5 Reasons to Paint Your Wood Carvings with Acrylic Paints

From my experience and from veteran wood carvers that I have read after, acrylic paint is the way to go when painting your wood carving projects.  There are several advantages of using acrylic paint over oil paint and water colors.

• Acrylic Paint is Easier to Use

Acrylic Paint is easier to apply to your wood carving projects.  It can be thinned in water and applied in light coats that allow the wood grain to show thru.

• Keeps the Wood Looking Like Wood

Using acrylic paint that is thinned, will keep your finished wood carving pieces looking like they were carved.  In my opinion, wood carving pieces that are painted, look better when you can see some of the wood grain.  This allows the viewer to quickly realize that the piece was carved in wood by hand and not mass produced in some type of synthetic plastic.

• Mixes and Thins in Water

Acrylic Paint mixes and thins very well in water.  By changing the amount of water that you use in your paint mixture, you have control over how much of the wood grain shows through.  The less water you use, the less paint soaks in and the more stays on top, causing less wood grain to show thru.  The more water used in the mixture, the lighter the paint color is that the wood carving takes on and the more wood grain that will show up.

• Dries Quicker

Acrylic Paints dry very fast compared to oil paints.  You can easily complete a wood carving that requires several different colors of paint application in a short amount of time, compared to the time it takes for oil paints to set up and allow for the next color to be applied.

• Easy Clean Up

Acrylic Paints are water soluble and therefore clean up with water.  When using acrylic paint, you don’t need smelly and volatile paint thinners and chemicals.  You mix water with the paint to vary the degree of thickness and then when done, you can use water to clean up your painting area and brushes.