Underwater World, Jackie Garner, acrylic on mountboard, 11x7in (28x43cm)

Practise a variety of acrylic painting techniques to allow you to paint with more freedom and creativity.

Exercise 1 - Spots and bubbles

You can create a spotted effect in various ways. For bubbles concentrated in one area, loosely lay sheets of scrap paper over the rest of the painting. Make sure the previous layers of paint are dry first.

Changing the method, paint consistency and tone will give different results. A stencil, for example, will give regular spots, but you can modify these with subsequent brushstrokes. Or you could use small pieces of a stencil repeatedly, overlapping or increasing the space between them. This works better than using a single large sheet, which tends to emphasise the regularity. 

From top left to bottom right:

1. Use a pipette to drop liquid colour onto the paper.
2. Paint onto bubblewrap and dab this on the surface.
3. Spatter the paint by flicking a loaded brush or tapping it against a finger.
4. Punch holes in a piece of paper to use as a stencil.
5. Use a brush to paint spots, either freehand or by painting around a circular object.
6. Dip your fingertip into the paint and gently tap onto the paper.

Exercise 2 - Spattering

You can try this on a wet or a dry surface to see how that affects the way the paint behaves. Spattered paint spreads to form a mottled, even tone. Once you’ve discovered a range of effects, you can try some of them in combination with each other.

When you are using the pspattering technique you should always cover a wide area around your work. Stray droplets can travel further than you’d dream possible, and dried acrylic is hard to remove from most materials.

If you're new to acrylics, don't stop here! Explore our other beginner-friendly guides to learn all you need to progress and develop your acrylic skills.

Exercise 3 - The cissing effect

Another handy technique involves mimicking the cissing effect—when a metal surface resists paint and makes it break up. You’ll need to work quickly with this technique. Prepare the materials you’ll need before you start...

Support, brushes, paint, palette, clear water and kitchen roll

• Paint a layer of one or two colours, in a medium or light tone over your support. This example uses lemon yellow with a little primary blue, which gives a range of greens where they overlap. This base colour does not need to be perfect.
• When the first layer of colour is thoroughly dry, paint a thick layer of blue over the entire base layer. If you work on a hot day, or paint a large area, add a little slow-dry medium, it helps stop the paint from drying too fast.

• When the paint is almost dry, spatter with clean water. After a minute or two, gently blot off with a piece of kitchen roll or clean cloth. Where the drops of water landed, the paint will still now be wet, so the kitchen roll will remove it. This will reveal the layer of colour below. 

---