There are many different types of paints, and they all work for different purposes. Acrylic craft paint and latex paints are so similar that some use them interchangeably. If that’s the case, you should be able to mix acrylic and latex paint before use, but can you do that?
You can mix acrylic and latex paints, but it’s not a recommended procedure. While acrylic and latex are very similar and may even work together, there is a scarcity of people who have tried mixing these paints for a design. While it worked for some people, we still don’t know how long the designs will last.
But trying out new things too is art
. In this article, you’ll learn how to mix both acrylic and latex paint to get the combination of acrylic and latex goodness in the same artwork. Before then, it’s essential to learn what acrylic and latex paints mean. Do notice we are talking about tube acrylic pain and artist’s acrylic paint. Let’s dive in to answer the question Can You Mix Acrylic and Latex Paint?
Table of Contents
What is Acrylic Paint?
Acrylic paint was invented in the 1950s, originally and primarily to cover the exterior of houses. It didn’t get widespread popularity as artist paint until the 1960s, being oil based paint artworks the main material.
Acrylic paint is made from pigment particles in an acrylic emulsion. It is a multi-purpose chemical-based paint that has seen widespread application in art, where it has become the most popular kind of paint for making designs.
Acrylic paint is popular for its cost-effectiveness and versatility. You can mix it with many other paints or solutions to make slight modifications to your finished art. Depending on what you dilute it with, an acrylic painting may look like “water based paint” or oil paint.
Pros of Acrylic Paints
Acrylic paints are the most popular type of artist paints for a reason, and it’s not only because they’re cheap. Artist-grade acrylic paint isn’t the cheapest art equipment out there.
Here are the real advantages of creating designs using acrylic paints that make most artists love them.
They’re very versatile and work on most surfaces
One of the main reasons why most artists use acrylic paints is because of their versatility. Acrylic paints can take up the qualities of other paints when you use a medium.
An acrylic medium is any substance that’s capable of changing any of the qualities of acrylic paint when you add it to the paint. Mediums can be used to shorten or lengthen the paint’s drying time, thicken or dilute the paint and change its texture or appearing to have a glaze, or even to have the right contexture to be used with a spray gun.
In addition to its ability to imitate other paints, acrylic is also versatile in terms of the surfaces you can use it on. You can use acrylic paint on plastic, glass, paper, and even rock surfaces. You may just need to use a medium to make it suitable for your specific use case.
They dry very quickly
Unlike some other kinds of paint, you don’t need to wait a lifetime for your acrylic paint to dry. They naturally have a quick drying time, which you can make even quicker using specific mediums.
If you’re creating a design that requires you to stack multiple colors together, you should always use acrylic paints.
They’re cheap to buy and maintain
Acrylic paint is one of the most cost-effective design mediums for artists. Not only is it inexpensive in and of itself, but it also doesn’t require any super-expensive equipment to use and manage.
Apart from the paint itself (which you can’t shy away from), you only need a brush and some water to make an acrylic painting.
When buying acrylic paint for designs, try investing the most on the paint, rather than sophisticated brushes. The quality of the paint directly impacts the quality of your painting, and every other thing comes later.
Also, you don’t need any special equipment to clean up after using acrylic paint. If you can’t wash a stain away using regular soap and water, you can simply wash it using denatured alcohol.
Cons of Acrylic Paints
Acrylic paints aren’t perfect. Sometimes, this seemingly flawless medium may mess up your design, especially if you make mistakes.
Here are some reasons why you may want to hold off on using acrylic paints for your next project.
Color limitations
Acrylic paints aren’t available in a wide variety of colors. In addition to that, painting with acrylic without sufficient experience could lead to dull artworks. Acrylics look darker after they dry, so you should always put that into consideration.
Dries too quickly
Yes, I know this also appears in the pros section, but it can also be a disadvantage. Quick-drying time isn’t great for all kinds of artworks, as you can’t clean off the paint when it dries.
If you’re working on a large surface, you may want to avoid using any quick-drying paint, especially if it’s something like acrylic that becomes resistant to water after drying.
What is Latex Paint?
Latex is very similar to acrylic. It is a kind of acrylic paint that’s water-based. It is also made from an acrylic emulsion, but it dries considerably slower than regular acrylic paint.
Many people and even some artists erroneously refer to latex paint as acrylic paint. While it’s technically correct to refer to it as acrylic latex, calling it acrylic paint per se is ambiguous.
Latex paint is better for larger artworks than acrylic paints, and it also dries quickly, even more than acrylic paints
Latex paints usually make glossy designs, while the designs from acrylic paint usually have a matte feel to them. However, you can also add a gloss medium to acrylic paint to give it a much-cherished glossy finish.
Pros of Latex Paints
If you’re trying to choose between latex and acrylic paints for your next project, we can help. Here are some of the advantages of using latex paints when making a design.
They dry very quickly
Latex paints, being a subset of acrylic paints also inherit the quick-drying property of acrylic paints. However, they’re even much better than acrylics, as they dry more quickly.
