I paint to let loose, release emotions and express my thoughts through vibrant colors. Therefore, I need an acrylic paint that allows me the freedom to create either textural or smooth paintings and the ability to blend, drip, scrape, and apply with various tools.

I am always experimenting and never want to get stuck doing the same thing. Life is full of surprises and experiences, so I want my artwork to reflect this. LUKAS CRYL STUDIO paint is perfect for all of this!

I often combine LUKAS CRYL STUDIO with different paints and mediums, like Matisse Structure and Liquitex Resin Sand, for heavy and dramatic texture.

Versatile Acrylic Paint

I have always been pleased with the outcome of this paint. I have yet to find a product this paint doesn’t work well with! My painting “Poppies Appearing” is an example of LUKAS’ paint combined with resin sand to create a textural background over canvas.

If my mood is calm and serene and I want my end result to be somewhat smooth to represent my serenity, I use LUKAS CRYL STUDIO alone or with water.

It has great fluidity and coverage. I have even used LUKAS CRYL STUDIO over bare wood. My paintings “Poetic” and “Hidden Metropolis” demonstrate the great coverage and vibrancy of using LUKAS’ line of studio acrylics alone.

The numerous color choices look beautiful as is or mixed to create custom colors. Currently, my favorite colors are Turquoise and Vermillion. LUKAS even offers Glow-in-the-Dark and Fluorescent paints.

Read more APR Articles about LUKAS
Lukas Impasto Paint Product Review
Lukas Company Profile

LUKAS is affordable

With my carefree abstract and textural paintings, I use a ton of paint. Unfortunately, I don’t have an unlimited budget for art supplies, so I am thrilled LUKAS offers these professional quality paints at affordable prices in 75, 250 and 500ml bottles.

Turning up my music (80′s and dance music keep my creative juices flowing) and letting loose with paint involves making a mess of my tools and surroundings. You should see my floor and walls! Luckily, this paint cleans up easily with soap and water.

I don’t know about you, but I am impatient and cannot wait to see how the paint settles and dries on my canvas.

Also, I am eager to photograph my artwork and upload it to the web to receive feedback. Therefore, I appreciate the quick drying time of LUKAS CRYL STUDIO paint.

I definitely recommend this product to all levels of painters!

About Jessica Anne Stone:

Jessica Stone is an abstract painter living in Austin, Texas. She expresses the joys of life and works through traumatic experiences in a world of texture and vibrant colors. She adds layer after layer of paint in hopes of giving new experiences each time her artwork is viewed.

“I paint not just because I love to, but also because I need to. My hyperactive mind causes twisted words, incomplete stories, unexpected moods, and brief sleep. When I paint, time slows down and I feel as though my mind is being cleansed as I become lost in a world of colors and freedom. Painting for me is like meditation to others.”

More of Jessica Anne Stone’s Artwork

Poppies Appearing by Jessica Anne Stone

Poetic by Jessica Anne Stone

Golden makes three types of matte medium.

• Matte Medium
• Fluid Matte Medium
• Super-loaded Matte Medium

This article deals with the first one, Matte Medium.

It was designed to be use with heavy body acrylic paint.  The Fluid Matte Medium is a better fit for you if you mostly use Fluid Acrylics.  Super-loaded is designed for those who need to reduce sheen or gloss only.

Matte Medium also extends your paint and increases it transparency.

Hey, this is confusing!

OK, so Matte Medium makes your paint color seem thinner, or less opaque AND it reduces gloss.

This is a strange concept for experienced painters, since normally the transparent acrylic colors appear to be shinier when dry than some of the more opaque color.  I like to think about it in terms of how Nickel Azo Yellow dries with more shininess than Cadmium Yellow.

If you are a watercolor painter, you will innately understand about transparent, matte color.

A Word about Sheen for Painters

Have you ever finished your painting, hung it up in your sitting room, only to be “bugged” by a certain section reflecting light at night or as you walk by it?  For instance, in a portrait, only the lips are reflecting light as you walk by it?  It seems to be kissing you and it looks weird?

This is because if you use color from the tube, some of them dry with a slightly different sheen than other colors.  For my work, this is usually not distracting, but on some of my paintings it bugs the hell out of me.

To correct this problem, choose a sheen (gloss, matte, or semi-gloss) and go over the entire painting with a thin coat of the medium in the sheen of your choice.

