Atelier/A2 Artists' Guide - Acrylic Painting

Painting With Acrylics

The choice between acrylics or oils is a personal one and should evolve through interaction with the painting process, using both types of paint, especially if you are a student or beginner.
-The speed and the working processes are what you must come to terms with. Both oils and acrylics are extremely versatile.

Advantages

Acrylics are fast- faster than you think!
If your painting develops through stages and alterations it will be faster in acrylics.
Acrylics provide the freedom of easily altering what you don't like.

Disadvantages

Acrylics are so tough that you cannot easily scrape off unwanted impasto i.e. thick paint which has dried in the wrong place.
All acrylics darken slightly as they dry, the good brands do so only slightly today, but artists still have to anticipate and adjust.
Limitation: You have little time to blend and adjust in acrylics: oils definitely are easier in this situation.
Mixed Media: In a painting, which has many stages of development, it may well be best to start in acrylics and finish in oils to exploit the best features of both types of paint.
Adhesion of oils to Atelier is excellent so you can change paints at any stage you choose. If you choose to stay with acrylics you must master the techniques for working wet-over-dry. Mediums can be very helpful.

Staying with the Acrylic process

Whether you like it or not acrylic paintings cannot be carried out "alla prima" i.e. all in one process with all blending and adjusting done wet-in-wet, within one layer of paint. This is of course easily done with oil paint.
IN ACRYLIC, THE BLENDING OF WET PAINT OVER DRY PAINT HAS GOT TO BE MASTERED. This gives you the freedom to think through and make alterations at your own pace.

NOTE: If you don't like this part, you can still do rough underpainting in acrylic and then switch to oils.

Modulation and Blending; Fusion; Subtlety
-If you like using acrylics it is getting easier with today's paints.
-Not everything works. Let's name 3 brands that do: Atelier, Golden and Liquitex.
-All very aware of how an acrylic should be and all very capable of subtlety.

Return to the oil paint comparison:
Oils give you time to blend wet-in-wet, yet this is a relatively simple approach. Complex oil paintings need mediums, not just turpentine, and complex acrylics need mediums, not just water.
-Mediums are used for control, they alter the behaviour of paints, they alter the look of paintings, and they make the paint do more varied things, increasing versatility.
-This is the developing frontier.

Acrylic technology in the last 20 yrs has been amazing. For artists paints it has been a question of choosing the best materials for our needs from a menu of materials produced for industrial purposes.

In the next 20 years we already know we will have much more to choose from. In the meantime, acrylic artists will continue to interact with the new technology and create tomorrow's art.

The Three Brands & Their Mediums

Golden is involved with a large variety of gels and textures which may take you to new places, especially with textured or thickened paint.

Liquitex seems to be "mainstream"; that is, less focused on gel mediums.

Atelier offers general purpose mediums too, but there are also unique new mediums designed for blending, gradations and translucent layering techniques broadly falling into the category of glazing.

The Atelier colour range also places emphasis on colours which are designed especially for these purposes.

Important: Mediums are used to help artists to alter the behaviour of paints in ways that extend the range and techniques of individual artists. Therefore if you have already discovered a magic elixir which works for you keep using it while you investigate the colours in Atelier. At the same time you should consider the Atelier Mediums. Read the information carefully and look at the demonstration pieces, because you may find something exciting and useful to you.