With latex paints, you don’t need to wait for days to complete a single artwork. You can paint a design, and paint another layer on it in just a few minutes.
They have a better odor
Unlike chemical-based acrylic paints, latex paints are water-based. This makes latex paints better in terms of smell.
While acrylic paints may have a pungent or offensive smell, latex smell usually doesn’t; but it doesn’t matter much as you can’t tell after it’s all dried.
They’re cheaper
If you think acrylic paints are very cheap, ask for the price of latex paints. Latex paints are so cheap that they make acrylic paints look like diamonds.
If you’re constrained by budget, you’re better off with latex paint, as you’ll be spending considerably less for a paint that is easy to apply, dries more quickly, and requires fewer coats.
Cons of Latex Paints
Latex paints may be cheaper, but they aren’t better than acrylic paints. Here are some downsides of using latex paints for your designs that will make you consider using acrylic paints.
They’re not durable
While latex paint may appear to be considerably cheaper than acrylic paints, the cheapest latex paints will always be less durable than expensive ones.
The more you attempt to cut costs with your paint choice, the lesser quality paint you get. If you’re not willing to pay almost as much as you’ll pay for some of the cheaper acrylic paints, the best you’ll get is a paint that chips off surfaces.
To prevent the peeling effects of latex paints, you must undergo surface preparation before applying the paint, and that doesn’t make your design immune to it.
They’re not water-resistant
Latex paint isn’t particularly resilient and would peel at the sight of water or even UV light. In addition to excessive moisture, painting over uneven or dirty surfaces and painting over oil paint will all make your design a sorry sight in no time.
They’re bad for outdoor use
If you will be exposing your artwork to heat and some other harsh weather conditions, latex paints may not be your best bet. In homemaking, they fade away when used as outdoor paint and this doesn’t change much when you use them for designs.
Can You Mix Acrylic and Latex Paint?
Latex paints are just different types of acrylic paints. Since these two paint types are very similar, you can simply mix both to get the best of both worlds in your project.
However, you shouldn’t go mixing these paints when you don’t even know what you’re doing. There are some things you need to learn before trying to mix acrylic paints with latex.
Liquid latex is mainly a house paint, and it doesn’t last long enough to be useful for most artworks. For this reason, most artists are always skeptical about using liquid latex in their artwork. Mixing your acrylic paint with liquid latex won’t likely strengthen the latex, it will weaken the acrylic, causing undesired effects in your design.
Also, mixing acrylic paints and latex paints for a design may slow down the drying time. Mixing at the wrong proportions can also make the artwork peel off a bit too easily.
How to Mix Acrylic and Latex Paints
If you have some acrylic and latex paint, and you need a color that you can achieve by mixing both, you should try refraining from mixing both of these paints. There has been too little experimentation to show how durable the end product will be in your design.
Many people who have tried mixing acrylic paints with latex paints report mixed results. While some have fine artworks with no noticeable flaws (yet), others have had to sacrifice their countless hours of making the design.
From these results, we can easily conclude that the success rate depends on some external factor that nobody knows yet. This external factor may be something like the specific brand of paint, or something even more specific, like the proportion of paint mixed for the design.
If you can afford some more paint, why gamble? But if buying some extra paint is out of the options, here are the steps required to mix acrylic and latex paints for an artwork.
- Put the acrylic paint in a cup or whatever else you’re mixing it with. It’s recommended to use a small sample size at this stage. After mixing, you can paint it on your desired surface to see how long it will take to dry, and if it sticks up to the surface after drying.
- Shake the cup to spread the acrylic paint and use a brush to spread it around further. You can add some water if the paint is too thick to spread. Mixing acrylic and latex paints with water is totally fine and won’t affect their quality.
- While stirring the acrylic paint in the cup, gradually pour in the latex paint you want to mix. You shouldn’t pour in all the latex at once as it makes it even more difficult to stir the solution to a uniform consistency.
Instead, pour it like a pint at a time, stirring vigorously until the acrylic paint is perfectly mixed with the latex paint at a uniform consistency.
Scoop the acrylic paint from the bottom of the cup to see if there are any inconsistencies. Stir continuously to get rid of them, and voila, you have a perfect mixture of acrylic and latex paints for your next artwork design.
As I advised above, try all of the steps with a small sample of the paints to avoid wasting your paint on something that won’t work. Try to mix the paints in the same ratio as the total available paint to accurately replicate what would happen when you mix the paints on a large scale.
If the paints are mixed perfectly, try using them on the surface where you’re painting on. This will replicate the original experience more accurately, showing you what you should expect if you mix your paints.
If the design doesn’t look weird or peel off totally after you apply it, you can try mixing it on a large scale. Otherwise, it’s not worth wasting your paint over.
Hopefully, your design will help to determine some of the unknowns in mixing acrylic and latex paints for designs to set the pace for artists trying to make masterpieces with a combination of both acrylic and latex paints.
Sources
- Can you mix acrylic and latex paint?
- Can I mix acrylic paint with wall paint to make certain shades for my wall?
- Gesso acrylic brush
