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How to Make Acrylic Paint Act and Look like Watercolor

Acrylic Paints, Watercolor Painting, Watercolors

You may be wondering why would anyone want to make acrylic paint look like watercolor? Why even use acrylic paint if what you really seek is the soft effect of watercolor paints?

Drawbacks of Watercolor Paints as a Beginning Painting Medium

There are a number of reasons that an artist might want to use acrylic paint instead of watercolor. Any painter who has painted with watercolors knows how sensitive and temperamental they can be. Watercolors are the teenage girl of painting mediums.

Watercolors may be pretty and delicate, but they are also the most unforgiving painting medium available. When a mistake is made with watercolor, that cannot be turned into a happy accident, the watercolor painting could be ruined.

A mistake in watercolor will forever be a blemish on the face of the painting. It cannot be covered up like painting mistakes made with oil paints or acrylics.

Another drawback of watercolors is that it is also a little too easy to make watercolor paintings muddy, when you are inexperienced with the medium. Certain colors do not blend well, on and off the paper. Too much water can make the paper too delicate and prone to tearing, right there in the middle of the painting.

Watercolors do not allow for the same type of layering and glazing affects that can be achieved with acrylic paints.

If watercolors are the teenage girl of paints, then oil paints are the grandfather. Oil paints know what they’re doing, but require a lot of extra supplies and mixing, and their affects are somewhat limited.

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Enter acrylic paints. Acrylics are the savvy, world-traveled cool aunt in the family. Acrylics are also painting’s greatest impostor. Acrylics can resemble more astute oil paintings, look like acrylics, or be mistaken for watercolors.

How to Make Acrylic Paint Act and Look Like Watercolor

When you think of acrylic paint, you probably picture tubes of dark, thick paint, not light and lively watercolors.

Those thick pigments can easily be made to look and act like watercolor paints. The reason that acrylic paints can be made to act and look like watercolor paints is because they can be diluted to the point that the pigment becomes transparent on the support medium.

By using very little pigment, and a lot of water, acrylic paints will go on the canvas or watercolor paper as smooth as any watercolor paint. The actual amount of water you use needs to be tested for each pigment. Some colors will take more water to become transparent than one would expect, like yellow for instance.

One advantage to diluting acrylic paints to the point of them becoming watercolor-like in consistency is that the painter can layer the paints. When painters layer watercolor paints, the affect is not layered, but more intermingling. Layered watercolors can quickly muddy a painting, turning the best colors into grayish browns.

With diluted acrylic paints, artists can truly layer colors on top of one another. Acrylic painters can also layer the same color on top, to make deep and rich glazed colors.

Tips and Tricks of Make Acrylic Paint Act and Look Like Watercolor

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There are some tips and tricks to use to make acrylic paint act and look like watercolor.

1. Because acrylic paints dry fast, a small amount of retarder should be used if the painter will be using a sponge or any other “paint removal” affect, like with a dry brush.

2. Add Acrylic flow medium to acrylic paints to create a wet-into-wet watercolor affect.

3. When using acrylic paints in a watercolor-like painting, follow standard watercolor protocol and forget about the white paint. Any true watercolor painting uses the white of the paper, and show should its transparent acrylic imitator.

4. Create shadows and dark tones with diluted acrylic paints by layering the same color of paint numerous times.

5. Keep in mind that when you apply a wet brush to diluted acrylic paints, you will not “move” the underlying paint. The water will pool on top, which means the colors will not bleed, blend, or become muddied.

Using transparent acrylic paint methods is a good way for beginning painters to create watercolor-like paintings, without the frustrations of using actual watercolor paint.