Splash of Color: A Journey into Acrylic Art

artists brushes and oil paints on wooden palette. Vintage stylized photo of paintbrushes closeup and artist palette. palette with paintbrush and palette-knife (artists brushes and oil paints on wooden palette. Vintage stylized photo of paintbrushes cl

Summary

This is a guided journey through color theory basics, essential and life-oriented acrylic tools, foundational techniques, and hands-on painting exercises for beginners to create their own artworks.

Everyone is an artist, some people just haven’t found their brush yet.

Step 1: Introduction to color theory (3 minutes)

First, let’s take a look at this video to get a brief understanding of color theory.

If you find it difficult to follow, the following picture will also help you understand.

A simple introduction to color theory through the color wheel

You can see color relationships more clearly on the color wheel (primary/secondary/tertiary/complementary/analogous)
https://online.maryville.edu/liberal-arts-degrees/the-art-of-color/

Now, if you have not yet decided on the color to use, you can first try the following websites.
https://coolors.co/
https://color.adobe.com/explore
https://paletton.com/

Now, you can choose any of the following pieces and try to say what colors are used, are there any contrasting or analogous colors?

Van Gogh's Sunflowers depicts a vibrant bouquet of sunflowers arranged in a simple vase, set against a plain yellow background.

Sunflowers
Vincent van Gogh
1888

Picasso's The Tragedy uses muted blue tones and somber figures to convey profound human sorrow and isolation, emblematic of his Blue Period.

The Tragedy
Pablo Picasso
1903

Edvard Munch's The Scream portrays a figure on a bridge, overwhelmed by existential dread, with swirling skies and bold colors amplifying its raw emotional intensity.

The Scream
Edvard Munch
1893

Step 2: Acrylic painting materials introduction (2 minutes)

Traditional materials:

Acrylic paint

Brushes

Canvas

Palette

Bucket

Scraper

Tips: You can also choose some life-style materials, such as paper towels, toothbrushes, or sponges to create different textures.

If you want to learn more, please watch the video below.

Step 3: Basic Acrylic Painting techniques (3 minutes)

Please watch the following video:

This video may be a little long, but just choose the effect you want. While watching the video, you can also start experimenting.

Step 4: Practice (12 minutes)

You can start with simple blocks of color. (Apply existing colors directly to the canvas, or try mixing some colors yourself) As shown in the pictures below.

Color block 1

Flat color block painting after color mixing

Color block 2

You can also choose simple items such as:

Example 1

Example 2

Or make it abstract:

Example 3

Example 4

If you have a foundation in painting, you can develop different styles, such as Impressionism and so on. Or just whatever else you want to put on the canvas.