Beginner's guide

So you're getting into acrylic painting

Acrylics are the smartest medium to start with — they dry fast, clean up with water, and work on almost any surface. The learning curve is gentler than oils, the gear is simpler than watercolor, and a solid starter kit costs under $80. Here's what actually matters.

By Colin B. · Published May 15, 2026 · Last reviewed May 15, 2026

Artist painting a colorful abstract artwork on canvas.

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

The 60-second version

If you only buy 3 things to start:

Arteza Acrylic Paint Set, 60 Colors — Arteza's 60-color set gives you far more range than you need — perfect for learning what you actually reach for.
Princeton Snap! Paintbrush Set, Assorted Sizes — A proper set of synthetic brushes covering every shape you'll need in your first year.
Masterson Sta-Wet Premier Palette — The Masterson stay-wet palette keeps your mixes workable for hours. The single biggest upgrade for new painters.

Budget total

$55

Typical total

$100

Acrylic painting is one of the more accessible art hobbies to start. A canvas pad, a basic paint set, and a cheap brush kit gets you going for around $55. Spending $100 gets you a proper stay-wet palette and decent synthetic brushes that'll last.

At a glance

Our top pick in each category

The fastest path through this guide — each best-starter pick by category. Scroll for the budget and upgrade alternatives.

Category	Top pick	Price	Where to buy
Paints	ArtezaArteza Acrylic Paint Set, 60 Colors	$$	See on Amazon →
Brushes	Princeton Artist BrushPrinceton Snap! Paintbrush Set, Assorted Sizes	$$	See on Amazon →
Canvas & Surfaces	ArtezaArteza Canvas Pad, 9x12 in, Pack of 2 (20 sheets)	$	See on Amazon →
Palette	MastersonMasterson Sta-Wet Premier Palette	$$	See on Amazon →
Mediums & Finishing	LiquitexLiquitex Professional Matte Medium	$$	See on Amazon →

Before you buy anything

A few things worth knowing first

Start with student-grade paint, not professional. The pigment concentration is lower, yes — but the difference is invisible to a beginner's eye. Spend money on more colors and more canvas, not on paint you're not ready to appreciate.

Synthetic brushes only. Acrylics' alkaline water content is hard on natural hair, and synthetic bristles actually hold a crisper edge for hard shapes. The brush marketing that says 'kolinsky sable' is not for you yet.

Get a stay-wet palette before you start. Acrylics dry on a regular palette in 10-30 minutes. A stay-wet palette (damp sponge under a sheet, sealed lid) keeps your colors workable for hours. A paper plate costs nothing but teaches you bad habits from day one.

The gear

What you actually need

Tubes of acrylic paint arranged on an artist's table.

Photo by MD_JERRY on Unsplash

Paints

Student-grade or artist-grade is the first question every beginner asks, and it matters less than the marketing suggests. Student-grade paint has more filler and less pigment — colors are slightly less vibrant and mix slightly less cleanly. For your first year, you won't notice. The reason to buy a set instead of individual tubes: you need to learn what colors you actually reach for before spending $8-15 per tube on artist grade. Get a set, experiment freely, then upgrade specific colors as you run out.

Paints — what's the difference?

A few common shapes, each making a different trade.

Student Grade

More filler, less pigment. Fine for learning — the difference from artist grade is invisible to beginners.

Price per tube: $1–3
Pigment load: Lower
Lightfastness: Good

Best for Beginners, high-volume practice, experimenting with color mixing

Tradeoff Colors mix slightly murkier than artist grade; less vibrant at full saturation

↓ See our pick

Artist Grade

Higher pigment concentration, single-pigment colors, better mixing. Worth it once you can feel the difference.

Price per tube: $8–18
Pigment load: High
Lightfastness: Excellent

Best for Intermediate painters, finished works you want to last, specific colors you use constantly

Tradeoff Expensive to experiment freely — you'll hesitate before loading your palette

↓ See our pick

Best starter

Arteza

Arteza Acrylic Paint Set, 60 Colors

Sixty colors sounds like overkill, but having wide range while you're learning what you like is genuinely useful. The pigment quality is above average for the price, the caps seal reliably, and the selection covers the full spectrum without requiring mixing skills you haven't built yet. This is the set we'd buy on day one.

