Work-In-Progress: Seascape, 12" x 9" acrylic on canvas

August is always a busy month around here.  I did manage to squeeze in an art class on how to paint with acrylic on canvas, though. The class was very basic, nothing fancy. In fact, the technique for applying paint is similar to how I've been using acrylics to paint miniatures in that I want the paint to stay wet for as long as possible. However, that's where the similarities ended for me.


Paint - Traditional artists' acrylic paints come in a tube, are quite thick, dry quickly, almost have a plastic-like texture, and cannot be diluted more than 25% without losing coverage and becoming gritty. The best acrylic paints formulated for working on miniatures come in small dropper bottles, contain a lot of flow improver making them very liquid, and contain extremely fine pigments designed to remain suspended evenly when thinned as much as 90%.  Both are water-soluble, clean up easily with a mild soap, accept additives (e.g. gel medium or paint extenders), and dilute well for their respective applications.

Canvas vs. Metal - Both supports require primer. However, with canvas I learned to wet the surface first to remove any sizing before applying paint; whereas with metal miniatures, I want the surface completely dry before beginning, lest the primer flake away leaving bare metal exposed.

We started on a seascape for this particular class. And while this is still very much unfinished, I thought I'd show its current progress:

I still need to work on the water/waves, the rocks, and the palm trees.  Thoughts and suggestions are welcome! :)

Have any thoughts or tips for artists just starting out working with acrylics? Let me know in the comments below!


-Kari