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Beginners Guide for Acrylic Painting

Beginners Guide For Acrylic Painting ​- Layers - Zieler Art Supplies

Painting in layers

Working in layers when painting can help to break down what you are trying to achieve and make it more manageable. It also insures the wrongs colours down mix together, so it is important to know when to wait and let parts dry before apply more paint.

A good place to start is to paint the background in first. Don’t worry if you get paint on your subject (here it is the wave) acrylic paints are thick so can paint over one and over. Note that covering darker colours with lighter colours will require a few layers of paint.

Beginners Guide For Acrylic Painting ​- Layers Step 1- Zieler Art Supplies
Beginners Guide For Acrylic Painting ​- Mixing - Zieler Art Supplies

Tip – Do not squeeze out to much paint on your pallet, you can always add more and you don’t want to waste paint. 

When you are mixing colours make sure you always add the dark colours into the light or you will end up using to much paint.

When the background is dry start to add in the foreground. Building up colour range layer by layer. You can blend complimentary colours together when they are wet, however wait for opposing colours to dry before layering or you will end up creating brown. If you are unsure about a technique then
practice first on a piece of scrap paper

Beginners Guide For Acrylic Painting ​- Opposing Colours - Zieler Art Supplies
Beginners Guide For Acrylic Painting ​- Wave - Zieler Art Supplies

The last step is to add in the details. Here the details are the paint splashes in the wave, which creates the effect of splashing water. To achieve this effect water down your chosen colour to a runny consistency, then using a larger sized paint brush pull back the bristles with your finger and let go and the paint will splash everywhere. Note this can be messy and acrylic paints to not wash out of materials, so make sure you wear old clothes. 

Adding Water?

You can add water to Acrylic paints, this creates a more translucent look more like watercolour. It can be nice to do this if you want to add a wash for a background. Also when adding details if you water down the paint slightly the paint will spread easier and you get smoother lines.

Beginners Guide For Acrylic Painting ​- Texture - Zieler Art Supplies

Acrylic paints are very thick when applied directly without adding water, you can make some interesting textures when doing this.
Try using a comb instead of a brush to spread the paint about on the page. Have fun and experiment to see what textures you are create.

Most importantly remember that acrylic paints are versatile and opaque, so you can correct mistakes. So don’t worry to much when you are starting out and just go for it, if you make a mistake wait for it to dry then paint over it.

See the video guide here

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