Startup Library: Painting With Acrylic

Course Overview

Everything you need to start painting with acrylics — from selecting tools and materials to foundational techniques and complete beginner-friendly projects. In this step-by-step course, acclaimed artist Nina Weiss introduces you to palettes, paint, brushwork, supports, color mixing, layering, and more. Practice with hands-on exercises and build confidence as you create monochromatic studies and vibrant still lifes.

Video Lesson List

1. What You Need: Paint & Palette

Meet your instructor, Nina Weiss, and learn about essential paints and palettes for getting started with acrylics.

Duration: 21 min

2. What You Need: Brushes

Discover the different types of brushes, their uses, and tips for cleaning and care to keep your tools in great shape.

Duration: 14 min

3. What You Need: Supports

Explore surfaces that work with acrylic paint and learn how to properly gesso pre-stretched canvas or board to prepare for painting.

Duration: 15 min

4. Method: Stretching Canvas

Follow Nina’s guidance to construct and stretch your own canvases, including buying supplies and finishing professional corners.

Duration: 23 min

5. Method: Workspace

Set up an efficient, comfortable, and organized painting workspace to support your creativity and workflow.

Duration: 6 min

6. Exercise: Value Painting of Geometric Shapes

Begin with value painting exercises on geometric forms, focusing on brush choices, paint consistency, opacity, and basic composition.

Duration: 39 min

7. Exercise: Value Painting of Eggs

Move on to painting a realistic egg study, using mark-making, depth, contrast, and value blending to create round, lifelike forms.

Duration: 26 min

8. Exercise: Monochromatic Painting of Eggs

Introduce color by creating a monochromatic painting of eggs. Reinforce skills with form, mixing, light, edges, and smooth transitions.

Duration: 30 min

9. Exercise: The Color Wheel

Learn the foundations of color theory by making a full color wheel, practicing mixing primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.

Duration: 33 min

10. Exercise: Neutralization Scales

Explore complementary color pairs and create neutralization scales to expand your color-mixing abilities and improve paint harmony.

Duration: 26 min

11. Exercise: Complementary Color Painting of Eggs

Apply your color mixing knowledge in a project painting eggs using violet, yellow, and white as complementary colors.

Duration: 32 min

12. Make It: Lemon Painting

Put your skills to the test with a full-color lemon still life. Work from dark to light and thin to thick for a dynamic, finished painting.

Duration: 42 min