Easy Acrylic Painting Ideas For Beginners: A Step by Step Guide

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If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at painting, the new year is the perfect time to start! Don’t worry if you aren’t an experienced artist or feel like you’re lacking artistic talent. Anyone can be a painter with practice, a love of creating, and a few different techniques. In this blog post, I’ll show you several different acrylic painting techniques and easy painting ideas that artists of all levels can enjoy!

As far as my own artistic endeavors go, I found acrylic paint after I had painted for years with oils. I still love oil paints and the finish they give my work, but the harsh smell of mineral spirits was too much for me to work with all the time. Not to mention, the drying time between layers took what felt like forever!I tried out watercolors, but didn’t love that I couldnt endlessly build later upon layer to achieve what I wanted. I also felt like I didn’t have enough control over the paint to really capture those fine details. Then I tried acrylic paint and instantly fell in love with the flexibility that came with it. It is so easy to layer, shade, and so much more with this paint! I think you will love it too!

I’ve never been big on abstract art so we will leave abstract painting tutorials to abstract artists. I have always loved to create a more realistic or representational painting look. In other words, I like my paintings to be a clear picture of the subject matter- no squinting or guessing required. If you’re like me, and want to create inspired by life paintings, then these tutorials are for you!

Choosing your Acrylic Painting Supplies

When diving into the world of acrylic painting, it is important to choose the right supplies. Before a brush ever touches a canvas, we need to know what kind of paint brushes, what types of paint, and what size canvas or paper to use. You can download my free GUIDE TO PAINTING SUPPLIES here. This list will include supplies for all types of painting, but for now we will focus on acrylic paint staples.

There are several different grades of acrylic paints. While a beginner grade paint from Hobby Lobby can create beautiful paintings, the paint can definitely affect the outcome of your painting. I personally love Golden Heavy Body Acrylics. They layer nicely, have a thick, buttery consistency, and work nicely as glazes too. They come in an awesome assortment of sets for landscapes, modern colors, or the basics. You can purchase individual tubes as well. You can grab those HERE, at Michael’s, Blick, or most fine art supply shops. You will need something to mix your paint on like a paint PALETTE or a disposable plate will work too. Grab a water cup to clean your brushes as well.

You will also need some paint brushes to use your paint. This is totally your preference on what kind of brushes you use. Different paint brush shapes and textures help you achieve various techniques with paint. We will discuss those techniques below, but keep in mind what look you’re going for when choosing a brush. A good option for an all purpose set of paintbrushes are the Princeton Velvetouch BRUSHES.

Finally, let’s talk painting surfaces. If you want to paint on a canvas, simply choose the size and profile of the canvas you’d like to paint on. No matter if it is a small or large canvas, not all canvases are primed for use so you may want to add a coat or two of GESSO before beginning your paining. Canvases can be absorbent so this helps your paint go a much longer way on the surface. If you aren’t a fan of canvases, you can always paint on papers. When I say paper, I don’t mean copy paper or even some art papers. To withstand the wet, heavy nature of acrylic paints, you need to use a heavyweight paper. I love using Arches watercolor paper. It does have some texture so if you’d like it smoother, you can always sand the paper down with sandpaper to remove some “tooth” or texture. Another option would be several coats of gesso.

Preparing Your Paint Surface

We’ve discussed the different surfaces that you can paint on such as canvas, paper, or even wood. Before we paint on any of these surfaces, we need to prepare the surface for the paint to sit on nicely. Use acrylic primer or gesso on any unprimed canvases or very toothy (textured) papers. Sand any nibs off with a fine grit sandpaper and repeat. Make sure the primer is dried fully. Your surface is now ready for acrylics!

Colored Backgrounds (Using Colored Grounds)

Now I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

Acrylic paints can feel muddy or even one dimensional at times if there isn’t much light fastness. However, there is a great way to make your paint really pop. This actually took me a few years to discover because I am mostly self-taught. The trick is to paint your backgrounds a with a color other than white paint. Pink backgrounds, yellows, sepia tones, you name it- but they all have the power to make certain colors really shine through in your paintings and help you avoid the muddying effects.

