First spray the palette with some water, then lay down at least a nickel sized amount of paint, then mist the paint.

When blending with acrylics get the colors you want, mix them out on the palette. Put one thick line of the first color, make sure it is wet, then take the second color and do the same thing right beside the first color. Criss-cross the two colors from top to bottom. Then while they are still wet, brush the center of the two, down in a quick stroke. Ta-da, nice blended acrylic colors.

 If you get little bumps, dots, balls, clumps or other unwanted beads in your acrylic paintings, it is because you are using too little paint.

Little crumbs happen in acrylic paint when the paint begins to ’skin’, but is not completely dry. This especially happens when you are mixing with too little paint (very thin and watercolor-like) and the paint begins to dry, as well as diving back into the area you have previously been mixing in. When the paint just begins to skin, you can bring it back to a liquid state quite easily. However, when you do that, the skinned part of the paint rolls into little beads producing clumps in your painting and on your brush. This can produce interesting effects, but for the most part, it is just annoying.

The best way to remedy the lumps is to put just a tad more paint on the palette during your painting sessions and spritz them with a atomizer periodically. Same with mixing with your brush. Spritz the area of the palette (even with a wet palette) you are going to mix on, then dampen your brush, then mix, this should help dramatically. Do not mix in the same area twice, doing so is the biggest offender of the little bump syndrome. Learn how to mix your colors well, so you can repeat yourself when necessary.

The crumbs happens especially to watercolor painters who go to acrylics and paint like a watercolorist. Acrylics are a different animal entirely from watercolors and from oils. Their properties are totally different. You cannot bring paint back to life with more water like watercolors, you cannot blend colors hours later as with oils. It is comparing a rabbit, a hamster and a mouse. They are all rodents, but they all need to be treated differently. A mouse can be trained to walk through a maze. A hamster can wheel around the house in an acrylic ball, a rabbit can mass produce itself with another rabbit. All of these vermin can do what the others do, but not at the same success or pace as the original animal. You must find the best paint for what you want to do, but even then, you’ll have to compromise with it.

It is easier to remember the actual pigment name for the paint rather than the name on the tube. In other words, It is easier to remember PB29 rather than Ultramarine Blue, and it is much easier to write it down in your sketchbook too. You see, the PB29 label is the actual pigment itself, and it is used across the board by each manufacturer for that pigment. However, one manufacturer’s Ultramarine Blue is another’s Royal Blue, Emperor Blue and the like. This is true for any paint you use whether it is watercolor, acrylics, oils, or gouache.

The actual term PB stands for Pigment Blue. The P will always stand for Pigment. So if you are seeing PR101, this is the name for Pigment Red 101 which comes in a variety of names like Indian red, Brick red, Tuscany, Mars Red and even Burnt Sienna if you use Winsor and Newton. It is basically, a very beautiful reddish brown that is available from very light pink to very dark cherry wood color.

Here’s what you can do relatively inexpensively. Sacrifice one sketchbook to acrylic painting. If you don’t have a sketchbook, get one for no more than $12, you choose the size, I recommend 9×12. Purchase the sketchbook at the book store not the art store. For some reason, book stores have better, longer lasting sketchbooks that cost less than an art store. Another reason you’d want a notebook is because you can choose who looks at it, it is very personal and if you mess up, nobody has to see it.

Lay all of your paints onto your palette. About a nickel size in diameter is all you need at the moment. Just spritz water on them to keep the paint moist. Take a flat brush or a bright, and plop one after another in a straight line into your notebook. There are no rules, you can put it across the entire length of the bok, or just on one page. Acrylics are perfect for journals. Write down what you observe with each color. For example, “this yellow ochre is a bit thin and see-through.” If you want to get really technical, like yours truly, dedicate one page to each of your paints to experiment and observe.

When you have learned about your color palette, it is time to mix them with one another. If you have a very large palette, this can be a tedious chore. Break it down to a small palette of three to five colors to start. Eventually, you will have mixed each one with each other.

It is easier to remember the actual pigment name rather than the tube name. In other words, It is easier to remember PB29 rather than Ultramarine Blue, and it is much easier to write it down in your sketchbook too. You see, the PB29 label is the actual pigment itself, this is across the board and each manufacturer will use it for that pigment. However, one manufacturers Ultramarine Blue is another’s Royal Blue, Emperor Blue and the like.

Acrylics are not oils. Acrylics are not watercolors. Acrylics are not gouache Sometimes those obvious facts need to bear repeating. There are techniques you can use to create similar effects to those paints, but once you understand that acrylics are acrylics, your paintings will shine. Compare an acrylic painting to an oil painting. Just any old painting. (In person.) You will see a difference. Oils are buttery and juicy looking.  Watercolors have a whispy colorful appearance. Gouache has a very flat feel. Acrylics have a nice crisp and solid feel to them. Acrylics can be thinned to the consistency of watercolors, but the vibrancy, even with the mediums pales in comparison to a beautiful watercolor painting. Play around and discover acrylic paint has its own beauty that shines.

French easel! Pochade box! Sometimes you need extreme portability and sometimes you need bigger canvases and more supplies.

I chose a Jullian French Easel Plein Air version as my main easel. I live in the northwest and the wood is made of elm rather than beech. Elm wood seems to do better with wetter weather. If your canvases are smaller than 34 inches and have some horizontal floor space, it makes a great all purpose easel.

I created a small pochade/cigar box from a local arts and crafts shop. Just an unfinished cigar box, and inserted eyelet screws to hold a couple of 8×6” canvas panels, a chain to hold the lid up and a strap. Total cost was about $8. However, since French Easel moved in, this little pochade box hasn’t been used at all, as the FE holds small canvases too.

Soltek. As much as I loved it, it just wasn’t working for me. It was too limited in holding materials and canvas sizes, and the reach from the palette to the canvas got very annoying. If the legs weren’t stuck, they slid out at the wrong time, by themselves. I wanted a full range of canvas sizes, and smoother transition from paint to canvas, so, bought the FE. Frenchie isn’t that much heavier. Problem solved…. And yet…

With a FE, I became an instant easel mechanic. Constantly fixing, adjusting and gluing. It’s OK for me though, because the whole cliché of the French easel style cracks me up. I just threw in a squeezy wood glue tube and an all-in-one screw driver as part of my art arsenal.

So, I guess, everything has it’s annoyances and pluses. It’s whatever you can live with.

Cheers.