Introduction: Painting Techniques

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In this instructable, I will teach you different acrylic painting techniques (about 11) to use in your artwork.

Step 1: Collect Your Materials

Materials you will want are:

  • Acrylic Paint
  • Paint Brushes
  • Paper/Canvas
  • Mixing Pallet/Plate
  • Water Bowl
  • Paper Towels
  • Sponge
  • Pallet Knife

Step 2: Dry Brushing

Used best to blend

Take a dry brush and dip it into a color of your choice. Then paint it onto dry paper.

Step 3: Combing

Start with a solid base of color, then while the paint is still wet, take the bottom of a paint brush and carve lines through the paint.

Step 4: Wet-in-Wet

Using a clean, wet paintbrush, make a puddle or wet space on your paper. Then while keeping you brush wet, dip in into your paint and add it to your puddle.

Step 5: Glazing

With a normal surface and damp paint brush, create strokes or an underlay. After allowing it to dry mix paint and water together so the paint becomes a light glaze. Then paint that over your dried underlay which should then poke out of the color.

Step 6: Impasto

This is where you will use a pallet knife. Scrape up a generous amount of paint and then slide it along in different directions to create different textures.

Step 7: Sponge

You can either wet your sponge or keep it dry (in this, I kept it dry). Dab your sponge into the paint color of your choice and dab onto the paper. You can layer colors and blend.

Step 8: Drips

For the drips you want to bring your canvas up so gravity can help you. Get your paint very wet like with the glazing and add drops to the canvas and lightly help them down until you have your desired drip. Once it is how you want, place your canvas flat again.

Step 9: Splatter

For the splatter you want your brush and paint to be fairly wet. Then with one finger pull back and let go so tiny dots fly onto the paper. Flat brushes usually work best.

Step 10: Soft and Hard Edges

A soft edge is the example on the left where you paint and it has no defined edge. A hard edge is on the right and is very defined. Usually to achieve this you use a thin brush or the side of the brush.

Step 11: Layered

Almost like the glaze you want to lay down a good base of paint. Wait for that to fully dry. But this time instead of watering down the paint, you want to keep it the normal consistency and paint over the top.

Step 12: Scumbling

Finally, scumbling is a painting technique to help you blend. All you want to do is move your brush in a circular motion to blend and spread out the paint.