If you like to take your time blending without having to worry about the paint drying, Golden Open Acrylics may be what you’re looking for. 1 Use Slow Drying Acrylics for Oil Like Blending If you want to return to the table of contents, click the “back” button in your browser. You can use the table of contents above to jump to the section that you’re interested in. The Blending Demosīelow are the 9 blending techniques that I use in my paintings. These inexpensive panels are okay for quick experiments. The wood canvas panels are a lot sturdier. I would never use these for a painting because they’re prone to warping and it’s easy to ding the corners. I’m using the inexpensive cardboard canvas boards for these demonstrations. It’s also an inexpensive brush from the craft supply store. I use a hog bristle brush for the dry brushing because the stiff bristles help me to push the paint around on the canvas.įor the watercolor technique, I use a larger round mop brush. The 1” flat is one of my favorite brushes for acrylics. The nylon brushes work well with acrylics. The brushes that I use in this demonstration are the cheap brushes that you can find at a craft store. This can make it difficult to achieve intense colors in your paintings, so it’s best to use fluid acrylics or acrylic inks. If you dilute a thick heavy body acrylic with water, it may become very transparent by the time it’s thin enough to use like watercolor. Thick heavy body acrylics (high viscosity) require too much water to make them flow. Viscosity is the thickness of the paint.įor example, if you work in a thin watercolor style you should use a thin acrylic paint (low viscosity). It’s important to choose an acrylic paint with a viscosity that’s most suitable for the technique you’re using. I cover all of these options in this post. There are slow drying acrylics, regular fast drying acrylics, and acrylics that you can reactivate with water or a special spray. The drying times vary between brands too. Some acrylics blend much easier than others. There are many different kinds of acrylics on the market and you should experiment with them to determine which one works best for you. In this demonstration, I use a variety of different acrylics. 1 Use Slow Drying Acrylics for Oil Like BlendingĢ Interactive Acrylics Will Allow You to Rewet a Dry Layerģ Use Watercolor Techniques to Blend AcrylicsĦ Mist the Paint With Water to Keep It WetĨ Use Solid Colors to Create the Illusion of Blending