If you’ve ever struggled to paint smooth, seamless gradients with acrylic paint, take comfort in knowing that you’re not alone. This is a common obstacle faced by many artists, both professionals and amateurs. The culprit behind this challenge is the quick-drying nature of acrylic paint.which can make mastering gradients a bit of a headache. However, we are here to share some valuable tips that will make your gradient blending journey a breeze! Let’s move on to our first tip!
1. USE A LARGE BRUSH
Here’s my best tip for creating seamless gradients with acrylic paint, and it’s a game changer. Given the quick-drying nature of acrylic, using a larger brush can significantly improve your blending process. With a larger brush, you can cover more area, work faster, and get the beautiful, smooth blends you were aiming for. Remember that your brush doesn’t need to be massive; just avoid using tiny detail brushes for blending. If you want to learn more about which brush shape is best for blending, check out our article on the brushes every artist needs in their arsenal!
2. SLOW DOWN THE DRYING TIME
Sure, you can work with your paint very quickly before it dries, but that can be stressful and more hassle than it’s worth! If you’re like me and prefer to take your time, however, there is a way to slow down the drying rate of your paint, and no, it’s not by switching to oil paint! This is a fantastic additive called a retarder that significantly slows down the drying process of acrylic, giving you plenty of time to get those beautiful, even blends. The best part is that most craft stores like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby sell it, so you don’t have to go to a specialty art supply store to find it!
3. USE THE RIGHT TYPE OF ACRYLIC PAINT
Did you know that there are different classifications of acrylic paint? Heavy Body, Soft Body and Fluid are all useful for different styles and techniques! We’re only going to talk about the Soft Body today because it’s the best type for what you’re going to do: mixing! The soft body has a lighter, creamier consistency, like a yogurt or buttercream frosting, making it ideal for mixing. Here’s why! Lighter in consistency but not watery, it contains enough substance to maintain excellent coverage and pigmentation, avoiding thin and uneven areas. Still, it’s not so stiff that you can’t make it smooth. It’s the perfect happy medium and is precisely why we include the soft body in our paint kits!
PRACTICE YOUR GRADIENTS WITH OUR PAINT KITS!
Our canvas painting kits include All you’ll need to create a painting you’ll be proud of, using quality soft acrylic paint in any color you’ll need, brushes, a pre-sketched canvas, and a comprehensive video tutorial to guide you through everything. the techniques you’ll need to recreate our paintings your way!
Cherry Blossom Branch Canvas Painting Kit
Three Sunflowers Canvas Painting Kit
Sunrise Canvas Painting Kit
4. KEEP YOUR BRUSHES CLEAN
This next tip may seem obvious, but it’s actually very easy to forget! The best way to avoid muddy blends is to clean your brushes thoroughly between colors. For example, if you’re doing a gradient from black to red to pink to white, you don’t want a lot of color cross-contamination, so you’ll need to clean your brushes between each section. It is also not necessary to use soap; just clean water and a paper towel or cloth will do the trick!
5. CONSIDER COLOR THEORY
Depending on the colors you want to mix, you may need some basic information on color theory. Don’t worry; It’s not as complicated as it seems! The most important thing to remember is that if you mix the wrong colors, they will likely turn brown or gray. The easiest way to avoid this is to use colors next to each other on the color wheel; for example, mixing blue with purple will result in a nice bright color, while mixing blue with orange will result in brown. In fact, complementary colors cancel each other out to create neutral colors. If you want to learn more about complementary colors and how they interact, check out our blog post on How to Choose a Cohesive Color Palette Using Color Theory!
ARE YOU MORE OF A VISUAL LEARNER?
Us too! That’s why we created Acrylic Basics, where you can find video tutorials for degradedblending skin tones, splatter painting and more!
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