Doing this will often give your painting a more finished look.  I see it at juried shows a lot.  Straight on the painting looks fine, but off to the side it looks like a jumble of different sheens.  Blues look dull and flat, or yellows look too shiny.

Using Matte Medium as Clear Gesso

An old studio trick for artists who want more tooth to a surface but don’t want to cover up their pencil drawings — use matte medium as clear gesso.

Have you tried erasing graphite pencil on a white gessoed canvas?  Doesn’t work well.

Soulution:  Coat your canvas with GAC100, a good preservation habit anyway – see article.   Draw until your heart is content, erase all you want.  Then when satisfied carefully coat the drawing with matte medium.  You then have the familiar tooth of gesso, but you can still see your drawing underneath.

Negative Side Effects of Matte Medium

Watch out when applying numerous layers of matte medium one another.  Although one layer will dry clear, as you add additional layers, a milky or white haze will appear and change the appear or vibrancy of your color.

Some artists use gloss medium through out the painting process, saving matte medium until the end, as a way to reduce sheen across the finished painting.

Alternative Uses for Acrylic Matte Medium

Collage Adhesive – use matte medium instead of gel gloss for collage and decopage work.  Matte medium dries dull.  It won’t give you the plastic feeling that gel gloss does.

Photographing your finished work – glossy paintings are difficult to photograph.  The reflections show up in the camera as white areas.

I like my finished paintings to be extra glossy.  But to photograph them, I use matt medium as a intermediate, permanent varnish to knock the shine off.  Mix it 2:1 with water.  After I have the photos that I want, I put the shine back on with gloss medium.

It’s extra step and more time consuming, but I sell on the internet, so good photos of my work means everything to me.

Scanning paintings for reproductions - Matte medium is also perfect if you plan to scan a small work into your computer.  Illustrators or commercial artists avoid shine by using acrylic gauche or matte acrylic color, making reproduction easier.

If you don’t own a complete line of matte acrylics or acrylic gouache,  using matte medium before scanning produces an even, dull sheen.  Your note-cards, small prints, or postcards will appear more professional.

Image transfers – artist can also use matte medium for image transfers.

Add Texture – yes, matte medium can be used to add some texture to your paintings.  In my opinion, there are about a zillion better ways to add texture since most acrylic paint manufacturers now have an array of texture enhancing mediums and gels.

Ready to try some Matte Medium?

Let me know how you like it in our comments below.

The answer is YES!

Many, many fine art professionals use acrylic paint as an undercoat or underpainting for their oil paintings.  Acrylic dries much faster than oil paint.

Therefore it is possible to sketch and shade your underpainting in a matter of minutes or hours with acrylic paint.  Oil paint takes several days to dry to the touch; and several years to completely cure.

Tone your Canvas with Acrylic Paint

Another old studio trick that many painters use is “toning” the canvas with red or orange acrylic paint before beginning their oil painting.  This is especially popular among landscape artists.

After the painting is completed, tiny – almost microscopic, areas of red paint will show through.  This creates cohesiveness throughout the entire painting, and also make the green hues in the landscape paintings sparkle and pop.

Let it Dry and Don’t Mix Brushes

Make sure your acrylic paint is complete dry before applying oil paint over it.  Also, don’t mix your brushes.

Keep a set of acrylic brushes with synthetic bristles, and save your natural hair brushes for oils only.  Not only will your brushes last much longer, but if you mix your brushes, acrylic paint will pick up remaining oil in your brush and will not adhere well to the surface of your canvas.

see Best Brushes for Heavy Body Acrylic Paint

One rule about Acrylic and Oil Paint

Never, ever, ever, in a million, zillion years should you paint acrylic paint on top of oil paint.

Acrylic and Oil is a one way street.

Acrylic applies over oil paint will not adhere well, will peel, crack and generally wreck havoc on your painting surface in no time at all.

Cindy Davis – Sr. Editor & owner, Acrylic Paint Review

J. Richard Secor  – guest blogger

Jessica Anne Stone – guest blogger

Bethany Vanderputten - guest blogger

Linda Blondheim - guest blogger

Bob Burridge - guest blogger

Annette Ragone Hall

Robin Pedreo

Morgan Veissiere 

Jan Blencowe

Sys Oppenlander

If you are interested in exchanging links, please link to us on your website – then email, facebook, or twitter us and show us the link.  We will add you to this page.

At APR, we have long held the opinion that the best way to learn how to paint is to get out there and actually PAINT!

