Worst Mistake Acrylic Painters Make
Michele Theberge Michele Theberge
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 Published On Jan 31, 2013

Liquitex Airbrush Medium 8 oz:
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Liquitex Gloss Medium 8 oz:
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Liquitex Gloss Medium 16 oz:
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Golden Airbrush Medium 8 oz:
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Golden Airbrush Medium 16 oz:
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Golden Gloss Medium 8 oz:
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Golden Gloss Medium 16 oz:
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Do you know how much water is OK to add to your acrylics? Ever heard of the term "underbinding". Michele explains what the art conservators know, but most artists have never been taught -- how much water can be added to the paint without destabilizing the paint film.

1:00
What I learned in school: Tone the ground by taking a little bit of paint and adding water, and make a wash over the canvas

1:45
What I didn’t know until much later is that toning the ground with so much water “underbinds” the paint film. Paint is pigment and a binder; acrylic paint is made of large spherical acrylic molecules (the binder) and pigment. if you don’t have enough binder, then the color will not stay on the canvas.

2:35-2:58
With acrylic, when the water evaporates, all the molecules of the paint film should come together to make a stable, honeycomb-like structure.
When mixing the water and paint to tone the ground, I added so much water that each acrylic molecule is spread so far apart they can’t bind with the pigment, which makes the paint less durable and prone to flaking and lifting off.

3:44
To prevent underbinding, follow the 30% rule: use less than 30% water when diluting your acrylics.

4:07-4:57
Instead of using water, use an airbrush medium to create a wash. It has a very thin body and you can use it for painting even though it is categorized as “airbrush”.
The difference between water and medium is that medium has acrylic polymer in it, which gives the pigment more molecules to attach to.

6:05
You can tone a canvas with gloss medium! Gloss medium is thick and viscous. Using a gloss medium will yield a more glaze type of effect.

8:16
The exception to the 30% rule is when you use any absorbent surface such as watercolor paper, unprimed wood, bristol—anything that isn’t primed with an acrylic-based primer such as gesso. The fibers in the absorbent surface acts as a binding agent and will bind to the pigment particles.

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Learn more about gloss medium here:
   • Acrylic Gloss Medium vs. Matte Medium  

Series on Stain Painting:
   • stain painting  

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