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Know the limitations of your chosen acrylic. Understand the constraints of the media. Practice creating your target tint or effect. Create acrylic washes you can paint over. Blend colors without hesitation. Use tape to create sharp contrast edges.

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Art supplies can be very expensive so, when starting out, you'll likely want to use student grade paints. These will be most affordable, but will also offer less coverage and greater shift in color as the paints dry. Artist grade (professional) acrylics, on the other hand, have higher levels of pigment, a wide array of colors, and limited color shift when drying. Student grade acrylics are not necessarily less useful or desirable than artist grade paints. Student grade paints are excellent for large scale projects or any under-painting you may have to do. Beyond the well-known fact that acrylics dry quickly, there are many other considerations you should be aware of when choosing your acrylic paint. Generally, you can expect that acrylic paint not fully dry can be revitalized by water, but it will not be able to be rehydrated after it is fully dry. This is important to take into account, because if you plan on using a color-lifting technique, as you would with watercolor paints like gum arabic, it will not work with acrylics. Once the acrylic has been used in a wash and dried, you will not be able to rehydrate the paint. Acrylics can give the appearance of many different styles. You can use your acrylics to create artwork that resembles watercolors or even more elaborate oil paintings. This, however, will require experimentation on your part. Different paints are made from different ingredients, and these will all have unique properties.  With experience, you'll likely begin to develop an intuition for how much a certain kind of paint needs to be thinned to achieve your desired color. To do this consistently, you should note the process you used when you achieve a particularly desired shade through thinning. One of the most common kinds of acrylic paints, and the one you'll most likely be painting with, has a satin sheen, also called a semi-matte sheen. Other finishes common in acrylic paints are gloss and matte. If you thin your acrylic paint until it resembles the consistency of watercolor, you can apply this paint to your canvas to create a backdrop or scene. Once this acrylic wash dries, you can paint freely on to of it. In most cases, when an acrylic dries, it becomes water insoluble. This means that you can paint over your acrylic wash freely without worrying about paint running or the image becoming muddy. You may want to practice your color theory and the mixing of colors with inexpensive paints until you are confident in this. Acrylics dry so fast, so if you hesitate while blending your colors or take too long, your acrylics might harden before you can apply them to your canvas. You may find that you can prevent the drying process by using a dampened piece of paper or card stock when blending. Don't forget to mist your paints if you are using a plastic palette. Acrylic paint is great for layering, especially because once it dries it isn't easily affected by moisture or other applications of paint. If you plan on painting over an acrylic wash or background, you can create high contrast edges by putting a piece of masking tape where you want the sharp edge. The masking tape will keep the paint underneath protected from the second application of paint. Masking tape also has little risk of ripping paint free once you are ready to remove it from your painting.