A Beginners Guide to Acrylic Painting

Welcome to the wonderful world of Acrylic paint! Acrylic paint is a great option for beginner painters to explore and experiment with, and we have an array of options for budding creatives. While starting out may seem a bit daunting, we’ve made an easy guide to the must-have supplies to get you started.

Choosing Paints

When starting out, an acrylic paint set such as the Mont Marte Paint Set- Studio Acrylic Paint 18pc x 36 ml is a great choice to get you experimenting. This has a fantastic range of colours that are fairly fast drying with a glossy finish, and can also be mixed to create more pigments. 

For a satin finish, the Mont Marte Satin Acrylic paint set contains a range of 6 basic bright coloured acrylics. They are an ideal introduction to acrylic painting and colour mixing. These are great for use on canvas or a variety of other surfaces, they dry to a satin finish and provide great coverage and opacity.

For a variety of colours, the Reeves Acrylic paint set is another great option, being highly pigmented, and suitable for a variety of surfaces including canvas, paper, wood, fabric and glass.  Reeves Acrylics can be used straight from the tube to create impasto effects and build volume, or can be diluted with water to use for watercolour techniques. 

Colour mixing

When it comes to mixing colours, a handy set of tools includes the Mont Marte Signature Mini Colour Dial to help with learning colour relationships. To pair with this I'd also suggest the Mont Marte Oval Wooden Palette  or the Mont Marte Plastic Palette for mixing paint outside of the tube and for dipping your brushes before applying paint to canvas (this will help with keeping your workspace nice and clean!)

Brushes

For a brush set, a great option is the Mont Marte Paint Brush Set - Acrylic Brushes In Wooden Box 7pc which has a beautiful selection of commonly used brush sizes which you can house in the included box. The high quality Taklon brushes are constructed with gun-metal plated brass ferrules, and the bristles are interwoven to reduce bristle loss. This set is a perfect introduction to professional quality tools.

Caring for your brushes

Be sure to clean your brushes after use, and avoid leaving your brushes in water as it can warp their natural shape. The Matisse Brush and Hand cleaner or the Chroma Incredible Brush Cleaner is a great gentle cleaner for both your brushes and hands once your painting session is done, and it is also non toxic and biodegradable. Once your brushes are clean, lay them flat/ horizontal so that they can dry and be reused. 

Choosing a base

Depending on the artwork you would like to create, a Canvas Pad is a great option for a thinner base, such as the Mont Marte Canvas Pad A3 280gsm 10 Sheets which is acrylic gesso primed and ready to paint on, or the Mont Marte Studio Double Thick Canvas range is a great option . These are acid free with a high density cotton duck weave, already primed and ready to paint on, and the deep frame looks clean and hangs nicely, requiring no further framing. 

Protecting your artwork

To finish off your artwork and protect it from dirt, tarnish, wear stains, moisture and more. the Micador spray is a super easy option that's great for beginners and is available in gloss, mat or satin finish, simply to spray onto your finished artwork as a final protective barrier. 

Further reading

If your on the hunt for more information or inspiration, we’ve got some other great blog articles that go further in depth into acrylic painting, including: 

- Learn how to paint a portrait in acrylics

- Learn the difference between Matisse acrylic paints structure vs flow

- The difference between different brands of acrylic paint

Good luck on your acrylic art journey!

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