Acrylic paint works on almost any surface, dries fast, and cleans up with water, making it one of the most versatile art supplies you can own. Whether you have a few tubes left over from a project or you’re picking up painting for the first time, the range of things you can do with acrylics goes far beyond canvas. Here’s a practical guide to surfaces, techniques, and finishing methods that will help you get the most out of your paint.
Surfaces You Can Paint On
Canvas is the obvious choice, but acrylics bond well to wood, paper, fabric, glass, metal, plastic, and even fiberglass. The key difference between surfaces is how much preparation each one needs before the paint will stick and last.
Plywood and other wood panels need two to five coats of gesso (a white primer made for painting) depending on how porous the wood is. Harder woods absorb less and need fewer coats. Paper works with minimal prep: you can paint directly on heavier watercolor paper, or seal thinner paper with a clear gesso or matte medium first if you want to prevent the paint from soaking into the fibers.
Non-porous surfaces like glass and metal require more effort. Sand or sandblast the surface with 400-grit sandpaper so the paint has something to grip. For glass projects you plan to use (think mugs or vases), you’ll want to bake the piece in the oven to cure the paint. Place the dry painted item in a cool oven, bring the temperature to 350°F, bake for 30 minutes, then let everything cool inside the oven gradually to prevent cracking. Wait a full 72 hours before washing the piece.
Plastic panels need a light sanding with fine or medium-grade sandpaper, followed by a coat of matte medium and a layer or two of gesso. Foamboard can work in a pinch: sand it lightly, apply two coats of gesso (sanding between them), and let it dry overnight.
Painting on Fabric
Acrylic paint sticks to fabric, but it will crack and peel in the wash unless you heat-set it. Mix your paint with a fabric medium to keep it flexible, paint your design, and let it air dry completely. Then iron the back of the fabric at the hottest setting safe for that material for about five minutes, keeping the iron moving to avoid scorching. Don’t use steam. If you’d rather skip ironing, toss the item in a clothes dryer on high heat for 60 to 90 minutes. Once heat-set, the paint holds up well through regular washing.
Core Painting Techniques
Even with basic brushes, you can create very different effects depending on how you apply the paint.
Impasto means loading thick paint onto the surface so your brushstrokes or palette knife marks stay visible. Acrylics are well suited to this because they dry quickly enough to hold texture without sagging. You can mix in texture gels to build up even thicker, more sculptural layers. Think of the swirling, ridged surfaces in Van Gogh’s work.
Glazing is the opposite approach. You thin the paint with a glazing medium (not just water) and apply it in translucent layers over dried paint underneath. Each layer shifts the color and adds depth without hiding what’s below. Working at an easel, a glazing medium keeps the thinned paint from dripping the way plain water would.
Dry brushing uses very little paint on a dry brush dragged across the surface. The paint catches only the raised texture of the canvas or paper, leaving a rough, broken effect that’s great for suggesting things like grass, wood grain, or aged stone.
Scumbling falls between dry brushing and glazing. You apply a thin layer of opaque paint loosely over a dried layer, letting patches of the color underneath show through. It creates a soft, hazy quality useful for skies, fog, or atmospheric depth.
Acrylic Pouring
Pouring is a popular technique that creates fluid, marbled patterns without brushes. The basic recipe for standard, medium-bodied acrylics is one part paint, two parts pouring medium, and one part water. You want the consistency of warm honey: thin enough to flow freely but thick enough to hold distinct color streams.
To get those distinctive cell patterns that make pour paintings so eye-catching, add about 5 to 10 milliliters of silicone oil to every 200 milliliters of your mixed pouring paint. Stir it in thoroughly. When you pour the colors together and tilt the surface, the silicone creates separation between pigments, forming organic, bubble-like cells.
Thinning Paint With Water
A common worry is that adding too much water will ruin acrylic paint by breaking down the binder that holds it together. The old rule of thumb was to stay at a 1:1 ratio of paint to water, but testing by Golden Artist Colors shows you can go much further. Most colors showed no adhesion failure even at extreme dilution levels when painted over gesso-primed surfaces. A ratio of up to 1 part paint to 20 parts water worked without issues for typical pigments.
Some colors with high clay content, like raw umber, do become more sensitive to water at high dilution. If you’re thinning beyond that 1:20 ratio, or if you need maximum durability, add a small amount of acrylic medium (about 1 part medium to 10 parts water) to maintain film strength.
Keeping Paint Wet While You Work
Acrylics dry fast, which is both their greatest advantage and biggest frustration. A stay-wet palette solves this. You can buy one or build your own with three components: a shallow container, a layer of absorbent paper (like watercolor paper or sponge cloth) soaked with water to act as a reservoir, and a sheet of greaseproof or parchment paper on top as a membrane. Squeeze your paint onto the parchment layer. Moisture seeps up slowly from below, keeping the paint workable for hours instead of minutes. Add a lid when you step away and the paint can stay usable for days.
Drying Versus Curing
There’s an important difference between paint that feels dry and paint that’s actually cured. A thin layer of acrylic can feel dry to the touch within seconds, while a thick impasto layer might take a full day to form a skin on top. But “dry to the touch” doesn’t mean the paint is done. The full curing process, where all the water and solvents evaporate through the entire thickness of the film, takes much longer. Thin layers on canvas need one to three days. Thick layers on non-porous surfaces like masonite panels can take several weeks, and films a quarter-inch thick or more may need months.
This matters most when you’re ready to varnish. Applying varnish over paint that hasn’t fully cured can trap moisture and cause cloudiness or adhesion problems. Give your work enough time to cure completely before sealing it.
Varnishing Your Finished Work
Varnish protects acrylic paintings from dust, UV light, and yellowing over time. You have three finish options: gloss, satin, and matte. Each changes how light reflects off the surface. Gloss deepens colors and adds vibrancy. Matte reduces glare and gives a more subdued look. Satin falls in between.
For brush application, lay the painting flat to prevent dripping. Apply two or three thin, even coats rather than one thick coat, letting each dry before adding the next. Spray application produces the most even finish and works especially well on heavily textured impasto surfaces where a brush would skip over the valleys. Spray three to four light coats, allowing one to four hours between each. A single spray coat lays down only about one-sixth to one-quarter the thickness of a brush coat, so those multiple passes are necessary.
One practical tip: if you want multiple protective layers but a matte finish, build up your base coats with gloss varnish first, then apply just one or two final coats of matte or satin. Stacking too many matte coats can create a cloudy, uneven look.
Cleaning Up Safely
Acrylic paint washes off brushes and tools easily with water while it’s wet, but the pigment solids in that rinse water shouldn’t go straight down the drain. Many acrylic pigments contain trace metals and microplastics. Before rinsing your brushes, wipe off as much paint as possible with a paper towel and let the towel dry before throwing it away. This keeps your wash water cleaner for longer and prevents paint solids from building up in your plumbing. If you go through a lot of paint, let your dirty rinse water sit in a jar until the solids settle to the bottom, pour off the clearer water on top, and dispose of the dried sediment in the trash.