The Top 4 Benefits of Acrylic Paint
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering what type of paint to use or debating between acrylic vs. oil paint, this post is for you! I’m sharing the top four benefits of acrylic paint and why I use it as a professional artist.
Acrylic paint is fairly new to the art world in the grand scheme of things. It was introduced in the 1960’s and some artists claim that it’s “less professional” than oil paint. But I’m here to bust that myth! Acrylic paint is widely used by professional artists (like me!) and I love it for its versatility and vibrancy! So let’s dive into my favorite reasons to use acrylic paint.
Acrylic Paint Dries Quickly
One of the biggest benefits of acrylic paint is that it dries quickly. I like to say that it dries at the speed that my brain works! I like to paint intuitively which means that I’m often going with the flow of my ideas as they come. Because acrylic paint dries quickly, I can move onto new sections of my paintings quickly without muddying anything up.
That said, acrylic paint doesn’t dry instantly, so if you need to blend colors or mix on the canvas, you can do so! And if you need to slow down the drying time you can add a slow-drying blending medium like this one to your paint to slow down the drying process.
If you have any large wet areas of acrylic paint on your canvas and you’re waiting for them to dry, you can easily whip out a hair dryer and blast the wet spot for a few seconds. Et voilá! It will dry in just a few moments.
Acrylic Paint is Water Soluble
Unlike oil paints which don’t mix with water, acrylic paint is water soluble. This means that it can be diluted with water to create a more translucent effect. I love that it looks like a watercolor wash, and I use this technique strategically throughout my paintings to give them depth and interest.
Water can also be used in small quantities to increase the flow of your paint. If you ever find that your acrylic paint isn’t gliding along your painting surface as well as you’d like it to, try adding a touch of water to your brush to get the paint moving. This will help the flow without desaturating the paint too much.
Water solubility also means that cleanup is a breeze! Acrylic paints can be easily cleaned with just soap and water.
Acrylic Paint is Extremely Versatile
The properties of acrylic paint can be changed by mixing it with various mediums and materials. For example, it can be diluted with water to create a watercolor effect, but it can also be mixed with a gel medium to get a textured impasto look. This makes it one of the most versatile painting materials around!
Another great thing about acrylic paint is that it can bond with a variety of different surfaces including glass, wood, canvas, metal, paper, and more.
When it comes to the versatility of acrylic paint, I recommend keeping an open mind and exploring new techniques! I was curious about new ways to add some shimmer and shine to my acrylic paintings so I picked up some iridescent medium one day, and now it’s one of my favorite ways to create dimension and shine in my work.
I also discovered my love for painting on glass when I was playing around with new ways to paint, and it’s turned into one of my signature painting techniques! So keep an open mind and you never know what new and interesting technique you might fall in love with!
Acrylic Paint is Vibrant!
If you know me, you know I’m all about bright, colorful, vibrant art! I love the vibrant tones that I’m able to achieve with acrylic paint. If you’re a color-lover like me, acrylic paint will be your new favorite go-to art supply!
Want to learn how to mix vibrant colors with acrylic paint? Check out this blog post to learn my acrylic paint mixing process to achieve bright and bold tones.
I hope this gave you a good overview of the advantages of acrylic paint! As you can tell, it’s my favorite painting medium, and I love that it’s so approachable for beginner and professional artists alike.
If you want to learn more about how to use acrylic paint and different acrylic painting techniques to help you create vibrant and bold abstract paintings, join me in my online abstract painting class, Joyful Abstracts. You’ll learn my entire painting process from concepting to color mixing, to final piece. Follow along with me step-by-step and leave with a stunning colorful abstract of your own!
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