These two aspects, the quick drying time and its natural adhesion, make it a prime candidate for mixed media. Think of acrylics as a layer of coloured plastic, each adhering tenaciously to the layer below. If you place a piece of paper into wet acrylic, this paper will quickly become imbedded into the layer of paint. These paints are also transparent and can be used as glazes or semi-transparent layers over imbedded material like cloth and paper. Acrylics can be easily mixed with watercolours, as both are water based paints.
Acrylics can also use all watercolour techniques.
On the other hand, they also have the ability to be used thickly or impasto, like oil paints. Acrylics cannot be mixed with oil paints. Oil and water will not mix. However, one of the central ways in which oil and acrylics are used together is by applying oil paints over a dry acrylic painting. As long as the acrylic is completely dry there will be no negative reaction with the layer of oil paint.