The second best way is the pay attention to the tips, habits, techniques, and ideas of other painters.  Many times other artists have worked through material or techinque issues already and their advice is invaluable.

While you must find your own path artistically, you can always learn from others technically.

Top Tips for Painting in Hot Weather

I find placing a wet face washer/hand towel on my palette, overlayed with one layer of cling wrap, with paint placed over the top of that helps keep paint from drying out before I get to use it! No complaints about it drying too fast on the canvas, though, as I’m a dry-brusher…can’t wait for summer to come back!  - Rebecca, (facebook)

A little spray bottle of distilled water for your palette. Also cover the palette if you take even an extremely short break. I use Creative Mark’s Acrylimiser palette system which has lids for all the little modular palette sections. For plein air I just take a couple of the little sections, which fit into a sandwich-size Ziplock lid & all.

I do have another: since you have to keep acrylic brushes wet until you can clean them properly, which means all day in a bucket of water sometimes, I use the kind with clear plastic handles instead of wood. There are several brands of these.

- Medrith, (facebook)

Thin paint with glazing liquid or polymer medium instead of water – it evaporates more slowly than water – Donna Buchan, (facebook)

Use retarder medium instead of water. – Carlie, (facebook)  Editor’s Note:  We would suggest not completely replaced your water with retarder, as things can get rather gummy – but certainly use retarder in the summertime, it will help tremendously to extend your drying time.

Have tips for painting in summertime?

We want to HEAR from YOU!

Please leave us your suggestions below!

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.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with thinning your acrylic paint with water, there are certain disadvantages to doing so.  See our article, Disadvantages of Thinning Acrylic Paint with Water.

Thin Acrylic Paint with Mediums

If you already own a lot of tube paint, consider buying a couple of different types of acrylic medium to thin your paint and save money.

Acrylic mediums are often used to make acrylic paint thinner.  Most manufacturers produce several options of acylic painting medium that can help you control the sheen when dry  - matte, satin, or glossy. Use mediums to change the transparency, viscosity and surface sheen.

Alternatives to Thinning Acrylic Paint

If you consistently water down your heavy body paint, then consider buying bottles of fluid acrylics instead.  Fluid acrylics have lower viscosity and flow off your brush more easily than heavy body paints.

Fluid Acrylics are not tube color with lots of water added.  Professional artist grade fluid acrylics still contain the same pigment power punch as heavy body paint in jars or tubes.

Using fluid acrylics mean your color remains bright and intense, but your paint is thinner.  See Golden Fluid Acrylic Paint Review.

If you want super thin, watery paint the consistency of chicken broth, try acrylic inks instead of paint.  See our article, What are Acrylic Inks? to learn all about this cool type of acrylic paint.

Is your acrylic paint old and rubbery?

Acrylic paint does indeed have a shelf life.  Each brand is different. Most will last several years before solidifying into a semi-solid.

I have purchased large jars of clearance acrylic paint from art stores only to find it turns rubbery very quickly after I open it.  Maybe manufacturers will started putting a freshness date on the jars someday.  I am not sure if it is age or freeze/thaw that causes the rubbery paint.  Probably some of both.

Paint is affected by the number of times it freezes and thaws.  Try to store your paint in a place where is doesn’t ever freeze.

Most manufacturers add anti-freeze agents that protect acrylic paint through a small number of freeze thaw cyles for shipping purposes.  If your paint goes through frequent freeze thaws it will soon become rubbery.

Acrylic Paint gets thicker over time

As paint gets old, it sometimes gets thicker, thus creating another reason to thin your acrylic paint.

Thickening of stale acrylic paint seems to happen more frequently with jar acrylic than with my tube paints.  I often buy old tube paint on ebay, I have even used some retro Liquitex from the 1960′s from tubes, and it was just fine!

When using paint in jars, adding water straight into the jar will sometimes contaminate the paint.   After thinning with water, the next time you open the jar, you might find mold inside or an offense odor.  This depends on your environmental factors such as temperature and the purity of your water. Distilled water helps reduce mold and bacterial growth.

Thinning Acrylic Paint Myths

Don’t thin Acrylic Pain with these substances

Mineral Spirits or Paint Thinner (found in hardware stores).  Both of these are intended for oil paints only.  Never, ever use them with acrylic paint, it will totally and permanently mess up your groove!  Oil and water-based paint just don’t mix.

