Acrylics for beginners: how to start painting

Acrylics make a practical first paint: no solvents, no long waits between layers, and soap-and-water cleanup while the paint is wet. Their one real demand is speed. Paint that dries in minutes punishes slow, fussy blending and rewards a small kit used with deliberate habits, so a beginner gains more from understanding how the paint behaves than from buying a large set of tubes. The same goes for safety and cleanup: acrylics are water-based, but they still carry labels worth reading, and paint rinse water is not something to pour away without a thought.

Acrylic paint is pigment carried in an acrylic polymer emulsion: it thins with water while wet, then dries into a flexible, water-resistant film. That double nature explains both how quickly you have to work and why anything left to dry, on the panel, the palette or a brush, stays put for good.

Student grade or artist grade: what to buy first

Student-grade acrylics carry less pigment than artist-grade paint and often replace costly pigments with substitutes labeled "hue." Artist-grade tubes hold more pigment, so a small amount tints a mix strongly. Student paint is a sound choice for learning; when you upgrade, replace the colors you mix most often first.

The "hue" label also tells you something about safety. Kent State University's art safety guidance notes that "hue" in a color name, as in chromium yellow hue, indicates the paint contains no toxic metal.

A five-tube limited palette

Five tubes, titanium white, a warm yellow, a warm red, ultramarine blue and burnt umber, mix most of the colors a first painting needs. Fewer tubes keep the cost down, force you to learn how colors interact, and give each painting built-in harmony, because every mix comes from the same few parents.

• Titanium white: opaque and the tube you will empty first, so buy a larger size.
• Cadmium yellow medium hue (or Hansa yellow medium): greens with blue, oranges with red.
• Cadmium red medium hue (or naphthol red): oranges, browns and warm shadows.
• Ultramarine blue: a deep blue for soft greens and grayed violets.
• Burnt umber: an earth brown that tones colors down without the flat look black can give. With ultramarine, it makes a rich near-black.

A limited palette is standard advice in acrylic painting for beginners, but it cannot reach bright violets or clear turquoise. When you want them, add quinacridone magenta or phthalo blue. Phthalo is very strong: pick it up with the tip of a palette knife, not a loaded brush.

Brushes, knives and surfaces

Synthetic brushes made of nylon or taklon are the standard for acrylics, because they keep their spring in water-based paint and survive scrubbing. Three shapes cover most work: a round for lines and details, a flat for edges and blocks of color, and a filbert, a flat brush with a rounded tip, for soft blending.

Sizes are not standardized between brands, so judge by the head: a small pointed round, a flat or filbert about 1/2 inch (13 mm) wide, and a 1-inch (25 mm) flat for backgrounds. Add a palette knife: it mixes more evenly and keeps paint out of your brushes.

Primed canvas panels in 8 x 10 inch (20 x 25 cm) or 9 x 12 inch (23 x 30 cm) are cheap, flat and easy to store, and a pad of acrylic paper suits quick color studies. Raw wood or plain paper needs a coat of acrylic gesso first, a white primer that stops the surface from soaking up paint. Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Blick, Walmart and Amazon stock all of these.

Safety basics: the AP seal and ventilation

Check each tube for the AP seal from the Art & Creative Materials Institute (ACMI). A board-certified toxicologist certifies AP products as non-injurious to humans, including children, when used as intended. Many student acrylics carry it. Some artist colors carry the CL seal instead, which means the label lists health cautions you should read before opening.

ACMI's materials safety page explains that CL products are for adults and children in seventh grade or older, and that both seals require labeling under ASTM D-4236, the chronic hazard labeling standard. Whatever the seal, keep food and drinks off the table and wash your hands when you finish.

Acrylics are water-based but not odor-free. The Kent State guidance notes that they contain a small amount of ammonia, which can irritate the eyes, nose and throat of sensitive people. Opening a window is usually enough; if irritation continues, it recommends a window exhaust fan.

Your first painting, step by step

A simple still life of one or two objects, such as a mug and an apple under a single lamp, makes a good first painting on a 9 x 12 inch panel. Work from thin to thick and from dark to light. Acrylics dry fast enough that you can finish the whole panel in one sitting.

1. Tone the panel. Brush a thin wash of burnt umber and water over the surface and let it dry. A mid-tone ground makes values easier to judge than bright white.
2. Sketch the big shapes. With a small round and ultramarine thinned to the consistency of ink, outline the objects, the table edge and the main shadows.
3. Block in the darks. Fill shadow sides and cast shadows with thin ultramarine and burnt umber, so the darks stay transparent and dry quickly.
4. Paint the background, then the middle values. Work one area at a time, so each mix is still wet while you blend its edges.
5. Build the lights. Add white and a touch of yellow and paint the lit areas with slightly thicker paint. Opaque lights cover the darks below, which is why they go on late.
6. Soften the edges that turn. Where a shadow rolls into light, as on the apple, drag a clean, damp filbert along the boundary while both colors are wet.
7. Place the highlights last. Use the small round and your thickest paint for the brightest spots, such as the shine on the mug rim.