Determining what color background will make another color pop goes back to color theory and the color wheel. Color theory can be a little complex so I’ll just give you the spark notes version in case you are a new painter. If you want a certain color to stand out, you need to find its complementary color to use as the colorful background. This technique is also called using colored grounds. Complementary colors are diagonal from each other on the color wheel. You can search the color wheel online fairly easily. For example, if I am painting a bright blue sky and really want it to be vibrant, I would use yellow as the colors ground since they are complementary.

When applying colored grounds, it is important to note that this is a base coat for your paint. Treat it as you would a primer. Cover your paper or canvas in your chosen color and then continue your painting on top of that colored ground.

How to use Acrylic Paint

Acrylic paint is an incredibly versatile medium. It can be watered down and used very similarly to watercolor paints. A wet-on-wet technique can be used to emulate oil paints. It is a very thick, opaque paint medium. Opacity and light fastness will depend on how much water or glazing medium you mix with the paint. It can be heavily layered and textured with palette knives. Basically, this paint can do almost anything you want it to!

Easy Acrylic Painting Ideas for Beginners

Now that we’ve covered a few basic things about acrylics, let’s get painting! There are endless possibilities when it comes to painting with acrylics. It is such a versatile medium. Below is a list of 5 easy acrylic painting ideas.

• 1. Easy Landscape Paintings
• 2. Flower Paintings
• 3. Still Life Paintings
• 4. Paint with Palette Knives
• 5. Limited Color Palette Portraits or Landscapes

Easy Landscape Paintings

Begin by painting your paint surface with the colored ground of your choice. If you’d like sky to stand out, I’d recommend yellow. If you are wanting green hues to pop, try a red or pink colored background. I always recommend looking at reference photos when painting in a semi realistic style, but you can definitely use your imagination to create your landscape like our pal Bob Ross. I like to use my darkest color to block out where everything goes. This also helps you build a cohesive painting since everything is built up from the basic dark shade you start with. You can use black paint, burnt umber, sienna, or even Prussian blue.

Next, mix your mid tones and build up each landscape element. Mid tones would be a medium dark brown on tree stumps, shadows on the ground, darker leaves, etc. Be sure to travel all over the canvas with each color. Layering this way allows you to work all areas of the painting equally and not hyper fixate or overwork one spot while others suffer.

Finally, mix up your highlight colors. Highlights are the bright spots on your painting, often where light would hit certain elements. Highlights can be white paint, a very bright yellow, or really any color usually mixed with white or Naples yellow. You can add as much or as little detail to your landscape as you’d like. A more realistic painting will require many many layers, but simpler paintings with fewer layers are can be beautiful too!

Try experimenting with your different paint brushes and levels of wetness/ dryness to achieve different textures in your landscape. A fan brush can be used to dry brush paint to create a grass like effect. A wet-on-wet technique can be used to achieve a very buttery, smooth surface almost like oil paints. Try dipping your brush in glazing medium mixed with dark paint to glaze shadows on your piece.

Simple Flower Paintings

Painting florals is another great way to build your painting skills and really get to know acrylic paint. If you are painting florals while studying real life flowers, then it can also build your observational skills as an artist! Head outside and pick some wildflowers or grab an inexpensive arrangement from the store and arrange it in a vase or pretty jar. You could also choose a single stem to focus on if you want a more minimalistic painting.

Start by painting your background with the colored ground or base color of your choice. Similarly to our landscape painting tutorial, I like to begin my flowers by painting the darkest parts of the blooms and stems, working all around the canvas. I mix my acrylic paint colors one at a time so they don’t dry on my palette as I work. Layer your paint from darks to mediums to light colors. Add your highlights or places that the light would shine on your flowers last so they remain bright. Using a glazing medium and the dark color mixture of your choice, glaze in any shadows or dark areas to add dimension.

Tips: -Play around with different brushes. Different shaped bristles will help you achieve different flower and leaf silhouettes. – Try a simple flower like a daisy or wildflowers to begin with. Roses, peonies, and florals with petals that are heavily layered can be a little bit trickier.

Still Life Paintings

Still life paintings are making a comeback in design and are a great way to add a little coziness to your walls. They don’t have to be they boring exercise they everyone remembers drawing in art class. Choosing the contents of a still life for yourself can make creating one of these paintings so much more exciting! If you aren’t familiar with what a still life is, it is usually a styled group of inanimate objects like foods, flowers, vases, or really anything your heart desires! Painting still life art can help you work on creating various textures and surfaces in your paintings. It also helps artists learn how to successfully create dimension or depth as well as how to find/use a light source.

