Acrylic Course

Lesson 1 • Understanding Acrylic Paint Properties

Covers pigment composition, drying time, and water-solubility of acrylics. Establishes why these properties shape every technique in the course.

Lesson 2 • Setting Up Your Workspace

Teaches ergonomic studio arrangement, lighting, and ventilation for safe acrylic practice. Proper setup prevents fatigue and supports consistent output.

Lesson 3 • Acrylic Paint Grades and Brands

Differentiates student-grade from professional-grade acrylics by pigment load and lightfastness. Guides budget-conscious material decisions without sacrificing results.

Lesson 4 • Essential Tools and Materials

Identifies brushes, palette knives, palettes, and supports needed for acrylic work. Connects material choices to quality of finished paintings.

Lesson 1 • Mixing Neutrals and Earth Tones

Demonstrates mixing greys, browns, and muted tones from primaries without muddy results. Neutrals are essential for realistic and expressive painting alike.

Lesson 2 • The Colour Wheel and Primary Colours

Introduces the RYB and RGB colour models and their relevance to acrylic mixing. Provides the conceptual map students use throughout all painting exercises.

Lesson 3 • Colour Temperature and Mood

Explores warm vs. cool colour relationships and their psychological impact. Students apply temperature contrast to create depth and atmosphere.

Lesson 4 • Value, Saturation, and Hue

Teaches the three dimensions of colour and how to manipulate each independently. Enables precise colour adjustments rather than guesswork.

Lesson 1 • Wet-on-Wet and Wet-on-Dry

Contrasts blending into wet paint vs. layering over dry paint for different effects. Students choose the right approach for each painting situation.

Lesson 2 • Dry Brushing and Scumbling

Covers dragging near-dry paint across surfaces for broken, luminous effects. Adds atmospheric and textural options to the student's technique set.

Lesson 3 • Impasto and Texture Strokes

Teaches applying thick, sculptural paint for tactile surface texture. Connects heavy-body paint use to expressive and representational goals.

Lesson 4 • Flat, Round, and Fan Brush Techniques

Explores the unique mark each brush shape produces and when to use each. Expands the student's technical vocabulary for diverse painting styles.

Lesson 1 • Rule of Thirds and Focal Points

Introduces grid-based placement and focal point hierarchy for dynamic layouts. Students stop centering subjects and start designing with intention.

Lesson 2 • Shape, Negative Space, and Balance

Explores positive/negative shape relationships and visual weight distribution. Students design balanced compositions without making them feel static.

Lesson 3 • Value Structure and Contrast

Demonstrates how light-dark contrast defines form and separates compositional zones. Strong value structure makes paintings readable at any size.

Lesson 4 • Leading Lines and Visual Flow

Teaches using lines, edges, and shapes to direct viewer movement through the image. Connects compositional flow to storytelling and emotional impact.

Lesson 1 • Opaque Layering and Overpainting

Demonstrates building form with opaque paint on top of established layers. Combines with glazing to create full tonal and colour range.

Lesson 2 • Transparent Glazing for Depth

Teaches mixing thin, transparent colour washes applied over dry layers. Glazing creates optical colour mixing and luminous shadow effects.

Lesson 3 • Scumbling and Optical Mixing

Applies broken-colour scumbling over dried layers to create vibrating optical effects. Connects Impressionist colour theory to acrylic practice.

Lesson 4 • Underpainting and Blocking In

Covers monochromatic underpainting to establish value structure before colour. Provides a roadmap that makes subsequent layers more confident.

Lesson 1 • Landscape Painting Essentials

Teaches sky, foliage, water, and ground rendering with acrylic-specific techniques. Students capture atmospheric perspective and natural light convincingly.

Lesson 2 • Still Life Painting Workflow

Guides a complete still life from setup through final details using a structured workflow. Integrates composition, value, colour, and layering into one project.

Lesson 3 • Portrait and Figure Basics

Introduces facial proportion, skin tone mixing, and simplified figure structure. Provides entry-level portrait skills built on the course's colour and light foundation.

Lesson 4 • Painting Light and Shadow on Form

Covers the five elements of light (highlight, light, shadow, core shadow, reflected light). Students render convincing three-dimensional form on flat surfaces.

Lesson 1 • Texture and Mixed Media Integration

Introduces collage, sand, modelling paste, and found materials into acrylic surfaces. Expands the physical and conceptual range of the painted surface.

Lesson 2 • Principles of Abstract Composition

Applies design principles to non-representational work where form and colour carry meaning. Students discover that abstraction requires as much rigour as realism.

Lesson 3 • Gestural Painting and Mark-Making

Encourages spontaneous, physical mark-making to express energy and emotion. Loosens technical rigidity developed in earlier chapters.

Lesson 4 • Developing a Personal Style

Guides self-analysis of recurring choices in colour, mark, and subject to identify emerging style. Students articulate what makes their work distinctively theirs.

Lesson 1 • Evaluating and Editing a Finished Painting

Teaches critical self-assessment methods to identify weaknesses before declaring a painting done. Prevents over-working and under-working common mistakes.

Lesson 2 • Surface Preparation for Varnishing

Covers full cure time, isolation coat application, and surface cleaning before varnish. Skipping these steps causes adhesion failure and colour shift.

Lesson 3 • Photographing and Archiving Artwork

Teaches natural light photography, colour correction, and digital archiving of finished work. Accurate documentation supports sales, portfolios, and insurance.

Lesson 4 • Varnish Types and Application

Compares gloss, satin, and matte varnishes and demonstrates brush vs. spray application. Students choose varnish finish to match their artistic intent.