If you think you'll need more time, add a retarder to the paint to slow its drying time, thereby giving you more time to work on your painting

3. It's also important to consider the paint on your palette. Every so often, give this paint a light spray of water with a spray bottle or a mister to keep the paint from drying out before you've had a chance to use it

4. If you want to mix your paints, again this is something you'll have to do quite quickly before the paint dries out. If you happen to be mixing your paints on paper, a good trick is to dampen the paper; this will give you a bit more time to work as it will make the paints stay wet for longer

5. When you've finished painting, it's important to ensure you get all of the paint off your paintbrush. Give it a good wash with some warm water first, then use a mild soap to try and get all of the paint out of the paintbrush's bristles. Don't try solvents or anything like that: when cleaning acrylics, all you need is soap and water

6. A rather simple one, but an important one nonetheless: always keep your paint tube covers screwed on when you're not painting. You want to keep all paint exposed to the air in the room or outside for as little time as possible

7. Squeeze out the right amount of paint. Don't bother squeezing all of the paint out on to your palette because there's a high chance some of it will have dried before you come round to using it. Only squeeze out a little bit of paint at a time so you don't end up with a load of paint on your palette that will end up going unused

8. When it comes to priming your canvas, only used an acrylic-based primer. Using an oil-based primer with acrylic paint will affect the paint and can change the way it looks, whereas using acrylic-based primer will have very minimal effects on the final look of the paint

Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions. For more information about Joanne, her work and her current projects visit: http://joannesberkshirescenes.com/default.aspx Joanne can be found on Facebook

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