If you haven't already bought your acrylics Marty's suggestions are probably the best to follow, but Winsor & Newton Galeria or Daler-Rowney System 3 might be easier to get along with coming from watercolours as they have less body, you can still produce excellent work with either despite them being single-price ranges.
Supports
To start with I would suggest buying pre-made canvases, it's a lot to get used to stretching your own canvas
and learning a new medium at the same time, plus if you find this isn't for you, you haven't wasted the money that a good pair of canvas pliers, a tack hammer and the other supplies would have set you back. If you want the texture but you don't like the 'give' of stretched fabric you can glue canvas to rigid supports like plywood, hardboard and MDF if you like.
If you want to try painting just on primed panel have a look at
this thread for my prep tips.
Brushes
To begin with I would suggest using synthetic brushes only, there are a host of polyester and nylon brushes available as flats, filberts and rounds that last well when used with acrylics and don't get slack when wet with water like natural bristle brushes, which I personally don't like at all.
Always dampen your brush before loading with paint and get in the habit of rinsing them well, and often, during use. Acrylics dry very quickly and are difficult to remove without damaging the brush. I would recommend a double-bath system: two containers of water, one for the initial rinsing and the second for a final rinse-out and as mixing water. A couple of drops of dishwashing liquid in both will help clean your brushes and improves the brushability of the paint, but it can lead to bubbles forming during painting so don't use any in your mixing water if you experience this problem with the way you paint.
Mixing
Unlike watercolours you can't mix your paint just with the brush. This is fine for smaller quantities or the occasional mix for one brushstroke, that sort of thing, but for any larger quantities and especially with paint of heavier body you'll ruin your brushes if you use them as your only tool for mixing paint. I would recommend a painting knife (not a palette knife) for mixing as they allow for great precision in picking paint up and adding medium or water drop by drop, they also help prevent getting your knuckles in the paint during mixing.
I would recommend glass, smooth ceramic tile, Persex or melamine as the best palettes to use in roughly that order.
Varnishing
Protecting acrylics is a good idea as they are soft at room temperature and can respond to changes in humidity by getting tacky, making them very prone to damage from dust. The two options are framing behind glass and varnishing. If you choose to varnish I would recommend a spirit-soluble varnish like Golden's MSA, Liquitex's Soluvar or the one now made by W&N, there are probably others to choose from also. These are much easier to apply than water-based varnishes apart from anything!
Be sure to look at the sticky at the top of the Acrylics page for more tips and there are many past threads that can help with other general queries.
Einion
Re: Getting started with Arcylics
I'm all fired up to give acrylics a go and can't wait to get started! I will post some work once I have completed one to let you see how I went with my first dabble!
Linear Mode
