Acrylic paint

I like working with acrylic paint.  It is sold in a vast range of beautiful, punchy colours and is really versatile when painting.  You can mix it with all kinds of additives; some make it flow better without losing colour definition, some increase or decrease the gloss, some add texture – there is a huge range of products out there to alter the way your paint behaves and change its appearance.

I prefer acrylic to watercolour paint - it’s a lot more forgiving and the colour is opaque enough to just paint over any mistakes without disturbing the first coat and ending up with a muddy mess.  I like oil paint too, but acrylic is better especially if, like me, you don’t have the patience to wait days and days for oil paint to dry!  Acrylic paint dries a lot quicker than oil paint (although it doesn’t smell as nice in my opinion – I love the smell of oil paint mixed with linseed oil).  Most of all, I love the vibrant colours that you get with acrylic paint, they are just perfect for creating big, bold abstract paintings.

I tend to use good quality paints for most of my work, although sometimes student grade is just as good as long as you don’t try to thin it out too much as there is less pigment and more filler, so the colours can look washed out if you over do it.