Acrylic Revolution by Nancy Reyner

As an art teacher I'm always looking for new techniques to teach my students. I enjoy learning as much as I love teaching. At least once a month I go to the local book store to check out the art books. I have a large collection in which I use as references.

One of my favorite books is called "Acrylic Revolution" by Nancy Reyner. This book is full of "new tricks and techniques for working with the world's most versatile medium". It has page after page of fun and exciting ways to play with acrylic paint. There are so many techniques for both the professional and beginner artist to have many hours of fun creating paintings.

The first few pages are great guides for the beginner. starting with the 'Essential acrylic tips". Covering everything about the characteristics of the paint and the colors to use. Ms. Reyner then moves on to materials and equipment and how they are used. Such as Palette ideas, supports or surfaces to paint on and how to set up a studio.

Reyner then cover a large variety of tools you can paint with. Showing examples of paintings done with brushes, palette knives, cheese cloth and rags, string, sponges, eye droppers, toothbrushes and even feathers. All of her examples are done in an easy to follow, step by step process that makes you excited about getting started on your own. With over 100 pages of tips, techniques and projects you will soon be creating some amazing paintings.

Some of my more adventurous students and I have enjoyed experimenting with many of the techniques in "Acrylic Revolution". It's fun and exciting to see great results using non-traditional methods.

The painting posted here was done using hide glue to crack the paint. This is just one of the many fun techniques explained in the book.