Understanding The Thick and Thin of It with Esté MacLeod

Esté MacLeod (Ep.17) uses high flow acrylic paints.

But what are those and how do they fit in the spectrum of acrylic paint thicknesses?

Acrylic paints come in various thicknesses of viscosity. Generally working thick to thin you have:

(1) heavy body (thickness: oil paint),

(2) soft bodied (thickness: a thick ranch dressing)

(3) fluid (thickness: syrup),

(4) high flow/acrylic inks/air brush pigment (thickness: water).

If you’re working with professional brands, all of these will have similar pigment loads. The super thick paint has as much pigment in it as the fluid. Just because one is thinner doesn’t mean it’s less intense.

Put it to Practice:

Finding which acrylic is right for you might take some trial and error. Every time you change your paint viscosity, you may find that your tools don’t quite work the same.

For example, a brush that works one way with heavy bodied paints, will work quite differently with high flow paints.

So how do you find the ones you like best?

The best way to answer that is to pick one and spend some time with it. Get a feel for how it handles. Find the right brushes and palette. Spend time becoming familiarizing with its strengths and its quirks. Notice if you like its strengths and quirks.

And then once you have a sense of how that paint works, try another viscosity.

By getting really familiar with one viscosity of paint, you now have a fixed starting point for comparison. This will help you learn the second viscosity more quickly because you have a starting point for reference.