The secret to painting on paper with acrylics is this: you don’t have to prep the canvas. You don’t need gesso. You don’t need a strong coat of underpaint. You don’t need to pre-paint with sahara desert latex house paint. You can just let it be. And then just start painting.
When I first bought my acrylic paper, I did not know this. I tried to prep the paper with my favorite house paint, but that made the paper curl up and become disfigured.
After that, I just painted on that paper with coffee.
But now I know the secret: you can just use the paint to draw the figure you want to appear on the paper. If you are not drawing the background, there is no need to paint the background. Application of paint is just for the drawing. It is not required for covering the surface. And knowing this is half the battle!
