Acrylic Painting Ideas
Acrylic paint is a fast-drying water-based medium that many modern painters use. When dry, acrylic paint is semi-flexible, permanent and almost impossible to distinguish from oil paint. Traditionally, acrylic paint is applied to a primed, stretched canvas and painted on with brushes. Painters who use acrylic paint often use it as an alternative to oil paint, which is more toxic by nature.
Subjects
Acrylic paint dries very quickly. This may be a disadvantage when painting certain subjects. Anything that requires significant blending--subjects like portraits, sunsets and high-contrast, irregularly shaped objects--will be a greater challenge with acrylics. If you are a beginner, you may want to pick relatively flat subjects that feature hard edges, geometric shapes and bright colors. Examples of this would include a close-up of a tulip, a flattened projection of a building or a nonrepresentational brightly colored image. As you become more used to working with acrylic paint, you will either learn to manipulate the material so that colors are blended together smoothly and to your liking, or you will learn to adjust your painting style in such a way that you don't need to blend colors to create dramatic, complex images.
Surfaces
Acrylic paint can be used on nearly any surface, without worry that it will chip, flake or degrade the integrity of the surface. This is different from oil paint, which contains an acid that may cause the canvas to deteriorate over time. This is why oil painters must "prime" the canvases before beginning their paintings. Although acrylic painters often prime their canvases as well, this is not necessary. For the same reasons that acrylic painters can paint on unprimed canvas without worry, they may also paint on just about any other surface without trouble. Try applying your acrylic paint to a T-shirt, your shoes, backpack, a door, wall or any other found object or flat surface that is convenient. Try to match the content of your painting to the surface you've painted it on. For example, you might paint a mural about literature on the side of a library, or a picture of a domestic interior on the side of a farmhouse door.
Application
Don't just use paint brushes. Use fingers, sticks, sponges, cotton balls, clothes, or any other found object (as long as you don't mind if it gets acrylic paint on it). You can use these methods of application to create different textures and patterns (for example, applying the acrylic paint by blotting it on with a sponge creates the same unusual shape, over and over again). Remember that anything you use to paint with acrylic you must wash very well with soap and warm water. In addition, some things will never come clean from paint. If you apply paint with rags, you will likely never wash the paint out of the rags. To clean your painting tools as best as possible, rinse with water until the water rinses away clear, not foggy with paint.