Watch out for: The tubes are 22ml — smaller than some competitors. You'll burn through titanium white and burnt umber fastest. Buy extras of those from the start.

See on Amazon →

Budget pick

Liquitex

Liquitex BASICS Acrylic Set, 24 Colors

Liquitex BASICS is the standard student-grade recommendation from most art instructors. Consistent pigment, reliable colors, and a brand that's been making acrylics for decades. The 24-color set is less overwhelming if you prefer to mix than to reach for pre-mixed colors.

Watch out for: Twenty-four colors means more mixing — good practice, but requires patience. If you'd rather experiment freely than mix, step up to the Arteza 60.

See on Amazon →

Upgrade pick

Golden

Golden OPEN Acrylic, 5-Color Intro Set

$$$$

Golden makes the best acrylics available, and the OPEN line is specifically formulated to dry slower — addressing one of the biggest frustrations painters eventually hit with standard acrylics. Once you've painted enough to feel colors drying before you can blend them, this is the upgrade. Not before.

Watch out for: OPEN acrylics behave differently than standard acrylics and shouldn't be mixed into your normal student-grade workflow until you understand both.

See on Amazon →

Photo by Jennie Razumnaya on Unsplash

Brushes

You need three basic brush shapes: a flat for broad coverage, a round for detail and curves, and a filbert (oval-tipped) for blending. Everything else is optional at first. Buy synthetic brushes only — acrylics' water content is hard on natural hair, and synthetic bristles actually hold up better and spring back cleanly. A good beginner set covers all the shapes you'll need for well under $30.

Best starter

Princeton Artist Brush

Princeton Snap! Paintbrush Set, Assorted Sizes

Princeton makes consistently good synthetic brushes, and the Snap! line is their entry-level set built specifically for acrylics. Assorted sizes covering the shapes you'll actually use — flat, round, and angle shader — comfortable handles, and a price point that means you won't feel guilty working them hard. Wash immediately after each session — dried acrylic ruins any brush permanently.

Watch out for: Never leave brushes standing upright in water between strokes. It bends the bristles permanently.

See on Amazon →

Budget pick

Mont Marte

Mont Marte Acrylic Brush Set, 15 Piece

If you want more brushes to experiment with shapes before committing, Mont Marte's student sets give you coverage at low cost. The bristles aren't as springy as Princeton's, but for figuring out what shapes work for how you paint, they're more than adequate.

See on Amazon →

Specialty pick

U.S. Art Supply

U.S. Art Supply 5-Piece Stainless Steel Palette Knife Set

Palette knives aren't just for mixing — they're a distinct mark-making tool that creates textures no brush can match. Even if you never make an exclusively palette-knife painting, you'll use one to scrape, feather, and build impasto texture. A 5-piece stainless steel set costs under $15 and opens up a whole dimension of technique.

See on Amazon →

Canvas & Surfaces

Start with a canvas pad. A canvas pad gives you multiple pre-primed surfaces bound like a notepad — perfect for practice without the psychological weight of 'I'm wasting a real canvas.' Canvas panels (rigid board with canvas glued on) are the next step: real canvas texture at low cost, good for finished-ish studies. Stretched canvas (the 3D kind you'd hang on a wall) is for pieces worth keeping. Don't start there.

Best starter

Arteza

Arteza Canvas Pad, 9x12 in, Pack of 2 (20 sheets)

A canvas-texture pad takes the pressure off. These aren't 'real canvases' — and that's the point. You'll experiment more freely, waste less guilt, and go through a lot of surfaces in your first month of learning. Twenty pre-primed sheets gives you plenty of room to practice without rationing. Start here. Move to panels and stretched canvas once you're making paintings you want to keep.

See on Amazon →

Budget pick

Arteza

Arteza Canvas Panels, 5x7 in (14-pack)

Canvas panels are the real thing at panel-flat price. Good for studies, small finished paintings, and practice work you might actually keep. The 5x7 format is small enough to finish in one session — the right scale when you're still learning.