Gesso – Don’t thin acrylic paint with gesso.  First off, gesso is usually white, so your color is substantially lighter.  Red becomes pink, orange becomes peach.  Secondly, gesso is intended to be a surface prep for acrylic paint.  Gesso is not acrylic paint and thus will not behave like acrylic paint.  If this is greek to you, see our article, What is Acrylic Gesso?

Gum Arabic – is intended for use as watercolor binder.  Gum arabic combines with pigment to produce watercolor paint that allows you to lift out or rewet the paint after it is dry.

Gum Arabic is a resoluble.  The polymer binder found in acrylic paint is not resoluble.  You cannot lift or rewet acrylic paint after it has dried.  These two water based binders do not mix well together.

Rubbing Alcohol - While it is true that rubbing alchol can help you remove dried acrylic paint from your brushes (sometimes) or off your favorite pair of jeans (even more of a longshot), it is not an appropriate thinner for your acrylic paint.

Experiment with thinning your Paint

I encourage you to experiment with thinning your paint.

Break down your binder by thinning your paint with water and see if you like the effects.

Use glazes to thin your paint. Glaze is a meduim designed to greatly increase transpancy.  Many times makes acrylic paint appear more like oil.

Try matte, satin, and gloss acrylic medium and see what you like best.  Or mix them up and use all three in one painting.

Try using different types of acrylic paint such as fluid, airbrush, or acrylic inks with your heavy body paint.

Nova Color is a company based out of southern California making acrylic paint since 1965. Not sold in retail stores, the paint is available online directly from the manufacturer or from their factory store in Culver City, CA – greater Los Angeles area.

Nova Color on facebook. Don’t miss their fanpage photo album for some cute pictures of the Nova Color factory kitty-cat.

Gels and Mediums by Nova Color

In addition to fine art acrylic paint, Nova Color also produces a line of gels and mediums.  The poducts include acrylic gesso, acrylic gel and acrylic mediums for fine art, mural varnish, and giclee varnish.

Nova Color Acrylic

The company was founded by Mexican American, Carlos Amparan, with his brother Raoull.

Today Nova Color is now owned by Artex Manufactuing Company, a private company.

Outdoor Mural Paint

Historically, Nova Color has a long association with outdoor mural artists in Southern California.  Nova Color acrylic paint was the paint of choice for muralists in the 60′s, 70′s, and 80′s due to affordability and vibrancy of color.

Many artists involved in the LA Muralist Movement use Nova Color acrylics.

Buy in Bulk

If you need large amounts of high quality acrylic paint, for example if you typically purchase your paint by the gallon, you will find Nova Color’s pricing to be extremely competitve against other fine art acrylic paint manufacturers.

Additional Information about Nova Color

For detailed information about Nova Color, their website contains numerous pdf articles regarding paint, mediums, surface prep, and other tips for using the paint.

Most of the paint hues are named simply by their pigment name, a method much preferred here at AcrylicPaintReview because it makes it much easier to compare paint brands and prices.

Interesting Reading on Secret Nova Color Webpage

I found the articles about Nova Color Artists to be an interesting read.  I actually found this webpage by searching Google Images, as the link doesn’t not readily come up on the top navigation bar of the Nova Color website.  Lot’s of interesting and dare we say, colorful, artists to read about.

Craft, student, classroom, and house paint are not included here.

Acrylic Paint Brands widely available throughout the USA.

Golden Artist Paints, Inc. One of the best known acrylic artist paint brands.  Golden offers the most comprehensive line of pigments, gels, mediums, etc.  Their website contains detailed information about use for each product. Golden does not make a student grade line, all pigments are professional artist grade. Made in USA.

Golden Acrylic Reviews:

Golden Manufacturer Profile

Golden Fluid Acrylics

Golden Clear Tar Gel

Liquitex Artist Acrylic Typically considered the first manufacturer of water-based  acrylic artist paint, Liquitex is found in almost every brick and mortar store that sells art supplies.  Liquitex is also sold on most art websites.  Liquitex offers a complete product line, with a many gels and mediums. Both a professional and student grade paint lines are offered for sale by Liquitex. Made in USA.

Liquitex Paint Reviews:

How good are Liqutiex Heavy Body Artists Colors Paint?

