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thinning acrylic paint

How to Properly Thin Acrylic Paint

Just add Water The most obvious method for thinning acrylic paint is adding water.  Thinning with water is by far the easiest and fastest way to thin your paint. Since acrylic paint is water-based, it just makes sense to dip your brush into your water when you need to thin down your paint a little. [...]

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Our Best Articles for Newbies

So you’re just getting started with acrylic paint and want some help? We have compiled some of best articles geared specifically for beginning acrylic painters.

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Three Reasons Hobby Painters Need to use Professional Artist Acrylic Paint

Ok, so you don’t paint to sell.  You reserve your private, pleasurable studio wonderland just for yourself.  Or perhaps you share it with your friends and family only; never intending to hang in a gallery or exhibit at an art center.  Who cares if you use cheaper student grade paint?   You will. Trust me. Want [...]

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What are acrylic inks?

I like to think of acrylic ink is to won-ton soup (minus the dumpling) as acrylic paint is to cream of mushroom soup.  Not crazy about soup?   Acrylic Ink is thin and watery yet still vibrant and bold in color. Ink History Ancient Ink  is traditionally dye-based. Dyes are made from vegetables and fruit.  Modern [...]

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How to properly dispose of your acrylic paint water

Acrylic is wonderful because of the easy soap and water clean-up.  But when your painting session is finished, you are left with a bucket or container of dirty water. What to do with this dirty water? Dumping it down the drain is not the best solution for our environment.  The generally suggested disposal method involves [...]

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What is student grade acrylic paint?

Open any book about acrylics, and the first chapter deals with materials.  The author always advises the beginning acrylic painter to buy the best materials they can afford. Most books caution against choosing inexpensive student quality acrylic paints, explaining that these student grade tubes do not contain as much pure pigment as artist grade paint. [...]

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What is Acrylic Gesso?

Experienced painters sometimes forget exactly how intimidating art supply lingo can be for a beginning painter.  I learned to paint from books, so not only did I not know what gesso was, I didn’t even know how to pronounce it.  So I felt like a double-dummy asking for it in the art store. We’ve all [...]

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What is acrylic paint color shift?

Acrylic Color Shift is simple. It means that the hue or color of the wet paint changes when it becomes dry.  Normally, this means the color deeps or darkens? Why does Acrylic Paint darken when dry? The easiest way I know to explain this is to say that the gooie stuff in the paint (otherwise [...]

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How long does it take for acrylic paint to dry?

When it comes to acrylic paint, there are two ways to define the word dry.
Is is dry to the touch? Meaning if you lightly touch it against the sleeve of your designer white shirt no paint will come off onto the shirt. Hey! What are you doing wearing nice shirts around your paint anyway!

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What is Acrylic Paint?

– excerpt — With acrylic paint, this squishy stuff is usually referred to as an emulsion, a suspension, or a binder. Acrylic paint can be purchased in a variety of pre-made thicknesses. Some acrylic paint has the viscosity of butter and others drip like honey, and some pour like water. Using acrylic mediums can also change the viscosity of your acrylic pigments …

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