How to use acrylic paint: five techniques every beginner should know
Acrylic paint is one of the best mediums a beginner can start with, and for good reason. It is water-based, so it cleans up easily with water. It dries quickly, so you are not waiting hours between layers. It works on almost any surface — canvas, paper, wood, fabric, card. And if you make a mistake, you can simply paint over it once dry. No other paint medium offers that combination of forgiveness, versatility, and speed.
The flip side is that acrylics behave quite differently to oils or watercolours, and beginners who pick them up without understanding a few core techniques can quickly get frustrated — most commonly by paint drying too fast on the palette, colours going muddy when mixed, or flat results that lack depth or texture. None of these problems are hard to solve once you know what you are doing.
This guide covers five essential acrylic techniques that every beginner should try. You do not need to master all of them at once — even getting comfortable with the first two will transform your results immediately.
Before you start: a note on paint consistency
The single most important thing to understand about acrylics is that consistency — how thick or thin your paint is — controls almost everything. Thin paint behaves like watercolour, spreading and staining. Thick paint holds brushmarks and builds texture. Most of the techniques below involve adjusting consistency deliberately, either by adding water, using a medium, or working directly from the tube.
As a general rule: add water sparingly. A little water loosens acrylic paint beautifully, but too much (more than roughly 30% by volume) can break down the binder in the paint and cause it to crack or lose adhesion when dry. For very thin, fluid applications, it is better to use an acrylic flow improver or medium rather than water alone.
Technique 1: Layering (building up from dark to light)
Layering is the foundation of most acrylic painting and the technique you will use more than any other. Because acrylics dry quickly and become water-resistant once dry, you can build up multiple layers of colour in a single session without the layers bleeding into each other — something that takes days or weeks with oil paint.
How to do it: Start by blocking in the darkest areas of your painting with thinned paint — this is called an underpainting, and it gives you a tonal map of the whole composition before you commit to full colour. Allow this to dry fully (a few minutes for thin layers), then add your mid-tones, and finally your lightest colours and highlights on top. Each layer refines and enriches what is beneath it.
Why it works: Working dark to light mimics the way light actually falls on objects. The underlayers show through thin upper layers, creating a natural sense of depth and luminosity that is very hard to achieve by painting everything in one pass.
Beginner tip: Keep your initial layers thin and your upper layers thicker. Thin paint underneath, thicker paint on top — this is the classic approach and it works for a reason.
Technique 2: Dry brushing
Dry brushing is one of the most satisfying and immediately accessible acrylic techniques. It requires almost no paint, very little water, and produces a scratchy, textured effect that is ideal for suggesting rough surfaces — bark, stone, grass, clouds, weathered wood, and foliage all respond beautifully to this technique.
How to do it: Load a small amount of paint onto a stiff-bristled brush, then wipe most of it off onto a piece of kitchen roll or scrap paper until the brush is almost dry. Drag or flick the brush lightly across a dry painted surface. The bristles will catch the raised texture of the canvas or paper and deposit colour in a broken, irregular pattern.
Why it works: Because the brush is nearly dry, it deposits paint only on the highest points of the surface texture rather than filling in every groove. This creates a naturally varied, energetic mark that looks very different from a solid brushstroke.
Beginner tip: This technique is particularly effective over a dried darker layer — the dry brush picks up the texture and adds a lighter tone on top, which instantly creates the impression of three dimensions.
Technique 3: Wet-on-wet blending
One of the most common frustrations beginners have with acrylics is blending — specifically, that the paint dries too fast to blend smoothly between colours on the canvas. This is a real characteristic of the medium, but it is entirely manageable once you understand how to work with it.
How to do it: Apply two colours next to each other on the canvas while both are still wet. Working quickly with a soft dry brush, gently stroke back and forth across the boundary between the two colours in short sweeping movements. The colours will merge in the middle. For larger areas, working in sections and keeping a spray bottle of water nearby to lightly mist the canvas will help keep the paint open and workable for longer.
Why it works: Wet paint mixes more readily than paint that has started to dry. The key is speed and a light touch — pressing too hard pushes the paint around rather than blending it.
Beginner tip: Slow-drying mediums are a game-changer for blending. Adding a small amount of an acrylic retarder medium or open medium to your paint extends the drying time significantly — sometimes by an hour or more — giving you far longer to blend and adjust. We stock a range of acrylic mediums at Craft and Canvas that are ideal for this purpose.
A wet palette is also very helpful. This is a shallow tray lined with damp paper and a membrane on top that keeps your mixed colours moist between sessions, so you are not constantly remixing colours that have dried on a conventional palette.
Technique 4: Impasto
Impasto is the technique of applying paint thickly enough that the brushstrokes or knife marks remain visible and three-dimensional on the surface. It is one of the most characteristic and expressive ways to use acrylics, and one that immediately gives paintings a sense of energy and physicality. Van Gogh's swirling brushstrokes are perhaps the most famous example of impasto, though the technique appears across centuries of painting.
How to do it: Use paint straight from the tube without adding water, applying it generously with a stiff brush or a palette knife. Press, drag, and pile the paint to build ridges and peaks. The paint should be thick enough that your marks hold their shape as the paint dries.
To extend your paint and add even more body without the cost of using enormous amounts of paint, mix in an impasto medium or a modelling paste. These thicken the paint further, add texture, and dry to a solid, permanent surface. You can also mix in sand, fine gravel, or other materials to create specific textures.
