By Acrylic paints are very much famous among the artists and are equally appreciated by the masters and students of art and painting.
One of the advantages of acrylic paint, its quick drying time, can also be a disadvantage when it comes to using and storing your leftover paint. If you like to squeeze out and use a lot of paint in a session, you do not need to throw away unused paint at the end of the session.
Buy a stay-wet acrylic paint palette and disposable sheets, or make your own. The acrylic paint palettes you can purchase have sealable lids to keep in the moisture, and have an absorbent base (a thin sponge or watercolor paper) that you soak in water to keep the paintings moist. On top of the absorbent base is a disposable sheet (usually greasproof paper) on which you place your paints. The water in the acrylic paint palettes prevents the paints from drying out. The disposable sheet is useful for when the paints have dried – just throw it away and replace with a new one. This eliminates the need to keep cleaning your acrylic paint palette.
Quick Tips for Keeping Acrylics Wet While You Paint
Most artists choose to use acrylic paints rather than oil paints because they are allergic to the chemicals used with oil paints, or because they prefer the easier cleanup of acrylic paints. The problem is that because they are acrylic-based rather than oil-based, they dry out more quickly so you cannot use the same techniques as you would in oil painting. Also, if you leave them out for more than a few hours, they can grow into being unusable. Well, here I am sharing a few some tips to overcome such a problem.
- Extend the working time of your acrylic paints by misting them occasionally with water. Keep a spray bottle next to your palette and spritz your paints and painting when they are beginning to dry.
- Add a slow-drying medium, called a retarder, to your paints instead of water. This not only extends the time you have to work with your paint, but also stops the paint leaving skins on the palette. It is good to use if you like the wet-in-wet technique as used in oil painting.
Acrylic paint was first introduced in 1953, but quickly grew in popularity due to its diverse and powerful properties. Acrylic paint is very easy to work with. It is cheap and it gives a superb coloration that lasts!
Acrylic paint is made from polymer emulsion, or in layman’s terms it is a sort of plastic solution in which color pigments are added.
The properties of the polymer acrylic solution are almost perfect for painting as it can be mixed with water to create glaze type effects or it can work almost like watercolors. But it can also be used without water, creating an effect and properties similar to that of oil paints.
Another great feature about acrylic paint is that it is odorless, which means that you don´t need a sealed room or atelier. With acrylics you can simply sit in your living room with your husband or wife in the same room and paint all day without worrying about toxic fumes or a strong odor.
Although it mixes with water, it will become water-resistant once it has dried up. This makes it easy to clean dust off older paintings.
Acrylic paint tends to dry rather quickly, so when working with this type of medium, make sure to complete the detail that you are working on right away. If you have some leftover paint on your pallet then you can cover it with plastic, which will keep it from drying up and you will actually be able to keep the acrylic paint in a useable state for a couple of days.
Acrylic paint does seem to perform poorly when it is cold, and at temperatures below 40 degrees it tends to create cracks, so make sure to never store any of your paintings in places that might see this temperature.
Nowadays the acrylic paints come in a large variety of types and all have some specific abilities; some are opaque in general which makes them very useful for glazing, others are slow drying types, and so the list goes on. The most common acrylic paints that you will come across at your local arts store will be the opaque grade colors.
Acrylic paint has really revolutionized the art of painting in so many ways. Today, acrylic paint is not only used for doing paintings, but for all sorts of artistic paint jobs such as model cars, dolls and even on human bodies.
