Guide to Acrylic Mediums and Additives

Acrylic painting involves the use of different types of acrylic mediums.With the help of mediums, acrylics may be used in a fluid, gestural manner (much like water color) or in heavier applications (as with oils) or they can be shaped and carved, used for print making or in virtually any other technique imaginable.

Acrylic mediums are used to control how the paint moves on the palette. Acrylic mediums can also be used to lengthen the drying time of acrylic paint. Still other acrylic mediums affect how matte or glossy the acrylic painting is once it completely dries. Other mediums can also be used to refract light and color, add texture to acrylic paintings, and to adhere collage items to paintings.

Because acrylic mediums can be cost more than the actually acrylic paintings themselves, it is important to start with only the acrylic mediums you need to produce a desired painting effect. Acrylic mediums need to be explored, played with, and used for painting experimentation. The acrylic medium may not behave the way you intended. An artist would rather find that out during the experimentation phase of exploring acrylic mediums than when working on a final painting.

Mediums can help you to:

• Improve durability
• Keep your colours brilliant
• Extend the colour
• Bring transperancy and depth 
• Improve flow and "brush-ability"

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How to Add Detail to the Foreground of your Picture

This post is about the techniques for adding detail to your painting. Trying to create a  sense of depth and distance in your landscape is the key for creating realism in your paintings. Adding extra detail to the foreground of a painting helps to make the background look further away and can give depth to a picture. With acrylics, you can easily paint over any details you want. The closer area is the front of a picture the more detail you can see. So adding some extra details to this area is a good idea.

Painting Surface:

It is very important to consider your painting surface. The amount of detail you can achieve will depend on the painting surface you are using. You will be able to add more detail on a smooth surface than you can on a rough surface.

Techniques that can be used:

• One painting technique to achieve this is to scrape out grassy things in a landscape. Or perhaps scratch out a texture in other subjects. When using acrylic paints I prefer to scrape out the shapes while the paint is still wet.
• The palette knife can be used to scrape out the shape of a subject while using thicker paints. The palette knife can be either flat or edge depending on the effect you want.
• Another thing you can use is the end of a paint brush.This technique is good for thinner paints and smoother painting surfaces.
• You can even use your finger nails to create this effect. 
• Once the paint has dried you can also paint in further detail to the scraped out shapes for highlights and shadows to give the shapes extra definition.

How to do acrylic flower painting

Starting with flowers is definitely an interesting way to create your skill. This is a painting for a beginner to medium experienced painters. Each layer is fairly thin(a glaze) because the paint colour is mixed with a small bit of water to make it flow more evenly. If you would rather use flow medium, that is acceptable also. Each layer of glaze must dry before the next layer goes on. Have patience! It is worth the time to get this technique right. Stick to the painting tips during these steps and you will be in a position to paint flowers with acrylic paint.

1. Select how many flowers you will paint and how they will be organized. It doesn't need to be exact- just indicate general dimensions and placement.
2. Prepare the actual canvas. Arrange the paints and brushes exactly where they are handy for the reach. Set your canvas on an easel or even work desk to start your work.
3. Block in the background using the shades of your need. Let it dry; it won't take long.
4. Draw the rough outline of the picture with pencil or chalk onto the background of the canvas. Use light outlines. Using a chalk, you can draw and erase loads of times and as long as you don't over-wet the surface, it will not hurt the painting underneath.
5. Using a fine brush, paint the petals with Titanium White. Then paint a layer of the colour you need onto these white areas.
6. Each petal has a highlight and shadow areas. In shadows, just blend in a layer of Payne's Grey. Then layer thin colour of the petal on it keeping it smooth.Keep the brush strokes going in the directions that the lines of the petals flowing naturally. The areas which will be highlighted will have to be underpainted with Titanium White again.
7. Repeat actions for additional flowers. For those who have overlap to another layer associated with flowers, make sure to dry the first layer before adding to this.
8. Add leaves as well as stems. Using a green paint, add in lines associated with varying thickness with regard to stems. Use a broader brush for making the leaves.
9. Complete the painting. Let it dry. Apply varnish onto the painting and finish off the piece of art.

How to avoid bubbles

Bubble, Bubble its a Trouble...

Acrylic has a tendency to cause bubbling in paint layers, unless you take care to avoid them. Here are some tips to keep your paint layer bubble free.

1. Always pour liquid from one container to another very slowly and carefully from a low angle to keep the fluid from coming out too fast and bubbling.
2. Mix and stir solutions the day before so the solutions has time to rest and the bubbles can pop.
3. Always use a soft bristled brush. This is usually the main culprit for the cause. Yes, I mean the brush should be very soft.
4. Spray applying varnish will eliminate bubbles altogether.

