Are you interested in painting with acrylics? Are you just curious or confused about how they work? Acrylic paint is much like any other paint in that it is made from a simple combination of ground pigment and binder. The pigment is what gives the paint its color. The binder is what gives the paint its consistency and many of its working characteristics. The binders used to manufacture acrylics are acrylic polymers. These acrylic polymers allow the paint to become a plastic film when dry. This is why many other forms of media do not adhere well to acrylic paints after they dry. The plastic film is simply too slick for other media to adhere to the surface. On the good side, this characteristic makes acrylic paintings extremely durable. Many acrylic paints are useful for both indoor and outdoor applications.

The acrylic polymers that paint manufacturers use to bind acrylic paints come in many varieties. There are some that are thick, thin, sticky, watery, jelly-like or any combination in between. So, as an artist you can spend your time painting instead of mixing because you can find acrylics in any consistency that you need.

Acrylic paints are also great because they wash up with water. They can also be thinned with water if you need to make slight adjustments in consistency. It is not recommended, however, that you use water exclusively to thin your acrylic paint. The reason for that is... when you add too much water to your paint, you essentially break down the bond between the pigment and binder, thereby washing the binder out. The name for this problem is "slime-ing". What happens is that the pigment will pool to the outside edge of your brush strokes and leave a blank space in the middle. The best thing to do when thinning your acrylic paints is to use an acrylic medium.

Acrylic mediums are great because they will prevent "slime-ing", maintain the paint's durability and provide a consistent finish when the paint dries. Mediums also allow acrylic paint to be used on more unconventional surfaces like fabric, or in airbrushes. Really, acrylic painting is all about what you like to do because you can find any acrylic paint to suit anything you can imagine! So, never let your acrylic painting supply dwindle...keep your imagination flowing along with your paint!