Acrylics are designed for painting on canvas, boards, paper, panels, and other prepared surfaces. Highly pigmented, they are generally of consistency similar to oil paint, preserving brush strokes. They can be used with a variety of painting techniques, including impasto and knife painting.

Acrylic paints are a synthetic media made by suspending pigment in synthetic polymer emulsified by water. They are essentially plastic paints that are water-soluble and have good adhesive qualities. They are very stable. They resist oxidization and chemical decomposition, and will not yellow over time.