See on Amazon →

Upgrade pick

Arteza

Arteza Premium Stretched Canvas, 11x14 in, Pack of 8

Once you're making paintings worth keeping, stretched canvas is the right surface. The slight give under the brush feels different from panels in a pleasant way, and a finished piece on stretched canvas goes straight to the wall. Eight canvases at 11x14 is the right quantity for the intermediate phase — enough to experiment, sized large enough to work freely.

Watch out for: Run your hand over the surface before painting — if it feels rough or uneven, apply one thin extra coat of gesso and let it dry before starting.

See on Amazon →

Photo by Y M on Unsplash

Palette

This category makes an outsized difference in your experience. Standard acrylics dry in 10-30 minutes in open air — on a regular palette, your mixes are gone before you finish the painting. A stay-wet palette uses a damp sponge underneath translucent paper to keep paint workable for hours, sometimes days. It's a small buy that solves one of the most frustrating things about acrylics from your very first session.

Best starter

Masterson

Masterson Sta-Wet Premier Palette

The Masterson is the stay-wet palette everyone recommends because it's the one that actually works. The airtight seal keeps paint workable for days between sessions. Replacement sponges and paper are cheap and available everywhere. If you only upgrade one thing from the bare minimum, make it this.

Watch out for: Rinse the sponge and paper with clean water between sessions. Mold grows fast if you leave wet paint sitting more than a few days without refreshing it.

See on Amazon →

Budget pick

Meeden

Meeden Disposable Palette Paper Pad

If you're not ready to commit to a stay-wet palette, a disposable palette pad is better than a paper plate — the surface is smooth, sheets peel away cleanly, and you don't scrape dried paint between sessions. Not ideal for long sessions, but fine for short work while you're deciding.

See on Amazon →

Photo by Caleb Salomons on Unsplash

Mediums & Finishing

Mediums modify how paint handles. For your first few months, you only need one: a matte medium. Use it to thin paint without the color loss of plain water, and to create transparent glazes. Varnish is how you protect finished work — one coat of varnish over a fully dried painting protects from UV and unifies the surface sheen. Everything else (retarder, flow improver, gel medium) comes later.

Best starter

Liquitex

Liquitex Professional Matte Medium

Matte medium is the Swiss Army knife of acrylic mediums — it extends paint, creates thin glazes, improves adhesion on unusual surfaces, and gives a consistent matte finish. Start here instead of experimenting with multiple mediums. You won't need anything else for months.

See on Amazon →

Specialty pick

Liquitex

Liquitex Professional Gloss Varnish

Varnish protects finished work from UV, dust, and moisture. It also unifies the surface — a painting with both matte and gloss passages looks patchy; varnish makes the whole surface read consistently. Apply once your painting has dried at least a week. One coat is usually enough.

Watch out for: Apply in a dust-free space with good ventilation. Work in thin, even strokes and don't go back over areas that are already drying — you'll lift the film.

See on Amazon →

Going deeper

Your first month of acrylic painting

Acrylics reward beginners faster than almost any other paint medium. Here's what actually happens in your first four weeks — the stuff that clicks, the frustrations that are normal, and how to get past them.

Read the guide →

Save your money

What you don't need yet

Beginners get pressured to buy a lot of stuff that doesn't help them play better. Here's what we'd skip on day one.

Artist-grade paint — Student-grade is genuinely fine until you can feel the difference in how colors mix. That takes months of painting, not weeks.
Gesso — Almost all canvas pads, panels, and stretched canvases come pre-primed. You don't need gesso until you're painting on unusual surfaces like wood or cardboard.
A retarder medium — Once you're actually frustrated by paint drying too fast mid-blend, a retarder or switching to Golden OPEN acrylics solves it. Don't add complexity yet.
A standing easel — Painting flat on a table works fine. Buy a standing easel once you find yourself wishing you could step back and see the painting from a distance.
Natural hair brushes — Natural-hair brushes (kolinsky sable, etc.) are for oil painting and watercolor. Acrylics will ruin them.
A projector or light pad for tracing — Transferring images mechanically is a valid technique, but it bypasses the observational skills that make everything else easier. Learn to look first.