Why it works: The three-dimensional surface catches light and shadow in a way that flat paint cannot. Thick brushstrokes also have an immediacy and confidence that can be very beautiful in the right context.
Beginner tip: Palette knives are particularly good for impasto. They allow you to spread, scrape, and layer thick paint in a way that brushes cannot, and produce a very different kind of mark — flatter, broader, and more decisive. If you have never tried a palette knife, impasto is the perfect excuse.
Technique 5: Glazing
Glazing is perhaps the most underrated technique in acrylic painting, and the one that most dramatically separates beginners who understand acrylics from those who do not. A glaze is a very thin, transparent layer of paint applied over a dry layer beneath. Because it is transparent, the colour underneath shows through — and the combination of the two colours creates an optical mix that is richer and more complex than either colour alone.
How to do it: Mix a small amount of paint with a glazing medium (or with water, though medium gives better results) until the paint is very thin and transparent. Apply this over a fully dried painted surface with a soft brush, working in smooth, even strokes. The glaze will tint the layer beneath without obscuring it. Allow to dry fully before adding another glaze.
Why it works: The human eye perceives colours mixed optically (in layers on the canvas) as more luminous and vibrant than the same colours mixed physically on a palette. Old master painters used glazing extensively for exactly this reason — the jewel-like depth in many classical paintings comes from dozens of thin glazes built up over time. Acrylics are ideally suited to this technique because each glaze dries quickly, so you can build multiple layers in a single session.
Beginner tip: Glazing is particularly effective for deepening shadows or enriching colour in a specific area of a painting without overworking it. A single warm glaze over a shadowed area can pull a whole painting together. It is also very useful for unifying a painting where the colours feel disconnected — a thinned glaze of one colour across the entire surface can tie everything together beautifully.
What surfaces can you use acrylic paint on?
One of the great advantages of acrylics over watercolour or oils is the range of surfaces they will adhere to. Canvas (primed or unprimed), canvas board, watercolour paper, mixed media paper, card, wood, fabric, and MDF all work well. Most surfaces benefit from a coat of gesso before painting — gesso is a white primer that seals the surface, improves adhesion, and gives the paint a consistent ground to work on. Many canvases come pre-primed, but adding an extra coat of gesso gives you more control over the texture and absorbency.
Do you need specialist brushes for acrylics?
Synthetic brushes are the best choice for acrylic paint. The alkaline nature of acrylic paint can be hard on natural hair brushes over time, and synthetic bristles are resilient enough to handle both the paint and the more vigorous techniques like dry brushing and impasto. A basic set covering a large flat brush, a couple of round brushes in different sizes, and a fan brush for blending will cover almost everything a beginner needs.
The most important brush care tip with acrylics: never let paint dry on your brushes. Dried acrylic is extremely difficult to remove from bristles. Keep a jar of water nearby and place brushes in it immediately when you are not using them. Rinse thoroughly with clean water at the end of every session.
Frequently asked questions about acrylic painting
Can you use acrylic paint straight from the tube? Yes. Straight from the tube, acrylic paint is thick, opaque, and holds strong brushmarks — ideal for impasto and detail work. Adding water or medium adjusts the consistency for different techniques.
Why does my acrylic paint look different when dry? Acrylics dry slightly darker than they appear when wet. This is a characteristic of the medium and something you learn to compensate for with experience. It is most noticeable with lighter colours.
Can you mix acrylic paint with water? Yes, but in moderation. Adding a small amount of water loosens the paint and makes it easier to apply in thin washes. Adding too much water can weaken the paint film and cause it to peel or crack over time. For very thin, fluid applications, use an acrylic medium rather than water alone.
How long does acrylic paint take to dry? Thin layers can dry within minutes. Thicker layers take longer — sometimes an hour or more. Drying time also depends on humidity, temperature, and whether you have added a retarder medium. On a warm, dry day acrylics dry very fast; in a cool, humid environment they stay open longer.
Can you paint acrylics over oil paint? No — this is one of the few firm rules in painting. You can paint oils over acrylics (oils over acrylics is fine), but never acrylics over oils. Oil paint remains slightly flexible as it cures, and a rigid acrylic layer on top will crack and peel.
How do you stop acrylic paint drying on the palette? Use a wet palette (a damp paper-lined tray with a membrane) or mist your palette regularly with water from a small spray bottle. Some artists also add a small amount of retarder medium to their mixes to slow drying on the palette.
Is acrylic paint permanent? Once dry, acrylic paint is water-resistant and very durable. It will not reactivate with water the way watercolour does. Finished acrylic paintings can be varnished for additional protection against UV, dust, and surface damage — we recommend a removable varnish so that it can be replaced in the future if needed.
Shop acrylic paints at Craft and Canvas
We stock a full range of acrylic paints, mediums, canvases, brushes, and surfaces at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk. Our range includes Wallace Seymour, Daler-Rowney, and Winsor & Newton acrylics across student and artist grades, alongside a full selection of mediums including impasto paste, retarder, glazing medium, and gesso.
If you are not sure which paints or mediums to start with, come in and talk to us — we are always happy to help you put together the right kit for where you are in your painting journey.
Craft and Canvas | 3 Carlton Street, Hebden Bridge, HX7 8ER | craftandcanvas.co.uk