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Most Preferred Acrylic Paint Colors

Rimlee Bhuyan
Acrylic paint colors is a fairly new type of paint that has its own unique finish and set of characteristics. They can be used for making various types of paintings on almost any kind of surface like wood, glass, mud, fabric, etc. Let's discuss what's special about these colors and the different ways in which you can use them.
Acrylic paint, which is a kind of quick drying paint, is actually a pigment suspended in an emulsion of acrylic polymer. Its most unique characteristic is that you can dilute it with a variety of fluids like water, gels, or pastes to give create a painting that resembles an oil or water color painting.
These colors are very widely used because of their quick drying quality and because of their availability in a wide variety of colors.

Difference Between Oil Colors and Acrylic Colors

The basic difference between acrylic and oil paints is the time required for them to dry on the canvas.
Oil paints require a much longer time for drying. This proves to be a boon in disguise for painters who need time to blend colors intricately and produce even glazes over their paintings. Painters usually wait for a week or two for the colors to fully dry in an oil painting.
Acrylic colors, on the other hand, dry up much faster and a painting dries in a matter of minutes. This turns out to be advantageous to those painters who work in the fast lane.
Oil paints require the addition of a solvent, such as linseed oil or turpentine, to thin the paint so that it can be used on a painting. Acrylic paints on the other hand are made of pigments that are combined with acrylic resin and mineral oils.
The biggest difference is that oil paintings turn yellow and brittle over a period of time. A coat of clear varnish is required to prevent the oil painting from turning yellow.
This does not happen in the case of paintings in which acrylic colors have been used. Before using oil paints, it is necessary to prime the canvas with a thin wash of paint to prevent the canvas from cracking. The use of a primer with acrylic colors is not necessary and they can be directly applied on the canvas.

How to Mix Acrylic Paints

Mixing acrylic colors to get a desired color requires a fair amount of practice, and with trial and error, you will become quite adept at it. Before understanding how to get a new color by blending two acrylic colors, you should first know all about basic acrylic paints.
Three basic colors are red, blue, and yellow, called the primary colors. These, when mixed with each other in different proportions, will create the secondary colors, green, purple and orange. Mixing and blending the secondary colors will, thereby, give you the tertiary colors.
There are four basic ways in which you can mix these colors. The first is by mixing two or three colors on your palette with the help of a brush to get the color of your choice. This shade or hue of color on your palette can directly be used for painting on your canvas.
This method allows you to experiment and play around with different colors and their proportions to arrive at a color which is exactly to your liking. For example if you are want the color green by mixing the acrylic colors blue and yellow then there you can mix them in such a way that you get a blue dominated or yellow dominated green.
Another technique is called glazing or tinting. This technique is done by applying a thin glaze of one color on the canvas and allowing it to dry. Now, a layer of another color is painted over the first color.
Both the acrylic paints merge giving a different hue. Although the end result may not be as uniform as when you use a palette to mix colors in. This method can be used for painting subtle variations like a sunset or the shimmering water on a lake.
One more technique that is widely used is to simultaneously apply both the colors in approximately the same area to attain a different color. This can be done by applying the colors directly on the canvas with the help of two brushes in rapid strokes or short flat strokes.
The last method is to use a thin layer of both colors side by side on the canvas and blending them together. This acrylic painting technique is very difficult as the acrylic pains dry quite fast and it requires a great deal of skill.
Although traditionally, oil paint was widely used, the use of acrylic colors has experienced a sudden rise over the past few years.