MAKE • LOOK • PRACTICE • REPEAT
THE ART TIP JAR
Little things I've learned from painting, messing up, trying again, working professionally and paying closer attention.
Take what helps. Try it. Make it yours. Better than yesterday.
and growing
or let the jar decide. 🎨
Make acrylics work with you.
Drying time, gesso, layers, blending, brushes and knowing when to stop touching the damn thing.
01 ACRYLIC • WORKING TIME Use a Stay-Wet Palette Give acrylic paint a little more time before it leaves the chat. +
Acrylics dry fast. A moisture-retaining palette can keep paint workable much longer, especially when you're painting outside, working slowly or living somewhere warm.
WHY IT WORKS +
DIY VERSION +
02 SURFACE • GROUND Prime Time: Why Gesso Matters Your painting starts before the first pretty brushstroke. +
An acrylic ground such as gesso changes absorbency, color and tooth. That means the surface itself affects how your brush moves and how the paint behaves.
WHAT IT DOES +
TONED GROUND +
03 ACRYLIC • BLENDING Slow Dry = Smoother Blend You don't have to race your acrylics every single time. +
Acrylic retarder or a slow-drying medium can increase working time, which gives you more space to soften transitions instead of panic-blending.
04 COLOR • LAYERS Vivid Color Loves Layers One thick pass isn't the only way to get richness. +
Build the painting instead of asking one coat to do everything. Midtones, transparent passages, shadows and highlights can accumulate into much richer color.
BUILD IT +
WATCH FOR +
05 LAYERS • DETAILS Let the Base Settle Before Details Fine marks behave better when the layer underneath isn't fighting back. +
When a base passage is still soft or half-dry, detail work can drag, lift or muddy it. Often the smartest detail technique is simply letting the previous layer dry first.
06 BRUSHWORK • BLENDING Dampen the Brush, Don't Drown It A little moisture can help. A swimming pool cannot. +
A clean, slightly damp brush can help soften an edge while acrylic is still workable. The key word is slightly.
07 TOOLS • CLEANUP Forgot the Brushes? Try to Save Them. Patient cleaning before aggressive brush murder. +
Start gently. Warm water, appropriate brush soap or acrylic brush cleaner and patient working of the bristles are safer first moves than harsh scraping.
08 PAINTING • RESTRAINT Stop Before You Overwork It More brushing is not always more painting. +
Acrylic has an awkward stage where it is neither properly wet nor properly dry. Repeatedly brushing that half-set paint can create roughness and muddy decisions.
Make the art. Know the system.
Copyright, money, pricing and understanding what is actually inside the stuff on your palette.
09 ARTIST BIZ • COPYRIGHT Your Art Already Has Copyright A signature is useful. Registration is something different. +
Original visual artwork generally receives U.S. copyright protection when it is created and fixed in a tangible form. You do not create copyright merely by emailing yourself a photograph.
DOCUMENT IT +
REGISTER? +
10 ARTIST BIZ • MONEY Track What Comes In + Goes Out Creative chaos and financial chaos do not need to be roommates. +
Track sales, commissions, fees and tips alongside materials, shipping, software, travel and other legitimate business expenses.
KEEP SEPARATE +
GET HELP +
11 PUERTO RICO • BUSINESS Know Act 60 Exists. Then Verify. An incentive is not a magic coupon every artist automatically qualifies for. +
Puerto Rico's Incentives Code includes categories related to exports, creative industries and other business activity. Whether a particular artist or service qualifies depends on current law, the exact activity and the decree/application process.
12 ARTIST BIZ • PRICING Don't Price by Emotion Alone “But I love this one” is not a pricing system. +
Create a consistent method that accounts for scale, materials, labor, overhead, framing, selling fees and the market you are actually working in.
CONSISTENCY +
REMEMBER +
13 TOOLS • BRUSHES Right Brush, Right Job Painting eyelashes with a broom is technically a choice. +
Large flats, filberts and rounds can help establish bigger shapes. Smaller rounds, liners and riggers can give you more precision later.
14 PAINT • MATERIALS Student vs. Artist Grade Cheap does not mean useless. Expensive does not mean necessary for everything. +
Artist and student lines can differ in pigment concentration, pigment selection, fillers, consistency and lightfastness. Those differences vary by manufacturer.
15 MATERIALS • TEXTURE Texture Without Piling on Pigment Sometimes the body you want belongs in the medium, not another scoop of paint. +
Acrylic gels can alter thickness, transparency and surface texture while extending compatible acrylic color.
GLOSS +
MATTE +
16 MATERIALS • DRYING What Exactly Is a Retarder? A little chemistry for artists who are tired of racing the clock. +
Acrylic retarder is designed to slow evaporation and extend working time. It is useful for blending, large passages and other situations where normal acrylic drying feels too fast.
The artwork has a life after the easel.
Grounds, varnish, storage, humidity and light. Especially when your studio happens to live on a tropical island.
17 ART CARE • VARNISH Varnish 101 Gloss, matte and satin change appearance, but protection is a system. +
A suitable removable varnish can act as a protective coating over some acrylic paintings and can alter sheen and saturation.
GLOSS +
MATTE / SATIN +
18 SURFACE • PREP Wood ≠ Paper ≠ Canvas The support is part of the painting whether you respect it or not. +
Different supports move, absorb moisture and respond to paint differently. Preparation should match the material and the kind of artwork you are making.
WOOD +
CANVAS +
PAPER +
19 COLOR • SEEING The Color Wheel Is a Map, Not a Law Use it to ask better color questions, not to stop looking. +
Complementary, analogous and other color relationships are useful planning tools. But real pigments and real light are more complicated than a perfect classroom wheel.
