• Choose a good quality, stable support-stretched canvas or wood panels are most often recommended.
• Raw canvas should be sized before priming by brushing with hide glue or acrylic matte medium. Prime the sized canvas with acrylic gesso or white lead primer.
• Never mix oil colors with acrylics or paint acrylics on top of oils. You may apply oil paint on top of acrylic gesso so that is thoroughly dry.
• Use mediums and thinners to alter characteristics such as flow, transparency, gloss and drying time.
• Oil paintings should be varnished only after the painting has cured (6 months for a thinly painted painting and 12 months for a thickly painted painting).
• Protect the surface of a finished painting with a removable varnish. Dirt, dust and smoke discolorations adhere to the varnish over time and can be removed along with the varnish to restore the painting.
• Oil paintings will yellow if left to dry in the dark. Let them dry in normal room conditions, avoiding direct sunlight, high humidity or other severe conditions.

• Acrylic colors can be used on almost any surface that is not slick or greasy.
• Never mix acrylics with oils or paint on top of oil colors with acrylics.
• Canvas or panels should be prepared with acrylic gesso, or acrylics can be painted directly onto raw canvas or paper.
• A non-porous palette, such as a large sheet of glass or enamel butcher tray works better than the traditional wooden palette, which will absorb water from the paints.
• Acrylics dry very quickly and should be kept moist on the palette. A spray mister filled with water is helpful for this purpose.
• Use a medium such as our Acrylic Matte or Gloss Mediums to slow drying. This enables more beautiful blending and color transitions on the painting.
• When diluting tube or jar acrylics, use a 50/50 mix of water with Matte or Gloss Medium, to ensure that the pigments have enough binder. Hard-edged images can be achieved by marking off areas with masking tape. Glazes can be made by mixing.

• All watercolors should be diluted with water, not used straight from the tube.
• Colors can be mixed on the palette, or by layering on the painting.
• Some mistakes can be lifted by sponging with clean water and blotting; however, some "staining" pigments can't be entirely removed.
• Paint with light colors first and work up to darker colors.
• The best way to use white in a watercolor painting is simply to leave an area unpainted, allowing the paper to show through.
• Use a masking fluid such as Miskit Liquid Frisket to shield areas of the painting from overlaid washes.
• Partially lifting areas by blotting up wet color can give a subtle, ghostly effect.
• Create a resist effect by painting over an area of oil pastel or crayon. Washes will bead up, creating a stippled look.
• For a starburst effect, sprinkle salt on an area of wet paint. If random white dots are desired, spatter the area to be overpainted with a toothbrush dipped in Miskit.

What is Masstone Color?  Within the limitations of printing technology, we choose inks as close as possible to the actual color inside the tube. In the case of intensely pigmented colors, or watercolors which are diluted for use, we choose inks that emulate the color as it is normally used. For example, Prussian Blue appears almost black when squeezed from the tube, so we chose an ink color for the label which simulates the color at a traditional dilution.

What are the ASTM and ACMI?  ASTM (The American Society for Testing and Materials) is an association of industry representatives who formulate voluntary standards for quality and safety. ASTM D4236 is the standard for health and safety labeling effort materials and was mandated by the Federal Labeling of Hazardous Art Materials Act (LHAMA) of 1990. The statement 'Conforms to ASTM D4236' is your assurance that the product is properly labeled for health hazards.

Other ASTM standards, such as D4302 for Artist' Oil Paints, are concerned with quality and the standardization of terminology for ingredients. Where a standard exists and Grumbacher products conform, a statement to that effect is included in our labels.

Grumbacher® is a member of The Art and Craft Materials Institute (ACMI), and participates in their certification program. ACMI's toxicologist regularly reviews our products and provides labeling recommendations in accordance with LHAMA.

• Complete an entire painting using only round brushes
• Do a series of five monochromatic paintings of the same subject and composition, changing your single color for each painting
• Complete a miniature painting still life that is less than 5 inches x 5 inches. Don’t scrimp on the details and use a magnifying glass if necessary
• Sketch the figure allowing yourself only 5 minutes. Repeat a couple of times, decreasing the allowed completion time until you reach 30 seconds
• Take all the colors in your paint box and lay them out chromatically according to a color chart. Paint yourself an accurate color chart using all your colors.
• Complete an entire painting using only a single palette knife
• Paint a crumpled up paper bag
• Go outside and paint what you see allowing yourself only 30 minutes. Don’t forget the sunblock!
• Paint three self-portraits - one of you angry, sad and happy
• Try copying a masterpiece painting to the letter. A good starter is Van Eyck’s Portrait of a Man in a Turban. A good finishing one is Van Gogh’s Patch of Grass