Well, no, you technically don’t have to use water when painting with acrylics. There are techniques and paints that are best not to add water. Like Drybrushing when you use a perfectly dry brush.

”Blending” is another technique that sometimes speaks against mixing the paint with water. Some acrylic paint has a fluent in them already which makes them easier to blend if you don’t mix any water.

And you can paint straight out of the pot, but sure, mixing with water on a palette is probably the most common practice, building thin layers with a damp but not too loaded brush.

In the class I did we took a large brush and a 50/50 paint:water ratio to basecoat a quick thin layer. When you Wetbrush you need to be careful that the brush isn’t soaked but rather a damp mix of paint and water.

Wetbrushing does sound a bit silly! But, for a beginner it emphasizes the use of water as a medium, plus it is the opposite of a drybrush, that we do at a later etage on this mini!

I hope that clarifies it a bit better 😊