I'm working on a new painting, and was wondering about the combination of different paints...

Question

I have been painting for a long time now, and just started a new piece. It's of a girls face off to the side with a drab city scene in the background... I was planning on using watercolors, but I really wanted the details to stand out. So the question is if I were to use acrylic paints overtop of the watercolor, would it ruin the watercolor paint put down before (beings that acrylic is has water in it)? Or is there another paint combination that I could use that would have the same affect?

Thanks in advance to anyone that helps :]

I will pick a best answer

Answer 1

You can use acrylics on top of or with watercolor paints because they are both water based.  Acrylic put on top of watercolor would not hurt the watercolor, and could work nicely for putting in areas of bold or deep color when the watercolors have dried. Depending on the thickness of the acrylic paint (how much water you put into it or not), it could cover the watercolor work completely.... but perhaps you want that effect?  I would suggest that you do experiments with how much water to put into acrylic paint if you want to make acrylic color washes over watercolor washes.