Doing it economically with acrylics

Doesn’t sound very romantic does it, but it’s the down and dirty when it comes to painting with acrylics - my preferred medium. My Aunty has been an ardent follower of this new website and she mentioned that I had inspired her to take back up her painting and immediately I shared with her the “stay-wet” pallet, and it occurred to me that a post explaining how I use that may be interesting to all involved.

The thing with acrylics is that they are bright and quick drying - like the paints we all had as kids and you can use them that way - daddy’s head is purple, his stick figure body is red, the dog is brown, mommy is yellow. All of us have had these coloured masterpieces on our refrigerators. The skill is to use the paints in a way that allows subtlety and blending - like oils - while not having the benefit of time as you do with oils. Oil paints take days to dry - if you don’t like something you have time to adjust - to scrape it off and start again. With acrylics- they often begin to dry in seconds such that if you don’t stop what you are doing immediately and have a cloth to hand - you end up with a ring where you paint fell. It also means that blending and working the paint can prove impossible without some tips and tricks.

Enter the stay-wet pallet - this ingenious device has a sponge in the base of a plastic tray that does what it says on the tin - it stays wet. With a silky piece of paper overtop - I can lay out my pallet and as long as I’m a bit obcessive with the lid - the paint will be workable for weeks. It saves me so much money on paints and allows me to make my acrylic paintings that have the same depth as an oil.

The only caviot I’ll add here is that after day one - the consistency of the paint changes - it thins out as the moisture is added. If you plan for this it’s not a problem. Day 1- I tend to take the dregs from my last pallet and use them to underpaint my new canvas. The silky paint fills the pores beautifully and it means zero waste. If I didn’t use

this I’d have to use way more new paint to get the same coverage. Then I clear off the old pallet and lay out a new one - with fresh thick paint - and I get that initial high texture paint layer down on the shapes I’ve defined with the undercoat. Generally that will take me through day one. Then day 2 - the paint is perfect for layering and colour adjustment and I go from there :)

Hope that helps Aunty! Have fun creating!