Learning to paint may be daunting (for me) as a little kid, but it became even more so when I discovered a really inexpensive, incredibly good, great looking, and practical medium that has been shown to really enhance learning about color theory.
Paints can make you think faster, understand ideas more clearly, and more quickly learn color theory concepts. It’s really one of my favourite things.
The only downside is I’m still not sure why, when I try to paint my own works I always end up with an uninspired result of no paint left in the pan and a bit of paint residue on every surface!
So I decided it was time to take a step back and try using acrylic paint as a teaching tool. I’ve finally had some success, and I want to share it with you, so here’s my process.
What is acrylic paint?
If you’ve never heard of acrylic paint or see it in use, I guess you could call it paint, but it’s simply paint with the benefit of an acrylic base (I guess that goes for paints too!).
Acrylic paints are highly translucent and highly pigmented. So when you spray it over a canvas, it turns a transparent red-orange colour, and when you get a little spray on the brush, the brush will be able to stick onto the wall it’s being used on – allowing you to paint a picture faster.
You can paint acrylic and acrylic-based paints easily together, and it’s super easy.
Acrylic paints can be found in large containers, such as a bottle of paint – so it saves on the costs of buying large bottles, bottles and cans. My favourite kind of paint is the more modern, water-based varieties like Ultra Violet.
You can make acrylic paints yourself with water, a small amount of a paint such as Ultra Violet, paint glue, and an acrylic paint brush. This will give you about 2 weeks of paint, plus it’ll still be available to make more over time – if you’re a DIYer, like me!
You see, there are some really great tutorials out there that will show you how to make acrylic paints at home (thanks to this website!).
I’ve tried them all (mostly for the DIY-ness), and found them to be both quick to make and, overall, really helpful for learning different paints. For the DIY-ers out there, I recommend using all your fingers to keep a constant supply