HARMONY +
TEMPERATURE +
20 TOOLS • BUDGET Cheap Brushes Still Have Jobs Not every studio task deserves your precious tiny favorite brush. +
Gesso, rough texture, experimentation, glue, messy mediums and effects where pristine bristles are not the point.
21 MATERIALS • FOUNDATION Gesso Is Not White Paint They can both look white. They have different jobs. +
Acrylic gesso is formulated as a ground for painting. White acrylic paint is primarily there to make color, tint mixtures and create opaque painted passages.
22 TROPICAL STUDIO • HUMIDITY About Gesso on the Back... This older tip deserves a little conservation nuance. +
In a humid climate it is completely reasonable to think about the back of the canvas. But coating the reverse with gesso is not a universal preservation rule for every painting.
23 STORAGE • HUMIDITY Humidity-Safe Art Storage Your painting is still aging while you're ignoring it in the corner. +
Water, very high humidity and rapid humidity changes can damage paintings and encourage mold growth. Storage location matters.
BETTER STORAGE +
CHECK OFTEN +
24 LIGHT • ART CARE A Little UV Secret Varnish can help. Shade still matters. +
Some conservation varnishes include ultraviolet-light stabilizers that can slow color change. They do not make a painting invincible to prolonged direct light.
Talent is only part of the job.
Systems, boundaries, ladders, weather, walls, labor and all the decidedly unromantic things that help professional art actually happen.
25 STUDIO • WORKFLOW Paint Like a Professional, Not a Panic Artist Protect the creative energy from stupid little setup decisions. +
Separate some studio tasks by purpose. Prep, painting, detail work and cleanup use different kinds of attention.
PREP +
PAINT +
DETAIL +
LEAVE A TRAIL +
26 ARTIST BIZ • BOUNDARIES Exposure Doesn't Pay for Paint Excitement is not the same thing as strategy. +
Calculate materials, design time, travel, childcare, installation, cleanup and the paid work you may be giving up to take the opportunity.
ASK FIRST +
FREE CAN BE STRATEGIC +
27 MURALS • FIELD WORK Murals Are Won in Preparation The wall is not the place to discover you forgot the extension pole. +
Limit unnecessary decisions on site. Organize tools, premix high-use colors where practical and understand the surface before you start painting.
CONTROL SETUP +
SURFACES CHANGE +
WORK IN ZONES +
28 MURALS • CLIENT EDUCATION Murals Are Construction Projects With Paint The pretty part happens because the boring parts were handled. +
Site conditions, cleaning, surface preparation, paint systems, access, weather, physical labor, public visibility and long-term durability all affect a mural before the final image exists.
THE WALL +
THE WEATHER +
THE PEOPLE +
The brush isn't always the problem.
Texture, perception, edges and color. Sometimes getting better means learning to look again.
29 TEXTURE • MATERIAL BEHAVIOR Texture Without Expensive Materials You're not just layering materials. You're layering behavior. +
Paper absorbs. Ink travels. Pencil presses. Tea stains. Loose particles sit differently than dissolved color. Start noticing what materials actually do instead of treating everything like paint.
LOOK CLOSER +
- Does it soak in?
- Does it sit on top?
- Does it stain?
- Does it resist?
- Does it physically change the surface?
MATERIAL NOTE +
30 SEEING • VALUES Your Eye Is Lying to You Sometimes you stop seeing the painting and start seeing what you think is there. +
The longer you stare at something, the more familiar it becomes. Your brain starts filling gaps and smoothing problems because it already knows what it expects to see.
RESET YOUR EYE +
- Step away.
- Mirror the image.
- Photograph it.
- Turn it upside down.
- Come back after a break.
WHY SQUINT? +
31 EDGES • HIERARCHY Stop Outlining Everything. Seriously. Not every edge deserves the same volume. +
Hard edges grab attention. Soft edges let the eye travel. When every shape has an equally sharp border, the whole painting starts competing with itself.
SAVE HARD EDGES FOR +
- Focal points.
- Strong value shifts.
- Crisp cast shadows.
- Places where you want attention.
SOFTEN EDGES +
32 COLOR • OBSERVATION Shadows Still Need Color Dark doesn't mean empty. And black isn't the villain. +
Shadows can contain local color, reflected light and color bouncing from the scene. Reaching automatically for black can make you stop noticing those relationships.
LOOK FOR +
- Sky color.
- Skin.
- Clothing.
- Nearby walls.
- Reflected color.
BLACK ISN'T BAD +
LYN'S ART TIP JAR GAME
Pick a paint dot. 🎨
Don't read ahead. Pick the color you're drawn to. Open it and I'll give you one tiny thing to actually do.
COLOR
Shadow Remix
Find one shadow near you. Before grabbing black, look for the other colors hiding inside it.
👀 Make it harder
Paint it twice. One version with tube black. One with mixed color. Which actually feels connected to the scene?
MAKE
Texture Laboratory
Grab scrap paper. This is an experiment, not a masterpiece.
👀 Make it harder
Describe each mark with a behavior: soak, scrape, drag, resist, pool, stain, smooth, rough.
BRAVE
No Outlines Allowed
Pick one simple object. You're going to make it appear without drawing a border around the whole thing.
👀 Make it harder
Lose one entire edge into the background. Let the viewer's brain finish the object.
SEE
Museum Detective
Find an artwork you don't know. No Googling the artist first.
👀 Three questions
What did you notice first? What took longer? What question do you have now?
STUDIO
Help Tomorrow-You
Studio practice isn't only what happens while the brush is moving.
✨ One more thing
Put tomorrow's first tool somewhere obvious. Remove one tiny piece of friction.
ARTIST
Give One Artwork a Paper Trail
Finished work deserves better than disappearing somewhere in your camera roll.
💼 Make it CEO-ish
Add availability, current location and your known material cost.