Acrylic Tips and Tricks

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Permalink Reply by Marilyn K on August 8, 2008 at 1:26pm

I've never heard of this before. I spray my canvas with water and then gesso. It gives you more blending time.

Lola said:

I have never heard of putting oil or greese down before the acrylic paint...I had this question in my email today...Anyone else hear of this...unless maybe product...cooking Pam????????

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Permalink Reply by Audrey on August 8, 2008 at 3:43pm

Instead of a palette, I use those disposable plastic picnic plates. I can get 100 for less that €2. Throw them away at the end of the day. (Sorry, not very green)

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Permalink Reply by frodron on August 8, 2008 at 4:27pm

This is mainly for Audrey.
I go to car boot sales & buy a surplus roll of plastic coated wallpaper(sometimes known as Wipeclean), preferably lightly coloured with little or no pattern, for about 50p.
I just tear off as much as I want to use as a palette & throw it away when I am finished.
The more sophisticated way is to go to B & Q ,buy a roll of heavy duty lining paper (about £3-00p)which is white, plastic coated & you use that in the same way.
In both cases the plastic coated paper is ideal for practising acrylic painting.

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Permalink Reply by Audrey on August 8, 2008 at 5:14pm

Good idea, Frodon. Cheaper and just as good!

frodron said:

This is mainly for Audrey.
I go to car boot sales & buy a surplus roll of plastic coated wallpaper(sometimes known as Wipeclean), preferably lightly coloured with little or no pattern, for about 50p.
I just tear off as much as I want to use as a palette & throw it away when I am finished.
The more sophisticated way is to go to B & Q ,buy a roll of heavy duty lining paper (about £3-00p)which is white, plastic coated & you use that in the same way.
In both cases the plastic coated paper is ideal for practising acrylic painting.

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Permalink Reply by frodron on August 9, 2008 at 5:27pm

Just thought I would pass on an idea I have been given, although many of you will already be aware of it.
Up to now, while painting, I have just washed my brushes in one jar of plain water & I am always nervous of leaving paint in the bristles or ferrules, that is why I use the shallow tray idea.
I now use two jars of water, the first contains a little washing up liquid in the water & the second is just ordinary water.
I now rinse my brushes in the first jar before rinsing them in the plain water jar.
I still use the shallow tray.
It is surprising how clean the brushes are.

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Permalink Reply by Marilyn K on August 19, 2008 at 12:11am

I use the glass out of a picture frame as my palette. I tape around the sharp edges with masking tape and when I'm done paintig for the day, I just mist the glass with my spray bottle of water and clean it with a razor blade tool.
Works like a charm.

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Permalink Reply by Gisele Grenier on September 30, 2008 at 1:21am

Hi everyone,

I use the Masterson Artist Seal palette (the huge one with the blue lid) with a sheet of glass cut to size. In there, I have blue shop cloths that are folded into quarters that line the left, right and top edge of the palette (wet and squeezed water out first). My paints go on the shop cloths and when I'm due for a break or have to head out, I dip my brushes in water and lay them flat right inside the palette and put the seal back on. I've left my brushes like this for 2 days once and when I checked on them, the bristles were still very, very wet.

Why I use these:
blue shop cloths can withstand the rubbing of the brush on the towel without ripping
glass is cleaned with a putty knife very easily - nothing to throw out other than the paint scrapings
paints don't need to be misted as often - but depends on the environment
blue palette is so large that I can store my brushes in there (once I scraped out the paint) when I take a break from paintintg or if I'm transporting the palette from a painting location.


Gisele

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