Acrylic painting techniques

Acrylic painting techniques are different styles of manipulating and working with polymer-based acrylic
paints. Acrylics differ from oil paints in that they have shorter drying times (as little as 10 minutes) and
are soluble in water. These types of paint eliminate the need for turpentine and gesso, and can be
applied directly onto canvas. Aside from painting with concentrated color paints, acrylics can also be
watered down to a consistency that can be poured or used for glazes.

Preventing paint from drying out

Acrylics are often preferred because they dry faster on canvas than oil paints due to their polymer base.
However, in some circumstances, the artist may want the paint to stay moist longer. A trick to keep
paints from drying out is to spray a light mist of water over them occasionally. Moisture-retaining
palettes also increase acrylic paint drying time, and can be substituted with a shallow container, a sheet
of grease proof paper, or piece of wet watercolor paper.