Winsor & Newton One of the oldest oil paint manufacturers on planet earth, the U.K. company Winsor & Newton has a full line of acrylic paint. Readily available in most art supply stores in the USA, this paint is a popular brand.  Winsor & Newton recently (2009) revamped their entire acrylic line, with new paint formula claimed to be the brightest pigment available with no color shift upon drying.

Winsor & Newton Reviews:

Galeria Black Lava Texture Gel

Other Fine Art Acrylic Paint Brands

Holbein A Japanese manufacturer of acrylic artist paint, Holbein is still considered a speciality paint for professional artists.  Not widely available in hobby stores,  this brand is available in some art supply stores.

Matisse Aussie manufacturer offers two main lines of professional artist grade acrylic paint called Structure and Flow.

Lascaux Swiss manufacturer of professional grade artist’s paint (tubes) , gels, & mediums.  Also offer a student grade line of acrylic paint as well as a  watercolor / acrylic hybrid paint called Aquacryl.

Maimeri Brera Italian manufacturer offering acrylic paint in both professional fine art grade and student grade. Available throughout the online art retailer websites.

Da Vinci Acrylic  Produced in California, these paints are best known for their fluid acrylic line.  Da Vinchi also produced a heavy body professional artist paint too.

LUKAS CRYL acrylic paint, both impasto and fluid, manufactured in Germany.

So before you get all caught up with which brand of acrylic paint is the best, and which brushes are better than other brushes, take a few minutes to settle down with a cup of coffee and read through our newbie articles.  These posts will give you a foundation of acrylic paint knowledge that will help you understand some our more technical articles.

Index of Learn to Paint with Acrylic Articles:

The Basics:

What is Acrylic Paint?

What is Acrylic Gesso?

How long does it take for acrylic paint to dry?

What is Student Grade Acrylic Paint?

What is Acrylic Paint Color Shift?

Opinion Articles for Newbies:

3 Reasons Hobby Artists should use Professional Artist Paint

How to dispose of your dirty paint water properly

Which is acrylic pigment is better, inorganic or modern?

Chroma Atelier Modeling Compound is an extremely thick impasto paste that can be used to build up an area of your painting where you want to exaggerate structure or create texture. I found that the impasto paste is much better for building up exaggerated texture than impasto gel, and it can be used at any stage of the painting process. It dries to a dull off-white finish and remains flexible.

Because of the thickness of the product, I would recommend using a sturdy painting surface such as canvas panel, or gesso-treated MDF or Masonite panels. To create even more texture, you can add elements to the medium such as sawdust or sand.

I found this compound is best applied with a palette knife because application is easier and I can better vary and control the desired thickness.

The following is a demonstration of how I used the impasto paste to create depth and texture in a simple painting.

First, I applied the compound to an 8 by 10 canvas panel with a palette knife, using random strokes of varied thickness to create the background and foreground. Then I continued building up the thickness to create an apple. (See photo 1)

The canvas panel was allowed to dry for two days, as some of the sections I had built up were 1/8” or more in thickness. It dried to a dull off-white surface with NO cracks or separation – it was a good solid but flexible highly textured surface upon which to apply paint.

Next Step

Next I painted in a sort of a road map for the apple using Chroma Interactive Acrylics. See Photo 2.

Photo 3

I completed the painting of the apple using a big brush wet into wet loaded with juicy paint and some impasto gel.
Then I finished up painting the background and foreground. (See Photo 3)

More Detail Photos

….

Acrylic Paint Review Disclaimer:

Although J. Richard Secor is not an employee of Chroma Paint Company, recently gave a demonstration of Chroma products at an art store in Santa Fe, and was paid for his time. He was hired as an independent contractor for this event.

—

Written by Guest Blogger: J. Richard Secor

A landscape and plein air painter, J. Richard Secor is well known for his use of bold, striking colors applied with both brush and palette knife in a free and loose manner. Mr. Secor began painting at age 54, after retiring early from a 32 year career in banking on the East Coast. He is represented by several galleries in the Southwestern USA as well as in Mexico. Visit his website: J.Richard Secor.

Artist’s Statement:

I enjoy painting Plein air in the mountains near my home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and also paint in my home studio. My style, which is primarily Impressionistic, continuously evolves through curiosity, intense observation, sudden inspiration and experimentation. Ultimately the style of any given painting will be the result of how I feel about that particular scene at the time I’m painting it, and is often influenced by the music to which I am listening. I like to paint “outside the lines” and “outside the box” as well as “outside the rules.”