Prepare for your still life by collecting a few of your favorite objects that you’d like to paint. Try to gather things that are made of different materials, sheens, and textures to add variety both to your painting and to your skill set. I love to use one reflective surface in my still life paintings such as a glass vase or copper kettle. Reflective surfaces will add light and life to your work. Throw in an organic object or two. Organic objects are found in nature and aren’t perfectly symmetrical or geometric. This helps add a feeling of warmth to the still life and keeps things from being too boxy or round. Florals or things found outdoors are a great way to do this. A tree branch, a seashell, a mushroom, or even a feather are all great examples of organic elements. Try incorporating fabric into your still life as well to give your piece place and movement. Throw a linen tablecloth on your surface and enjoy painting those billowy fabric folds.

Now we will begin painting our still life just like we have practiced with our other projects. Paint your background the color of your choice. You may choose to keep your still life black and white to help you focus on depth, shadow, and texture without the pressure of adding color into the mix. Maybe you love mixing color and want this still life to be bright and cheery. The choice, again, is yours .

Lay down the darkest paint first. Try not to focus too much on outlining each object. Instead, I challenge you to focus on shading. Squint your eyes to feel out the dark areas of your still life and work quickly to lay those dark places down on the canvas. Repeat with your middle and light tones. Now that you’ve laid the foundation of depth and dimension, go back in and clean up any areas that are fuzzy. Add any necessary details. Save the crisp, bright highlights for last. Using your darkest color and glazing medium, go back in and add your shadows.

Painting With Palette Knives

If you want to create a painting with a lot of texture, then you may want to try your hand at using palette knives with acrylic paint. Like we’ve discussed, acrylic paint is a very thick, buildable medium in nature. If you’ve ever let globs of acrylic paint dry on a palette, you may notice that it holds shape very well and dries feeling almost like plastic. These characteristics make acrylic paint the perfect paint to use to create the highly textures art you’re looking for.

To create a painting with palette knives, you will either use the knives together with paint brushes or use them in place of paint brushes. Here are a few knives I like to mix and paint with. While the possibilities are endless, here are a few ideas on how you can use palette knives in your art.

You can paint a traditional painting and then use palette knives as the final step to add textures details throughout your piece. An example would be that you’ve painted a landscape with your brushes and go back to add some thick bark texture to the trunk of a tree. When it’s dry, those thick layers of paint on your tree trunk will feel bumpy to the touch, just like real bark!

If you want a painting with texture all over, forgo using the paint brushes! Use your palette knives to lay down color and shape.

You could paint that same landscape as before with palette knives and get a totally different look. Use horizontal knife strokes to lay down the ground. Stroke vertically to create those chunky tree trunks. Use the side of the knife to make small detailed strokes like tree branches or blades of glass. You will find that the thickness of the paint is up to your preference and how much you load on the palette knife.

Limited Color Palette Paintings

The final project we’re going to try out is a painting with a limited color palette or color scheme. Limiting your colors in a painting can make your work feel more stylized or intentional. It can help you practice developing values (or ranges of dark and light) in your art.

It will also help you with your color mixing as well because you will make these values using only a few colors. Instead of mixing up a dark blue, medium blue, and light blue, you will learn to mix a whole range of blues. If your chosen color palette was red and blue for example, you could mix a range of pure blues, pure reds, and even mix the two. You’d mix blues with a touch of red, blues with a lot of red (purple that’s primarily blue), reds with a little blue, reds with a lot of blue (purple that’s primarily red), and so on!

You can try this style with primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and get a fun range of vibrant colors. Complementary colors are also a really fun combination. I’m usually so surprised by all of the colors that are created when using this combo.

You can use this technique to create interesting landscapes and still life paintings. Portraits are particularly fun,in my humble opinion, to create in this style. While this type of painting can be challenging, it can really help you expand your skill set as an artist.

I sincerely hope that you’ve enjoyed these acrylic painting tutorials. While this isn’t an exhaustive list of what you can do with acrylic paints, it’s a great place to start! Don’t let yourself be intimidated by the blank canvas staring back at you. I struggled with that so much as a beginner. I just struggle with it at times! Everyone has to start somewhere. Paint with your heart and have fun with it! If you create from a place of joy, then it will never feel like work. It will feel like a gift!

Blessings,

Samm