First week

Your first seven days

A short, real plan to get from gear-on-doorstep to actually playing.

Order the paint set and canvas pad first — these arrive fast and you can start painting before the brushes. · Buy
- Jump to our pick: Arteza Acrylic Paint Set, 60 Colors
Set up a dedicated painting spot. Acrylics clean up with water when wet, but the dried plastic film stains fabric and wood permanently. Use a drop cloth or work on a surface you don't mind marking up. · Action
Do a color-mixing exercise your first session. Load small amounts of each primary color (red, yellow, blue) plus white, and see how many colors you can make. You'll learn more about your paint from 30 minutes of mixing than from an hour of watching technique videos. · Learn
Paint every day for the first week, even for 20 minutes. Motor memory builds fast and consistency matters more than session length. · Action
Find one instructor and stick with them for the first month. Too many teachers too early creates conflicting mental models. · Learn
- Lena Danya (YouTube) · Clear, methodical beginner instruction. Great for complete newcomers to painting.
- Will Kemp Art School · Structured lessons focusing on painting fundamentals and color theory.
Add the stay-wet palette by session two or three — it changes how long your mixes stay usable and teaches you to work more deliberately. · Buy
- Jump to our pick: Masterson Sta-Wet Premier Palette

FAQ

Common questions

Should I start with student-grade or artist-grade paint?

Student-grade. The pigment difference is real but invisible to a beginner's eye. You'll learn more from having a wide range of colors to experiment with than from having premium pigment in fewer tubes. Upgrade specific colors to artist-grade as you run out and discover which ones you actually rely on.

Can I paint over mistakes?

Yes, easily — this is one of the best things about acrylics. Once a layer dries (usually 10-30 minutes), you can paint directly over it. The dried layer won't reactivate. Keep painting over until you get what you want. Some painters finish a piece by painting out everything they don't like three or four times over.

How do I keep paint from drying on my palette?

Use a stay-wet palette — a damp sponge under palette paper keeps acrylics workable for hours. In a pinch, lightly mist your palette with a water spray bottle. Both strategies buy time; the stay-wet palette is the real solution. A regular palette is more frustration than it's worth with acrylics.

Do acrylics work on any surface?

Almost. Acrylics stick well to canvas, paper, wood, cardboard, and most rigid surfaces. They won't adhere to oily or wax-coated surfaces. For non-canvas surfaces, a coat of gesso first improves adhesion significantly.

What's the difference between matte and gloss finish?

Matte is non-reflective and slightly chalky-looking when dry. Gloss is shiny and makes colors look more saturated. You can mix them to get satin. For most beginners, matte medium is the versatile choice — easier to photograph, and you can always varnish with gloss at the end if you want the richness.

How long do acrylics take to dry fully?

Surface-dry in 10-30 minutes depending on paint thickness. Fully cured (hard enough to varnish safely) takes 1-2 weeks for thick impasto layers, a few days for thin applications. Don't varnish too soon — moisture trapped under thick paint can turn a gloss varnish milky.

Going further

Where to next

Related hobbies

Browse by category

Authoritative sources

Lena Danya (YouTube) — One of the best beginner-friendly acrylic channels. Clear instruction, good fundamentals, no jargon. Start here if you want structured guidance.
Will Kemp Art School — Free structured lessons covering color theory, composition, and painting technique. Especially strong on color-mixing fundamentals.
Proko (YouTube) — Drawing fundamentals channel. Acrylic painting builds on the ability to see and draw — Proko's videos on construction and proportion will accelerate your painting faster than paint-specific content.
Golden Artist Colors Learning Center — Deep technical content on acrylic chemistry, mediums, and archival concerns. Way more than you need to start, but invaluable when you hit a specific problem — why is my paint cracking? What makes a work archival?
r/learnart — Friendly subreddit for beginners seeking critique and guidance. Post your work, ask questions, browse the wiki for structured learning paths.
r/acrylicpainting — Community of acrylic painters across skill levels. Good for seeing what's possible, asking medium-specific questions, and getting comfortable posting work.

a woman is painting a picture on a canvas

Photo by Mieke Campbell on Unsplash