Is Water Using With Acrylic - Good or Bad?

There seems to be a myth that you are not supposed to use water with acrylic, and there's another one that you should always use water. This issue with water was something that really complicated me when I first started using acrylic paints. Let me clear this up.

Basically water is not a bad thing to add to acrylic. However, there are some basic issues that when understood will help you decide when to use it and when not to use it.

First let's look at what makes paint. Generally all paint is made of 2 basic components: pigment (for colour) and binder (to make the pigment usable as a paint). So there's pigment and binder, then there's the solvent. each medium has a solvent that will break it down. For acrylic the solvent is water. The water quickly evaporates and only the dry medium and pigment are left behind.

Acrylic without water will produce a paint film layer that looks juicy, glossy and substantial when applied over any surface. You can add up to 20% water to acrylic paint, and it will still have that juicy, glossy paint film, it will just get a bit thinner. And when you add 50% or 80% water to acrylic paint it is called as overdiluted. It looks totally different when it is overdiluted. It will give a watercolour effect.

So here are some key ideas:

1. Use acrylic without any water at all for a rich, juicy, glossy , plastic, high coverage layer.
2. Use up to 20% water to acrylic to get slightly loosen paint.
3. Adding up to 30% water will give the paint a more matte (flat) appearance and lighten the intensity of the colours.
4. Add 80% water to 20% paint to get an overdiluted wash to get a specific effect (a kind of watercolour effect).
5. Having a little spray bottle of water handy allows you to add a mist of water as you paint to prevent the acrylic medium from drying before you are ready.Acrylic paint dries very fast, and once happens, remember, it is permanent. Asprayer can keep the paint liquid a bit longer. Do not use the water all over your palette to slow the drying or you won't be able to control how much water is going into your paint.

Of course, you can use no water at all.

This will give you the brightest colour, fastest drying time, and easiest use. Even the brush wetting can be skipped entirely, as long as you rinse the brushes with water once done (remember, it dries fast).

Again, the most important thing to remember is determining how much water you want in your paint depending on the type of effect you are looking for.

How to Prime a Canvas for Acrylic or Oils

Priming a canvas for acrylic or oil painting is not difficult, and it's not even necessary if you are using  pre-primed store-bought canvases.

But if you have made your own stretcher bars or even just stretched un-primed cotton canvases over store-bought stretcher bars then it's very important to use Gesso to cover the surface of your canvas before you start with your paint.

When you have stretched your canvas, the next step is to prime it so you can paint on it. With a ready-made gesso suitable for both acrylic and oil painting, this is easy.

What you need: 

1. Acrylic Gesso (found at any art supply store) 
2. Wide Brush or a regular house painting brush
3. some water
4. a bowl and spoon
5. your raw canvas

Here's how:

1. Make sure you buy a gesso that's suitable for both acrylic and oil painting. This dries very fast and is painted directly on to the stretched canvas.
2. Shake the container very well before using. Do not skip this step!
3. Decide whether you are going to apply one or a few coats of gesso. One coat gives a rougher finish. If you are applying only one coat, use the gesso as it comes out of the bottle.
4. If you are going to apply several coats, dilute the gesso with some water.
5. Using an old, wide brush, apply the gesso directly to the stretched canvas in even strokes. Work from the top to the bottom of the canvas, in parallel strokes from one edge to the other.
6. When you're done, wash your brush out immediately with soap and water. Once gesso has dried on a brush, it won't come out.

Tips: 

1. A cheap decorating brush works well, but wash it several times before you use it as the hairs tend to fall out. If you want the brush to be thinner, cut off some of the hairs with a pair of scissors.
2. Instead of diluting the gesso, you can sand down the canvas between coats if you want a smoother finish.
3. Gesso thinned with water only, rather than gloss medium and water, tends to crack.
4. Gesso can also be used to prime hardboard.

Primer or Gesso

                                                       

Gesso is a generic term used for the initial coat applied onto a surface before you paint on it. Gesso is an initial coat applied on the surface on which you are painting, whether it's canvas, wood or even paper. The purpose of gesso is to protect the surface from the paint, some of which contain components that could damage it, provides the surface for the paint to stick to, and affects the absorbency of the surface.Gesso dries to a matt, rough surface that provides adhesion for the paint. To get a smoother finish, you can sand it.

Most ready-made canvases are primed with an acrylic gesso, and are suitable for both oils and acrylics.The packaging on the canvas will tell you what type of primer was used.

If you are unsure whether a canvas is primed or not, compare the front and the back. Sometimes the color will make it immediately evident, otherwise look at whether the grain of the fabric has been filled in or not. If in doubt, give it another coat.