If a passage goes wrong, let it dry and paint over it with opaque color.

Mixing colors that dry the way you planned

Many acrylic colors dry slightly darker than they look wet, because the binder is milky while wet and turns clear as the water leaves. Mix each color a touch lighter than your target, brush a swatch on scrap, and let it dry before you commit it to a large area such as a sky.

Mix with the palette knife, not the brush. Add a dark color to a light one in small amounts: a speck of blue changes a pile of white, while it takes a lot of white to lighten blue. Keep most mixes to three colors or fewer to avoid mud, and mix more than you need, because matching a color later is hard. White also cools a color as it lightens it, so add a touch of yellow to keep a light red warm.

Drying time, retarders and stay-wet palettes

Thin acrylic layers dry to the touch in minutes, thick ones can stay soft for hours, and a full cure takes longer still. Heat, dry air and drafts speed it up. You can slow it with a misting bottle, a stay-wet palette, a retarder added to the paint, or a slow-drying paint line.

A retarder is an additive that slows evaporation, giving you time for wet-in-wet work, where fresh paint goes into paint that is still wet. It adds little or no binder, so manufacturers set a maximum amount; follow the ratio on the bottle, because too much leaves a tacky, weak film. Slow-drying lines such as Golden OPEN Acrylics stay workable much longer than standard paint.

Cleanup without sending paint down the drain

Clean brushes within the session, before paint sets in the bristles, and keep paint solids out of the sink. Wiping each brush and knife on a paper towel before rinsing removes most of the paint, so the rinse water stays cleaner for longer and far less pigment and binder ends up in the water you have to dispose of.

Golden Artist Colors' guidance on disposing of painting wastes says that even with water-based products, it is best to discard a solid instead of washing everything down the drain. In practice:

• Let the used paper towels dry, then put them in the trash.
• Rinse brushes in a water jar, then wash them with a little mild soap, reshape the tips and dry them flat or hanging bristles down; store them upright only once dry.
• Let leftover paint dry on the palette or in its container, then peel off the dried skin.

German paint maker Schmincke advises letting rinse water stand until the solids settle; it says the clear water can then go down the drain and the sediment should be disposed of under local rules, for example with household waste. Golden adds that questions are best put to your local landfill or water treatment plant first. If your home is on a septic system, ask before pouring any rinse water out. For unwanted liquid paint, the EPA's household hazardous waste guidance advises checking with your local environmental, health or solid waste agency for collection options.

Frequently asked questions

Can you thin acrylic paint with water?

Yes, a little water helps acrylic flow and is fine for washes and toned grounds. Heavy dilution spreads the binder thin, so the paint can turn chalky or lift on slick surfaces. For thin, transparent glazes on canvas, mix the paint with an acrylic glazing or fluid medium instead, because the medium adds binder rather than diluting it.

Can you paint oil over acrylic, or acrylic over oil?

Oil paint can go over a dry acrylic underpainting, a common way to start a canvas quickly, as long as the primer suits oil. Acrylic should not go over oil paint: it cannot grip the oily surface and may peel later, so keep acrylic for the first layers only.

Do you need to varnish an acrylic painting?

Varnish is optional for practice panels but worth adding to a painting you plan to keep. It evens out gloss and matte patches and protects the surface from dust and scuffs. Wait until the painting is fully dry, use a varnish made for acrylics, and follow the label for drying time between coats.

How do you get acrylic paint out of clothes?

Act while the paint is wet: scrape off what you can, flush the back of the fabric with cold water and work in dish soap before washing as usual. Once acrylic dries on fabric, it is very hard to remove. Rubbing alcohol can soften small dried spots; test it on a hidden seam first, since it can affect dyes.

Does acrylic paint go bad?

Sealed tubes keep for years, but air through a loose or cracked cap dries paint out. A sour smell or mold spots mean the paint is contaminated and should be thrown out. Keep cap threads clean, close tubes right after use, and never dip a dirty brush into a jar of paint.

Once your first still life is dry, paint the same setup again using only ultramarine blue, burnt umber and titanium white. Without the yellow and red, you judge every shape by value alone, how light or dark it is, and that is the skill that makes color paintings read clearly. Areas that look flat in a color painting usually lack contrast, not the right hue. For a third panel, return to all five tubes and try one transparent glaze, a thin layer of color mixed with glazing medium and brushed over a dry passage, to warm a shadow or deepen the background.