Blending Acrylics

Acrylic paint can be blended seamlessly with the help of a medium. Winsor & Newton’s Flow Improver and Slow Drying Medium are two mediums that slow the drying of acrylics to give you enough time to blend from one colour to another. Here we use a range of earth tones, mixed with the mediums, to show you how your colour can move from dark Raw and Burnt Umbers to a light Yellow Ochre.

Video Transcript

0:08    Hello, today I want to talk about creating a blend, using acrylics and a Winsor & Newton Slow Drying acrylic medium. I'd like to talk about your surface quickly, the smoother it is the better the blend. I'm going to use a canvas board, to which I've added extra Gesso and sanded to a fine finish. Also, how to deal with the challenge of blending with fast drying acrylic paints.

0:32    In order to reduce the brush mark consistency and slow down the drying rate of the acrylic colour. I'm using Winsor & Newtons Slow Drying painting medium and acrylic flow improver, which creates a fluid, smoother application. I'm also using a wide flat bending brush and a soft dry blending brush, to reduce any brush marks.

0:52    Now I'm going to mix a range of transparent and semi-transparent colours from brown and yellow pigments, from a dark to light tonal range, avoiding black, which could dull your colours. Start with the darkest tone, Raw Umber, a semi-transparent pigment, mixed with Burnt Umber, which gives us a nice dark tone to begin with. Then complete your palette with Semi Transparent Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Yellow Ochre Semi Transparent and a Transparent Lemon Yellow.

1:39    Be sure to leave plenty of space between colours. Add a small amount of Winsor & Newton slow drying acrylic medium and a bit of flow improver if the medium is too thick. You'll need to work quickly and boldly, blending from chromatically darker colours to lighter tones. Remember it's important to keep your colours clean and move your brush in one direction only, like this.

2:02    First the Raw Umber - Burnt Umber mix, blending into the Burnt Sienna. Raw Sienna, then your Yellow Ochre, adding clean medium as you go. And finally Lemon Yellow. You can soften adjacent colours with a dryer synthetic brush, which you clean between each colour. To finish, you can delicately use a soft synthetic brush to dust the surface like this, to take away the brush marks and smooth out your blend. I hope you found this video useful when choosing to work with fast drying acrylics.