Beginner | 2 hours
Taught by Lisa Solomon
In the first class, Lisa Solomon provides a thorough overview of acrylic painting tools and materials. You will learn how to use different brushes, blend your paints using palette knives and brushes and how and when to add water or various mediums to your paint to achieve different effects. Follow along as Lisa demonstrates how to use basic techniques to paint a nectarine, and then learn about cleaning and caring for your brushes so they last for years.
Learn how to:
  • Discern the differences between various kinds of paint
  • Add mediums to paint
  • Mix water into paint
  • Make marks with different brushes
  • Blend with added medium and using a palette knife
  • Blend paint colors
  • Create a painting of a real life object
  • Properly clean up your brushes after use

Chapters
Introduction
00:41
Materials
06:27
Acrylic Painting 101
08:20
05:41
03:49
08:16
Putting It All Together
12:43
Materials
Here’s what you’ll need:
(Note: the materials presented here are a great starter kit, but you don’t need everything listed here to get started)
  • Grumbacher Academy Acrylics 10-Color Set (includes Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Yellow Ochre, Thalo Green, Thalo Violet, Thalo Blue, Mars Black, Titanium White)
  • 2 additional colors of choice (Lisa uses Crimson Red and Sap Green)
  • Assorted plastic palette knives
  • Palette of your choosing (Lisa uses a 20-well rectangular plastic palette, enamel tin palette and Strathmore palette paper)
  • 6-piece set of synthetic brushes for acrylic paint (Lisa recommends a mix of the following: wash, fan, flat, angular flat, round, pointed round, filbert, detailed round)
  • Medium or large brushes (Lisa uses size 12 flat wash brush, size 4 round brush, ½” flat brush, size 8 filbert)
  • 2” coarse bristle brush
  • Liquitex Matte Medium or Gloss Gel Medium
  • Liquitex Pouring Medium or Liquitex Flo-Aid
  • Slow Dry Blending Gel Medium
  • Surface of your choice (Lisa uses Strathmore canvas paper, Strathmore mixed media paper, and Blick canvas panel)
  • Paper towels and/or rag
  • Spray bottle of water
  • Gloves or Art-Guard Barrier Cream
  • 2 containers of water
  • Spray bottle (optional)
  • Paper towels or cloth rag
  • The Masters Brush Cleaner or dish soap
  • Discussion
    Notes
    Your timecode tags and notes for this section
    Transcript
    Acrylic Painting for Beginners
    Now Playing
    Part 1:
    Acrylic Painting for Beginners: Getting Started
    Lisa Solomon
    In the first class, Lisa Solomon provides a thorough overview of acrylic painting tools and materials. You will learn how to use different brushes, blend your paints using palette knives and brushes and how and when to add water or various mediums to your paint to achieve different effects. Follow along as Lisa demonstrates how to use basic techniques to paint a nectarine, and then learn about cleaning and caring for your brushes so they last for years.
    Part 2:
    Acrylic Painting for Beginners: Value, Light and Shadow
    Lisa Solomon
    An essential part of painting is learning how to create light and shadow. Using black and white acrylic paints, Lisa shows how to mix a range of gray shades (known as a “grayscale”) for your painting. You will learn how to set up a still life scene in order to practice painting highlight and shadow details. Finally, follow along as Lisa uses a black-and-white photo reference to practice laying in values, creating depth and helping shapes visually pop out of the painting.
    Part 3:
    Acrylic Painting for Beginners: Understanding Color
    Lisa Solomon
    Now for a splash of color. In this final part, you’ll explore how acrylic paint colors mix and match, and learn how to understand the interplay of hue and value. Lisa shares a fun exercise for creating your own signature color wheel using a personal palette. Finally, you will end on a sweet note with a lesson in matching paint colors to Starburst candies and candy wrappers.