My Favorite Mixed Media Essentials: 1. Acrylic Paints

Hands down my all time Mixed Media Essential is Acrylic Paint.

I had a very intense acrylic paint phase a couple of years ago and then I guess I needed a break and neglected those beauties for spray paints for a while. But I am so glad I came back to them!

What I love about Acrylic Paints is:

  • they are fast drying
  • generally cheap – or at least long-lasting even if it is a bit more pricey
  • they have a plastic like surface (due to the plastic polymer emulsion)
  • they can be thinned with water and that could make them almost look like water-color in some cases
  • they are permanent once dried
  • they cover surfaces if opaque
  • you can use other paint media on top of acrylic paints
  • you can use some fun media with them for amazing backgrounds and textures
  • you can create amazing backgrounds and texture with solely acrylic paints

Here are some examples:

beautiful easy background – that can be also used for a scrapbooking layout:

background and texture with acrylic paints:

background and texture using other media and cheap supplies:

texture creating on a scrapbooking layout:

creating some fun handmade embellishments and use it for some accents on a layout:

using them with other acrylic media

using it on difficult surface – like acrylic pages of a minialbum

using acrylic paint to make embellishments your own

Pretty amazing what you can do with acrylic paints, isn’t it? And there is way more!!! So yes – just because of it’s versatility it knocks me off my socks and is my all time favorite essential :)

Which acrylic paints I use:

Here comes a saying that I learned when studying law : “It depends” – LOL. Nice one, huh?

Well, I used a lot of acrylic paints. And over the last couple years I learned what I like and what I do not like.What I like, doesn’t have to be necessary what you like.  so just take it as my thoughts and my preferences, ok?

  • So first of all let’s state that I like good quality artist paints. Because I learned over the years that especially when working in an art journal for example that they aren’t that tacky as a lot of the cheaper non artist ones.
  • I also love good quality artist paints because the color shift between wet and dry is not that high. I love to see how my work might look like when it is dry while I’m still working with my paints. I had many disappointments in the past where I was thinking a nice bright red was rocking my socks and then it was dry and a dark bloody mess as the paint shifted a lot when it dried.
  • Highly pigmented colors go a longer way and they are usually also more beautiful. They also can be buffed for a great glossy finish- which for me also is mostly true for more expensive artist paints.
  • I love texture and I love to create texture with paints – so I prefer thicker colors – I can also just thin them down if I want – and so I am a big Lover of Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic Paints. I also like Winsor & Newton especially when it comes to their translucent acrylic paints. A good bargain and a very good quality are alos the Liquitex Basic Acrylic Paints.

nSupplies

I hope you liked this post- let me know what you think. Next up is Gesso.

huge hugs

Nat

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If you want to learn more about acrylic paints- check out my Über*Media Acrylic Paint Online Workshop

Comments (4)

  • scrappegal

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    Lovely inspiration projects you are showing! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Easter 1928 is such an elegant LO Nat.
    Thanks for the paint info. I believe that you were the first to inspire me to even try using paint on a LO. Tons of fun and extra special in my art journal. I love the Liquitex tubes since they come in small sizes which are good for travel.

    Reply

  • Jessica Sporn

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    I used to favor watercolor over everything else but have fallen in love with acrylic paint — especially since discovering Golden Fluid acrylics. xo

    Reply

  • mjmarmo

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    Love the many ways you use the paint!

    Reply

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