
Oil of spike lavender: This is an oil which you can mix in to your oil paint to create translucency. By using turpentine, you will have a matt finish to your painting. Turpentine: This is a solvent which will thin your oil paint and speed up the drying time. There are various mediums you can add to your oil paint to make it translucent. Oil paints can vary in their level of opacity depending on the brand of oil paint. For that reason, it is a good idea to use an acrylic medium with your gouache paint to increase the transparency of the gouache while creating water-resistant paint at the same time. Gouache paint runs each time water is added to it, even once it is dry on your paper or canvas. You can water it down to create an almost watercolor effect by dipping your paintbrush into water and mixing it with the gouache. Gouache paint is opaque if used straight from the tube. Using a gloss medium also means that your final painting will have a lovely glossy sheen to the surface if that is the final effect you want. Also, gel medium doesn’t run and so it’s easier to control what your paint is doing on the surface of your canvas. Instead of water, you can use a matt or gloss acrylic gel medium which slows down the drying time of the acrylic paint and gives the paint a more translucent effect. Additionally, adding water to your paint means your paint can easily run and you have less control over it. This makes it difficult to blend paint or achieve an even paint surface. Although this is a very easy way to make your acrylic paint more translucent, it can be a problem because your acrylic paint may dry too quickly. The most common way people make their acrylic paint translucent is by dipping their paintbrush into water to water down the acrylic paint.Īdding water to your acrylic paint speeds up the drying time of the paint. It is always important to test out the opacity of your paint before you begin painting. Here is a list of the different types of paint and how you can make them translucent: Acrylic paintĪcrylic paints can vary in their opacity when used directly from the tube. If you purchase something from this page, I may receive a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.** **This page may contain affiliate links to products I have used or recommend. How do you make paint look translucent?Īlmost all types of paint can be made translucent. Because opaque paint is solid color, you cannot build up colors through layering your paint, like you would with more translucent paint.

Basically, you cannot see the canvas or paper shining through opaque paint. Paint that is opaque completely covers what is beneath it. One of the more common watercolor paint techniques is layering translucent washes of color on top of one another in order to construct forms, shadows and highlights. Some types of paint are inherently translucent – such as watercolor paint. Atlas - How to Craft and Use Coloring Dyes
