Can You Mix Acrylic Paint with Resin? Color Mixing with Resin

Resin craft has never been out of trend. Moreover, artists are exploring it and evolving the craft. Color epoxy resin is a result of that. If you are new to this field then you might be confused about- can you mix acrylic paint with resin?

As someone who has been through the same phase, I can see where this question is coming from. Both acrylic and resin have different formulas and consistency. It’s obvious to have such kind of question in mind.

Yes, you can mix acrylic with resin and it’s the common most colorant that is in use to tint the resin. The reason behind so is the availability, affordability, and variety of color choices acrylic provides. On the other hand, resin pigments are expensive.

What Are the Disadvantages of Mixing Acrylic with Resin?

Even though mixing acrylic with resin lets you explore the field more, you should know about the proportion. Acrylic is water-based, so adding too much of it prevents the epoxy from curing. Again, acrylic with a matte finish reduces the gloss of epoxy.

However, many artists take it as an advantage to make resin artwork with a matte finish.

The solution to this problem is to use highly pigmented acrylic so that you won’t need a large amount of acrylic paint to tint the resin.

Requirements for Tinting Epoxy Resin

• Epoxy Resin
• Quality Grade Acrylic Paint
• Wooden Stirrer
• Plastic Cup
• Mixing Bowl or Tray
• Liquid Hardener
• Digital Weighing Machine
• Molds of Different Shapes
• Protective Wears

How to Mix Acrylic Paint with Resin?

Coloring resin with acrylic paint isn’t that complicated. If you can keep the ratio on track, you will be free from unwanted results. In this section, you will know about weighing and mixing ratios of acrylic and resin appropriately.

Let us divide the entire procedure into three parts- weighing, mixing, and drying the color with resin.

Part 1: Weighing Acrylic Paint and Epoxy Resin

Step 1: Protect Yourself

Whether it’s resin or acrylic you work with, protect yourself against toxic fumes. Wear gloves and glasses. Nothing beats a well-ventilated place for ensuring a healthy breathing environment while working with toxic fumes.

Step 2: Mixing the Resin with Liquid Hardener

In this part, we will mix resin with a liquid hardening agent in a 2:1 ratio as most of the resin requires that. However, every resin differs a bit in consistency. So, look for the instruction provided by the manufacturer.

Then provide a good stir of approximately one minute using a wooden stirrer. You should also give a proper stir to the resin first before you mix the liquid hardener into it. Resin doesn’t give a smooth appearance after drying when it’s not mixed well all the way.

Step 3: Weighting the Resin

You might have already decided how much resin you want to tint. Take that out in a plastic cup and weigh it into a digital weighing machine. Let’s start with 10 grams as it’s a good amount to start with.

After putting your plastic cup over the machine, set the machine to zero. Later pour the epoxy till it weighs 10 grams. In this way, the weight of the cup won’t be included in the 10 grams of the resin.

Step 4: Calculating the Resin

Every resin has its pigment handling range. That depends on the brand and type of resin you use. Most of the epoxy can handle 4% of coloring pigment. But the range changes between 6% to 2%.

So, the calculation is like this- divide the amount of your resin, that is 10gram by 100, and multiply it by the percentage of pigment that your epoxy can handle.

Suppose your epoxy can handle 2% of pigment. Then the calculation for 10gram epoxy will be= (10/100) *2=0.2gram. This 0.2 gram is the highest amount of coloring pigment your resin can handle.

Where you can get the information about how much coloring pigment your epoxy can handle? Look at the manufacturer’s instructions.

Step 5: Weighting the Paint

After placing cardboard of a small squared shape over the digital weighing machine, set it to zero. Now start dripping paint over the cardboard in small drops. You will be doing it till you reach the number you got from the previous step. In your case, it’s 0.2 gram.

Do it precisely so that the required number in the weighing machine doesn’t cross.

Weighing and getting the proper ratio of the components are done. Now let’s move to the second part, that is, mixing.

Part 2: Mixing the Acrylic Paint and Epoxy Resin

Step 1: Run a Sample Test with a Small Amount of Resin

You might get a little annoyed once upon mixing the paint as it tends to differ after mixing with resin. Before you jump into making a large batch of tinted epoxy, make a small batch first.

After testing with a small batch, where you will be dropping a few drops of paint, you will get a rough idea about whether to tweak it or not.

In case you are working with different brands of paint, double-check the items. Because paint has different shades when they have different brands.

Step 2: Lightening the Color

This section talks about the way out when your resin gets too dark. You will be mixing white acrylic paint to lighten the paint. Start with a ratio of 1:1 for the white paint with the other paint color. Whatever you are mixing, you will always maintain the weight your epoxy resin can handle.

However, the 1:1 ratio isn’t a thumb rule, and you can always explore new ratios to get an interesting result.

Getting a bit confused? Let’s make it clear with an example. You have 10 grams of resin that can handle 0.2 grams of paint. Now you want to lighten the color. So, take 0.1 grams of white paint and 0.1 grams of colored paint.

Step 3: Darkening the Color

What if the case is the opposite? Your paint isn’t pigmented as you want it. Mixing more of the colored paint is the solution here. However, you shouldn’t overdo it.

In your case, the resin can handle 0.2 grams of coloring pigment. Suppose you have mixed 0.1gram of paint. Now you can increase the paint amount but have to be limited to 0.2 grams. That means you can’t cross the amount as it’s the highest level of pigment your resin can handle.

Another way to deal with the pigmentation problem is to choose a high quality

Step 4: Finally Mixing Acrylic into Resin

Remember the cardboard with paint you weighed? Hold it above the plastic cup of resin and pour it in. Once you get all the paint from the cupboard into the resin, there will be the possibility of getting an even tint.

You need to speed up the work after mixing the tint into the resin. Because the elasticity of the colored resin remains for approximately 30 minutes.

Step 5: Stirring for One Minute

Now, it’s time for the final stir. Take a wooden skewer and stir the resin for about one minute. Keep an eye over the resin while mixing as it will be changing shades which can be darker or lighter. The final result of perfectly blended resin will be smooth.

In this way, you can even play with multiple colors at a time to get gradient shade.

These two parts are full of information and process which you will need. After the completion of these two parts, you are good to go for your project. The third part is a bonus which will be helpful in case, you are a newbie.

Part 3: Drying

After you got your perfectly blended resin, here’s how you will proceed. In fact, the rest of the work isn’t much different from how you work with clear resin.

Step 1: Molding

Pour the colored epoxy into the mold while having a check over the smooth top of the resin. In that way, you will have a clean and glossy top after drying.

Step 2: Let the Epoxy Dry

Wait for a half to a full day of 24 hours for the resin to sit. Once upon drying, you will witness the exact tint of the paint. One thing to notice is that- the ultimate glossiness of the resin will have comparatively less gloss. That’s how tinted resin works. But it shouldn’t differ much.

Step 3: Time to Get Your Final Resin Material

After the resin has dried entirely, you will get it out of the mold. Turn the mold upside and down and while doing so, press a little bit on the back of the mold. Revisit the ratios if it’s still wet and tends to crumble.

If the procedure doesn’t have any loopholes, the result should be shiny, and, smooth as you expected.

Termination

I hope you have got the answer to your question- can you mix acrylic paint with resin? So, this is how you mix acrylic paint with resin and get the resin tinted.

I hope you will be playing with the right ratio of paint and resin. However, you will always have room for exploring different ratios and multiple colors.

But for that case, always run a sample test of the entire process first and then proceed to the main project.

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