The virtues of acrylic paint are purity of color and short drying time. There are a great many artists using acrylics, and there are a great many artists that encourage painters to stay away from them. Because of the unfounded arguments and differing opinions, novice painters usually start their training with oil colors.

Originally, acrylics were developed as industrial paint. However, the medium became so popular with artists because of the purity of color and drying time that now it is one of the most widespread painting media on the market. It has its own identity, and is no longer used to compare with other techniques, nor is it used singly to imitate the effects of oil. watercolor, and other mediums.

By their very nature, acrylic paints work well with mixed media painting. They can be manipulated with all possible textures and fillers. Imagine painting wile using pieces of carbonized wood, lead, clay, dust, stones, straw, wires, and much more (probably limited by only your imagination). If you have any doubt about this, I would recommend you look up the acrylic – mixed media – works of Anselm Kiefer.  Because these are copyrighted paintings, I cannot show his work here. However, it is highly recommended that you read about them. He is definitely a master at the use of acrylic paint.

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