Before You Start: Quick Tips for Acrylics

There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes, but why not prepare yourself a little bit for what’s ahead—especially if this is your first time painting with acrylics. Now at this point in my life, I have only painted with acrylics twice. But these 13 Tips for Working With Acrylic Paint have info in them that I wish I had known eight months ago when I stayed up late Christmas Eve just to finish painting my dad’s gift… that was a coffee night for sure.

After reading through these 13 tips, I thought a few stood out.

“1. Always keep a container of water next to your painting palette where you can rest the tips of any brushes you’re not currently using. This will prevent acrylic paint from hardening in the bristles and ruining your brushes.”

Note to self: stop leaving wet paint brushes out all night for Future Me to worry about. It is nearly impossible to get all of the paint out of a brush once that paint hardens overnight.

“8. Make sure the lids and tops of your acrylic paints are screwed on tightly at all times so the paint doesn’t dry out. This is a simple (and obvious) solution to keep from wasting a whole lot of paint at once.”

Do you know what does waste a lot of paint at once? When your paint cap is basically glued shut from the paint hardening and then when you try to twist it open, the entire tube splits, bleeding indigo into your hands. Now that’s wasteful.

“11. When mixing your paint colors, avoid mixing too vigorously—this may produce bubbles which could lead to cracking later on.”

If you are mixing paints in a way that can legitimately be described as “vigorous,” then it’s time to put that coffee down.

And one final tip from me — don’t overthink, just get started.

Don’t slow yourself down by trying to memorize every how-to article you can find. Just start painting and learn along the way.