Acrylic Mediums

Acrylic mediums are clear or translucent products that you mix with your paint to change how it behaves without weakening the acrylic binder. In the Acrylic Mediums collection at Art Noise you will find Tri-Art gels, polymer mediums, gessoes and grounds made in Kingston that let you build texture, thin colour for glazing, seal surfaces or extend your paint. They are designed to work with professional colours in our Artist Acrylics collection and more budget friendly options in the broader Acrylic Paint collection, so you can customize the look and feel of your work without compromising durability.

Each type of medium has a specific job. Gels in the Acrylic Mediums collection are ideal when you want thicker texture or a glossier body, glazing mediums help you build smooth transparent layers, and products like canvas gesso and specialty grounds prepare or seal your surface. If you are working with Tri-Art paints from our Artist Acrylics collection or Art Noise Acrylic Paint, pairing them with the right gel, ground or sealer lets you move from sculptural impasto to delicate veils of colour on supports from our Substrates collection.

As a general starting point, try small additions of product from the Acrylic Mediums collection, increasing the ratio until you get the flow, transparency or texture you want while the paint still feels strong and flexible when dry. Professional Tri-Art colours in our Artist Acrylics collection can usually be extended quite far with gels and glazing mediums, as described in our Acrylics: The Definitive Guide Before you Buy. For very watery or heavily extended mixes, use appropriate grounds and surfaces from Substrates or Paper and Pads so your layers stay stable.

Yes, several products in the Acrylic Mediums collection are designed for priming and sealing, including canvas gesso, black gesso and specialty grounds like cold press watercolour ground. These create a stable, toothy surface for paints from our Acrylic Paint collection, whether you are working on stretched canvas, panels or pads from Substrates and Paper and Pads. For a deeper dive into why priming matters, you can also explore priming and support discussions linked from the Art Noise Handbook on acrylics.

Tri-Art acrylic mediums are formulated to work with 100 percent acrylic polymer paints, so they are an excellent match for our locally made colours in the Artist Acrylics collection, Art Noise Acrylic Paint and many other lines in the Acrylic Paint collection. As long as you are mixing them with water based acrylics, products from the Acrylic Mediums collection will bond into a single flexible film. Avoid combining them with oils or solvent based paints, and always let underlayers dry thoroughly before adding new mediums or finishes from our Acrylic Finishes collection.

Many artists turn to the Acrylic Mediums collection when they want smooth pours, self leveling layers or a glassy top coat. Self leveling gels, low viscosity polymers and related products pair beautifully with Tri-Art Liquid Acrylics and other fluids in our Artist Acrylics collection, and the Art Noise Handbook article Using Liquid Glass Resin for a Crystal Clear Finish explains how to achieve a crystal clear effect with acrylic based products instead of traditional epoxy. For final protection, you can combine these approaches with varnishes in the Acrylic Finishes collection.

Most mediums in the Acrylic Mediums collection are designed to be mixed directly into your paint or used within the painting layers, while clear finishes and varnishes are usually applied as a final coat over fully dry work. Mediums adjust texture, sheen and flow while you are building up colour with paints from our Acrylic Paint collection, and finishes in the Acrylic Finishes collection focus on protection and unifying sheen. Our Art Noise Handbook post Mystified Mediums: Acrylic Finishes and Top Coats walks through how mediums, top coats and clear coats relate in a typical acrylic workflow.

If you are new to mediums, a good place to start is browsing the Acrylic Mediums collection alongside our Artist Acrylics collection or Art Noise Acrylic Paint, then reading practical guides in the Art Noise Handbook. Articles like Acrylics: The Definitive Guide Before you Buy, Storing your acrylics and our posts on finishes and Liquid Glass will help you decide which gels, grounds and sealers best fit your style. You can then pair your chosen mediums with brushes from Acrylic Brushes and supports in Substrates for a complete acrylic setup.