Reddit reviews Learn to Paint in Acrylics with 50 Small Paintings: Pick up the skills * Put on the paint * Hang up your art

I second both books posted by Sykirobme.

The first one I got was Learn to Paint in Acrylics with 50 Small Paintings and it was great for someone like me who have zero background on drawing and painting. Started out slow and super basic and I noticed myself putting more and more effort as I went along the projects.

Then I got Acrylics for the Absolute Beginner, a landscape instructional, which was fun to follow and I learned a lot. I kept getting "you painted that?" reactions lol very encouraging and I have to make clear the paintings were not originals and I followed tutorials from a book.

I purchased Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensable Guide as a reference for tools/theory/techniques. And I like it so far but haven't read in depth because I keep getting distracted by other books I find at the library and attempting some originals.

I hope that's helpful. Also, reiterating that this is from the perspective of a beginner (5 months in!). Folks with more experience might have different/better suggestions. Happy painting!

I've been using Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensible Guide as my main guidebook. The author presents some basic information on acrylics, tools, etc. at the beginning, touches on color theory, using medium and some other good stuff, and then has several sections on how to paint a wide variety of textures.

Learn to Paint Acrylics With 50 Small Paintings is one I've heard a lot of good about, and I'm thinking of picking it up eventually to fill in any gaps in my technique with some more hands-on guidance.

I still don't know what I'm doing either, but I've been working through the super-accessible and helpful book "Learn to Paint Acrylics in 50 Small Paintings" by Mark Daniel Nelson: http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Paint-Acrylics-Small-Paintings/dp/1631590561