I use lots of spray paint and acrylic paint on my projects, and both work great on foam board. However, if you’re painting directly on foam board, too much paint can saturate the outer layer of paper and cause the edges to curl up and detach from the foam interior as it dries, so watch out for that.
If you spray painting the foam board, you can avoid this problem by not applying the spray paint too heavily; start with a fine coat of spray paint, and then when that’s dry do a second fine coat, and even a third, and so on, allowing it to dry completely between coats until you get complete coverage.
If you apply too much paint at once, the outer layer of paper on the foam gets saturated, and as it dries, the paper shrinks but the foam inside doesn’t, and that causes the edges of the paper to curl and warp. The same goes for painting with a brush, with acrylic paint, tempera paint, etc. The thinner you apply the paint, the better. Schedule yourself enough time to paint in thin coats, let it dry completely, and then continue.
Note for anything involving spray paint and any type of foam (styrofoam, foam rubber, etc): make sure to do a small test first! Spray paint will eat right through some types of foam and basically melt or dissolve it. I found out the hard way when I tried to spray paint a styrofoam pumpkin black — the spray paint instantly melted right through the surface. Anyway, the types of foam board I’ve used can handle spray paint just fine, however, it’s still worth doing a test before you accidentally ruin your whole project!
For smaller foam boards, you may be able to peel off the paper coating completely, leaving only the foam shape. This will make it less likely to warp, but a little harder to paint and work with paper. The foam surface is not as porous as paper, but with enough time and effort, you should be able to glue things together well.
The removable paper coating on the foam board can also cause problems if you try to glue two foam boards together. The coating may peel off from one or both sides, and then the two pieces will separate. Therefore, in some cases, you are better off removing this layer of paper before gluing the pieces together. Another technique for gluing two foam sheets together is to wrap the foam sheets completely around a paper machine, let them dry, and then glue them together (or even glue them together). This way, the foam is locked in place from all sides and nothing can slip or peel off.
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