Acrylic painting and the use of acrylic paints have a number of advantages and disadvantages.
As for its advantages, water is its solvent paint which means that it can be diluted with use of water and also makes cleaning very easy.
Acrylic paints dry fast also that store keeping is not at a problem as in comparison to oil paints which take months to dry.
Another is that, color from the point of application to its dried up stage is almost the same and one can expect the same image as applied.
On the negative side, however, its ability to dry fast is an obstacle for blending.
The brushes too are to be handled with optimum care by not allowing acrylic paints to dry on it though most dried up paints can be removed by water.
Special palette used to avoid paints drying out too fast are quite expensive also.
Also, excessive squeezed out paints would be useless as these turn rocks so better squeeze just enough.
The texture and finish of an acrylic painting though can be modified to suit what a painter wants to achieve by modifying the surface or by making changes in the paint medium itself in order to show characteristics of solidity, suppleness, consistency and many others.
The mediums used in painting with acrylics are relatively greater than those of the oil and watercolor painting.
In fact, unlike oil and watercolor, acrylics have the distinct feature to bond with a variety of surfaces or these surfaces may be altered or primed to prepare it for a painting job with the use of acrylics.
Unlike oil paintings as well, acrylics may be used to make thick layers at a short span of time without necessarily destroying the previous layer through several mediums and additives.
It is thus important to get the best mediums and additives for acrylic painting and some of these are the enhancer, impostor gel, interference medium, gel retarded, primer, glaze and many others.
An enhancer basically is added in order to prevent thickness and enhance the flow of acrylic paints, especially for works that require great consistency and smooth finish.
On the other hand, the technique used gel is added to the paint in order to produce a thick color which can either be on matt or gloss texture.
The interference medium or the pearly luster medium have almost similar effect of making shimmering surfaces or a metallic effect.
A gel retarded performs the most important task in acrylic painting which is to a slowdown a bit the drying of the paint and which also has the effect of increasing the transparency.
The primer produces both black and matt white surface in order to seal an un-primed canvas.
The glaze is effective in making skin tones and producing translucent effect.
For the painting surface, the canvas is a perfect choice although other painting surfaces may be used such as papers, boards, and many others.
To prepare the painting surface, do make sure to coat the canvas with an acrylic primer or a primer before painting.
Choose acrylic over oil-based primer and if a primer is not available, a latex emulsion will suffice.
A white base is the most ideal since it keeps the other paints colors.