13 Acrylic Painting Techniques All Beginners Should Try

Are you a beginner in the art world? Not to worry you will get here some fun techniques that help you to learn acrylic painting in a fun way.

You have already read our news Step-By-Step Acrylic Painting for Beginners. In that news you got information about painting steps on canvas. Now in this news you will get the painting techniques to be applied for making an amazing artwork no matter you are a beginner.

Now, you got your canvas ready the actual task left is putting paint on paper. These techniques help you paint like a pro in no time.

APPLY PAINT TECHNIQUES
The look of an acrylic painting totally depends on how you apply the paint. Here are few experiments to do for getting a unique style of painting.

# DRY BRUSH
When you apply paint straight out of tube on the paper using dry brush, you will get a strong colored stroke. The lines are uneven as there is no application of water but you will get a unique painter effect.

# WASH
Apply paint with a brush dipped in water, your acrylics will start acting like a watercolor. Use diluted paints to apply translucent washes on the surface. Try to mix dry and wash techniques together, you will get unique textures in a single artwork.

# SPLATTER
Take a brush with paint dipped well in water and then splatter color onto the surface to create a uneven splatter effect. It is fun and easy technique to obtain a unique texture. Splatter can also be of many types depending upon the position of brush you holding and other finger from which splatter is applied. Change both positions and create different splatter strokes.

# PALETTE KNIFE
Try applying paint with a palette knife will create a unique thick texture look strokes. It is so easy and even one of the best technique for the beginners. Applying palette knife on surface is just same as applying jam on bread.

# STIPPLING
Add the n number of small dots on the surface to create a shape or texture. You can also use the variations in color to add different effect.

# DABBING
Dabbing is the process of pressing anything on other surface. Do one thing paint the surface and dab it with any piece of paper towel or sponge corner. This will create a texture that cannot be replicated. Every time you dab a cloth you will get a different stroke.

# DETAILING
You need to detail the painting once you build up the basic outline. For detailing just take the small fine brush and make the details.

BUILDING A PAINTING
Now, you got to learn the basic techniques of painting on a surface. The next step is to build a painting using given below techniques.

# UNDERPAINTING
Start your painting by creating a sketch of image in the paint. Choose the paint that contrast with your palette of final painting. You can paint completely on your underpainting layer. If you are using the opaque acrylics you can hide the layer with your above layer. If you want you can show some parts of underlying layer to shine through the painting to create an 3d effect.

# GLAZING
If you want your paintings to shine, simply add a matte medium to it. Adding matte medium to a painting will make your painting deep and complex by giving your paint new properties.

# LAYERING
You will apply one layer after the other. Working from top to bottom, add washes, big block of colors and then add more refinement by adding layers above layers.

# PAINT BLOCK OF COLORS
This is easy to do method for beginners. Trace your image, separate each color into different shapes. Then paint the shapes. This is an easy to do method for single palette or variety of colors too.

COLOR MIXING TECHNIQUES
Mixing acrylic colors is not a rocket science, just combine colors and mix them up. Once you learn about mixing the colors you can get creative methods to work upon.

# MIX COLORS PARTIALLY
Mixing colors fully is not a choice instead mix the two colors partially with a palette knife. Partially mixing of colors will give a mingling color effect as you apply the paint on surface.

# CREATING COLOR FAMILY
Create a family of colors before starting your artwork. If you have a variety of tones with you on your palette you will get a streamlined work. It also helps you to create variance in your work.