Portfolio: Beginning Acrylic: Tips and techniques for learning to paint in acrylic

by Susette Billedeaux Gertsch

From the first brushstroke to the finishing touch, let the Portfolio series guide you as you begin your artistic journey in acrylic painting.

Beginning Acrylic teaches aspiring artists everything they need to know to get started painting in acrylic. From choosing the right paper, brushes, and paints to basic painting tips and techniques, this beginner's guide to acrylic painting is bursting with valuable exercises and advice to help artists master this colorful and approachable medium. Beginning Acrylic guides beginners through an exploration of acrylic painting with easy-to-understand concepts and step-by-step methods, including how to paint a variety of skies, trees, mountains, roads, clouds, and waterscapes from start to finish. Building on these basic, fundamental techniques, novice artists can practice their craft with step-by-step painting projects that are broken down and explained with large, detailed images and examples. With comprehensive instruction and artist tips and tricks, Beginning Acrylic is the perfect resource for artists just getting started.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

Published October 24, 2016

Reviews

[Nicole D'Souza · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're like me and know nothing about acrylic painting, this is a fantastic introduction to form, scheme, tips and techniques! I learned a lot about the composition of acrylics and how it can be altered with a stable water ratio or mediums. I believe having this contextual understanding will bring more ease to my easel. ;)

While this is a book for beginners, if you're self-taught already you may still find some nughests of information here to broaden your palette. In particular it has helped me to find out how to avoid muddying a colour mix and how to use particular colour combinations to create particular sensations like distance or harmony.

Indeed there were a few step by step images where you can see a painting coming together using the techniques prescribed, but overall I wasn't a big fan of most of the paintings that appeared on the technique pages. Just didn't appeal to me and didn't add to my engagement of the read. I think I would have preferred a book that compiled painting examples by various artists instead of 1 artist (the author herself). For this reason, as well as some repetitive mentions (the colour wheel gets namedropped numerous times), I'm only rating this a 4 out of 5.

[l · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this book in a giveaway and I have not wanted to give my review because it is negative and I'm sorry, but I cannot give this book a good review. I have done acrylic painting years ago, but still have canvases, brushes, etc, and did enjoy painting when I did it, so I thought maybe this book would spark my creativity, give me some tips to get back into painting. Sadly, I found it to be no help at all. I didn't find any of the tips to be useful and most of the paintings featured in the book I didn't even like.