Book excerpt: An artist-to-artist guide to acrylics today! Acrylics are an astoundingly versatile medium, as evidenced by the diversity of work emerging from studios around the country. This book takes you inside the studios and creative minds of 9 of today's top acrylic artists as they share favorite techniques, distinctive approaches, and examples of their best work. Packed with expert advice, Inside Acrylics will help beginning and intermediate artists make the most of both traditional acrylics and their new, slow-drying cousins. Real-world advice from 9 top acrylic artists, from the way they organize their palettes to tried and true strategies for painting in the studio, painting portraits, and painting outdoors. 18 step-by-step demonstrations of favorite techniques. How to use acrylic paints, gels and mediums to achieve the look of oil paints, innovations in mixed media, and effects not achievable with any other medium. Advice on everything from materials and color theory to varnishing and care of finished work. Inside Acrylics contains years of hands-on experience to help up-and-coming artists make sense of all the options, save trial-and-error time, and explore the exciting possibilities of this most remarkable medium.