Learn How to Use Acrylic Paint like Watercolors!

Recently, I have started playing around with some sketching and treating my acrylic paint like watercolors. This is such a fun and different way to use your acrylic paints that also saves you money and time not having to go out and buy additional supplies!

* This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase, I could make a small commission at no charge to you. Please read my Disclaimer and Privacy Policy HERE.

I love the fact that you can layer the acrylics to give you a little bit more coverage which is something you can’t really do with watercolors.

Since lemons and lemon wreaths are really popular right now I decided to do a little sketch of a lemon wreath with some script words on the inside. You could customize this to whatever you want it to be! 

This will work best on mixed media paper or watercolor paper. You’re not going to get quite the same effect on canvas. The thing I love about doing it on either one of those is that after you are finished you can let it dry and then frame it in a glass frame afterward! 

First, I traced my lettering in the center of my paper using carbon paper and then filled in the lines with a sharpie. I had my friend, Kasey Hope with P’zazz Art Studio, create these hand-lettered script words “Live Simple” and I have that template for you!!

Download ‘Live Simply’ Template

Next, sketch out your design with waterproof black pens. I use the fine tip pen to create a very light sketch of my lemon wreath.

I decided to use a couple of shades of green and pale yellow paint. When you are ready to start painting, load your brush with water and water down my paints.

You can choose how thin to make your paint and remember you can add layers to create dimension. After that, I also added a little bit of a light pink just to add a little pop of color with some berries around the greenery.

Once I got all of that filled in I decided to add some gold accents because if you’ve looked at any of my work you can probably tell that I love Gold! I watered down a metallic gold paint as shown in my video below to add a little bit of dimension to the lemons.

The last thing I did was use my favorite gold pen and add a couple of highlight marks on the lemons. Check out my blog all about my favorite gold paint products! They are not all created equal.

One thing I want you to notice about this style of painting is that it is supposed to be messy and loose. You can see that I didn’t worry about staying inside the lines. 

Once you add the paint on you may want to go back with your waterproof black pen and add a little more dimension or outlines around some of your design. 

Here is My Video Showing How to Use Acrylic Paint Like Watercolors

Hope that inspires you to do a little sketching and play with your acrylics in a whole new way! 

Stay Creative!