How to Use Acrylic Paint Like Watercolor (with video)

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Jul 7

Joy in Watercolor Painting

Before and through most of Covid (2019-2021) I worked mostly on watercolor paintings on paper. I worked with different papers, sizes, color palettes, and patterns. But each had one thing in common: wet, fluid, liquid paint. I like to make puddles with the watercolor on the page, using my brush to push the it around the paper. I will typically draw the design onto the paper, then fill in with paint, like you would a coloring book.

watercolor painting moon geometric yellow

I thoroughly enjoyed the process, but kept finding myself wanting to work larger, on canvas, with this same fluid method. The trick is, watercolor likes paper, not canvas. So I was on a search to find ways to use acrylic paint on canvas, in the same method I use for watercolor. The answer: Substrates and mediums.

golden absorbent ground watercolor ground for painting — Golden Absorbent Ground

How to Use Acrylic Paint Like Watercolor

The trick to painting on canvas in a watercolor style is that the substrate has to be right. Watercolor works best on paper because of its absorbent quality: It soaks into the paper, whereas acrylic paint sits on top of the canvas.

The solution is to use a medium called Watercolor Ground, or Absorbent Ground. It’s like a paste that you use to cover the canvas or wood panel, and when it dries (3 -5 coats, dried in between application), it gives the surface an absorbent, paper-like quality.

Next, Make Acrylic Paint VERY Fluid

It’s tempting to thin acrylic paint with water - I mean, it’s obvious, right? But the problem with adding water to acrylic paint is that it dilutes the polymer binders in the paint and you can end up with paint that lacks luster, pigment, and can eventually flake off the substrate.

The answer? Acrylic mediums. Mediums are just like paint without the pigment (color) added. For my purposes, I used 3 mediums: Pouring medium, Flow Improver, and High Flow medium. Pouring Medium is used for paint pouring, Flow Improver improves the flow, absorption and blending of acrylic paint, and High Flow medium is used to thin acrylic paint for airbrushing. I also added some water, but I kept it to a minimum.

In the following videos I show the process described above. If you have any questions, I invite you to leave a comment below. I hope this inspires you to try something new!

How to Thin Acrylic Paint, and Using a Test Canvas

Painting a Large Diptych with Acrylic Paint in a Watercolor Style

This is the part where I actually paint the painting! "River Rocks" is a calm meditation on the beauty in natural irregular pattern.

This diptych is made of two 30X48" canvases, and is what I call a "continuous pattern" design. It can be displayed 6 different ways without breaking the irregular pattern. The dimensions when displayed stacked or side-by-side are 48X60" and when displayed horizontally, the dimensions are 96X30".

AVAILABLE. Will be uploaded to my store soon, or you can email me.

Below is the first test panel I tried with this method!