"Bulking" acrylic paint

[B u r l]

Is there anything that I could add to acrylic paint to bulk it up. I'm just poor and don't want to use up lots and lots of paint to get an impasto effect. Also, as acrylic paint is fast drying, could I add anything to it that could maybe keep it wet for longer?

Thankyou.

[Hyskoa]

There is specialised medium to influence the drying time, also there is hard formed acrylic I believe which is perfect for impasto effect working.
Ask your local dealer.

[sweetoblivion314]

theres a viscosity rating on acrylic paint, higher will be thicker. Also there are mediums to raise and lower the viscosity.

[geckochan]

A visit to a good art shop will reveal a dizzying array of mediums available to bulk up your acrylics. Some shops will have little samples next to each showing what effect they have on the acrylics, which is really helpful in deciding what you want since there are a lot of different opacities and textures available - I like clear matt gel mediums. You can also, as mentioned, get retarder which will slow down your drying time.
The down side is that mediums can be pricey. Something cheap that can be fun to play around with is using something from a hardware store - polyfill, plaster, whatever, to add bulk - but since these things are all opaque, you'd need to add them as texture first, and then paint over top. Can still be worth experimenting with though.

[Bhrazz]

You can get modeling paste for the impasto effect or, I don't know where you live but sometimes you can get very cheap paint made in china for 200ml / 1$. Which is good for what you want to achieve.

As for the drying time, don't use a retarder, is really not worth it. Just buy a a bottle spray and mist some water over your paint. I split my 50% water and 50% medium in my bottle, it worked fairly nice but still dry to fast when you work on big canvas.

You will need to do some test to fit your needs anyways.

[thinairart]

For impasto, my pick would be Golden's "Extra Heavy" Gel. Not sure where you live, but Golden products are widely available in the US & Canada, and in many major cities in the UK & Europe.

Golden's products are top notch, and their website is actually a great source of tech info regarding acrylics even if you don't buy their brand of products. They are not super cheap, but if your after an impasto effect, you will definitely save money in the long run by using a medium versus just squeezing out a lot of paint.

http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/medsadds/gels/gels.php