Acrylic Painting Course

Lesson 1 • Selecting a Starter Colour Palette

Introduces a limited primary palette strategy to maximise colour mixing efficiency. Students build a versatile set without unnecessary paint expenditure.

Lesson 2 • Choosing Surfaces and Supports

Examines canvas, wood panel, paper, and board as painting surfaces. Students select appropriate supports based on project goals and budget.

Lesson 3 • Essential Brushes and Tools

Identifies brush shapes, palette knives, and auxiliary tools needed for acrylic work. Builds a foundational toolkit students use in every subsequent chapter.

Lesson 4 • Setting Up Your Workspace

Guides ergonomic studio arrangement, lighting, and ventilation for safe acrylic use. Proper setup prevents fatigue and supports consistent colour judgment.

Lesson 1 • Expressive and Gestural Marks

Encourages intuitive, energetic mark-making to develop personal style. Students loosen technical rigidity while maintaining intentional composition.

Lesson 2 • Brush Loading and Paint Consistency

Covers how water ratio and brush saturation affect stroke quality. Correct loading is the prerequisite for every technique taught in this chapter.

Lesson 3 • Palette Knife Painting Techniques

Explores impasto application, scraping, and texture creation with palette knives. Expands students' mark-making vocabulary beyond brush-only approaches.

Lesson 4 • Fundamental Stroke Techniques

Introduces flat washes, graduated blends, and controlled line work. These strokes form the building blocks of all subsequent painting applications.

Lesson 1 • Acrylic-Specific Colour Shift

Addresses the wet-to-dry darkening phenomenon unique to acrylics. Students compensate accurately so finished paintings match intended colour.

Lesson 2 • Value, Saturation, and Temperature

Distinguishes lightness, chroma, and warmth/coolness as independent colour dimensions. Mastery here enables nuanced colour decisions in composition and realism.

Lesson 3 • Building a Personal Colour Palette

Guides students in selecting a cohesive palette for a specific painting mood or style. Connects colour theory to expressive and compositional intent.

Lesson 4 • Mixing Clean, Accurate Colours

Teaches systematic mixing sequences to avoid muddy results. Students apply these protocols in every painting project going forward.

Lesson 1 • Sketching and Transferring Compositions

Covers thumbnail sketching, grid transfer, and freehand drawing onto canvas. Students arrive at the painting stage with a confident compositional plan.

Lesson 2 • Colour Harmony in Composition

Connects colour theory to compositional strategy for mood and unity. Students apply colour temperature and harmony to reinforce focal areas.

Lesson 3 • Value Structure and Contrast

Establishes value hierarchy as the backbone of readable composition. Strong value structure ensures paintings read clearly at any viewing distance.

Lesson 4 • Rule of Thirds and Visual Flow

Introduces grid-based placement and directional eye movement through a painting. Students use these tools to create dynamic, balanced compositions.

Lesson 1 • Underpainting Strategies

Introduces tonal and colour underpaintings as structural foundations. A strong underpainting accelerates subsequent layers and unifies the final painting.

Lesson 2 • Transparent Glazing Methods

Explores thin, transparent colour layers to deepen hue and add luminosity. Glazing is the primary tool for achieving jewel-like colour depth in acrylics.

Lesson 3 • Wet-on-Wet Blending in Acrylics

Addresses the challenge of blending acrylics before they dry using retarders and technique. Students extend working time to achieve smooth transitions.

Lesson 4 • Combining Opacity and Transparency

Integrates opaque and transparent passages strategically within a single painting. Students achieve professional surface variation and visual richness.

Lesson 1 • The Five Elements of Shading

Breaks down highlight, light, shadow, core shadow, and reflected light zones. Students map these zones onto any three-dimensional subject systematically.

Lesson 2 • Painting a Still Life from Observation

Integrates all form-rendering skills in a complete observational still life. Students apply light, shadow, colour temperature, and edge control simultaneously.

Lesson 3 • Colour Temperature in Light and Shadow

Applies warm/cool temperature shifts to light and shadow zones for realism. Temperature contrast creates vibrant, atmospheric form without relying on value alone.

Lesson 4 • Painting Spheres, Cubes, and Cylinders

Uses geometric primitives to practise form rendering before complex subjects. Mastery of primitives transfers directly to organic and architectural subjects.

Lesson 1 • Landscape Painting Fundamentals

Covers sky, foliage, water, and atmospheric perspective for landscape work. Students paint convincing outdoor scenes using layered and textural approaches.

Lesson 2 • Urban and Architectural Subjects

Applies perspective and hard-edge technique to buildings and cityscapes. Students combine structural accuracy with painterly texture for architectural subjects.

Lesson 3 • Portrait and Figure Painting Basics

Introduces facial proportions, skin tone mixing, and figure structure for portraiture. Students paint a simplified portrait applying form and colour temperature skills.

Lesson 4 • Floral and Botanical Painting

Teaches petal layering, organic edge variation, and botanical colour for floral subjects. Students develop sensitivity to delicate form and translucent colour.

Lesson 1 • Photographing and Documenting Artwork

Teaches accurate artwork photography for portfolio and online sharing. Proper documentation preserves colour fidelity and professional credibility.

Lesson 2 • Cleaning Up and Drying Properly

Covers complete drying requirements before varnishing and proper brush/tool cleanup. Skipping these steps causes varnish failure and tool degradation.

Lesson 3 • Varnishing Acrylic Paintings

Explains isolation coat application and final varnish selection for UV and dust protection. Correct varnishing unifies surface sheen and extends painting longevity.

Lesson 4 • Framing and Display Options

Covers gallery wrap finishing, frame selection, and hanging hardware for presentation. Students present work professionally for exhibition or sale.