Friday, February 5, 2010

Any tips on painting with acrylic paints on canvas?

You can experiment with different ways of applying the paint, instead of just using the brush. For example, you can use a roller, a palette knife, Q-tips, etc. Or you can pour or drip your paint on the canvas.





Acrylics dry quickly, so keep a spray bottle of water nearby so you can spray your palette every now and then to keep the paints fresh. You can also use Acrylic Retarder or Glazing Liquid to slow down the drying time, making the paints easier to blend.





You can thin the paint with lots of water to mimic the qualities of watercolor. You can also lay in on thickly, like an impasto, to mimic the qualities of oil paints.





There are a lot of cool gel mediums that can add texture to your painting - such as sand gel, fibre gel, glass bead gel, modelling paste, etc.





Best of all, if you've messed up a certain area, you can just paint over it! Acrylics are very forgiving in this sense (unlike watercolor, for example).





Oh yeah, and extra gesso does help. :)Any tips on painting with acrylic paints on canvas?
Use retarder to extend your working time, since acrylics can dry very quickly. Keep a piece of paper nearby to ';test'; colors and values on. Tone your canvas so it is not so stark white before you block in your lights and darks. Work the whole canvas to keep some unity in the colors, and mind your values, so you are creating a lead-the-eye pattern of lights and darks. Vary your strokes and edges,making the focal point clearer and sharper than the less important elements near the edge of the canvas. Experiment with mediums to get the effects you want. Don't be timid.Any tips on painting with acrylic paints on canvas?
That depends on what you're painting (more details would be preferable if you want a specific answer). Is there a specific style you're going for? Are you asking about the physical application of paint? Here's a tip: use a brush. Many if you have them.
Make sure you prime with gesso. The canvases don't have enough on them. I have had trouble with my acrylics looking like underpaintings for oils. Modeling paste for texture or layers of gesso seem to help.
Never use acrylic on canvas. It will crack and flake off if the canvas is ever flexed.
build up lots of layers, make sure u hav lots of paint on your brush n start with a more watery paint for the background


sorry if thats not what u were lookin for... :)

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