Walking down the paint aisle of an art store can be really fun, but it can also be overwhelming.
With rows and rows of paint to choose from, how do you know which one is going to be the
perfect fit for you?
Today, I going to talk about types of Acrylic paint, and if you should really splurge on
that expensive tube of paint, or if the cheap one will fit the bill.
So there are many types of paint, but two overarching types that you should be aware
of are Student grade paints and Artist or professional grade paints.
It’s thats pretty much what it sounds like. Student grade is geared towards students,
so it’s much more cheaper. And artist grades are going to be more expensive. But is this
a case of you get what you pay for, or can you get away with a generic brand?
The short answer is, kind of yes. But before you run out and grab the most expensive paint
on the shelf, let’s go over what makes these two so different.
Student grade paints are made by a number of different brands. The reason why they’re
so much cheaper is that they actually have filler or binder in this product, so it’s
going to have less concentration of pigment.
What this means is that they’re going to pack less of a punch. They’re going to have
less coverage, so you need multiple layers for an opaque layer, and they’re going to
give less impact when you’re mixing colors. This can mean duller color, or they’re not
going to be as predictable or consistent.
Also, it’s important to note that student grade paint is going to have a significantly
smaller colors range. Student grade paint paint is only carries series 1 and 2. So any
colors that are series 3 or above are not going to be carried by student grade paint.
But if you want a color like Cadmium Red, which is not series 1 or 2, what you can get
is called Cadmium red hue. And any color with “Hue” in going to be not actually cadmium
red pigment, but actually a mix of cheaper reds that are going to have a similar effect
as cadmium red. When you start mixing 6 or 9 pigments together, it can get a little dulled
or greyed out. Whereas a more expensive paint will not do that as much.
Artist grade paints, as you can assume from what I just said, is much more expensive and
has a higher pigment load. Their consistency is usually a little thicker, and it has a
nice consistency to them, like an oil paint would. So if you like to have that really
impasto-y, thick texture, or if you like to work with a palette knife, an artist grade
paint will that that consistency.
They also typically have a single pigment in them, whereas a cheaper student grade might
have 2 or 3 pigments mixed together.
Artist grade paints often are made to be more durable in the long term as well. If you watched
my conservation/restoration video, you know that paint can be vulnerable to a lot of different
things, but these paints can have certain properties that make them more UV resistant
or flexible.
My advice is to take a good look at what your experience level is, and what you’re aiming
to do.
If you’re just a student and you need to buy paint for a class, for beginning painting
for example, and if you don’t really plan on painting after that, you might just want
to get student grade paint so that you don't invest a ton of money in paint that you may or may
not use up.
However, you might find that you really like painting. And then, in that case you can slowly
update your paint to a better quality paint that you enjoy using more. You might want
to consider just picking up a tube whenever you finish a color of student grade paint,
and that way you don’t have to spend a ton of money all at once.
If you’ve been painting for a while and deliberating whether you should upgrade or
not, artist grade paint are definitely going to give you much nicer quality. And if it’s
something you really enjoy, it’s something you can probably give some serious thought
in investing in.
OK, you’ve heard me talk a lot about these guys. But let’s see them in action.
So I hope you found that useful and learned something cool about paint. If you like this
video you might want to check out some of my other videos.
I have one on acrylic vs oil paint, so if you want to know the differences are, it’s
kind of similar to this, and helps you decide which you might like better.
You can also check out my last video on conservation and restoration.
In addition, I had my 100th subscriber! Which was really exciting. Thanks so much for subscribing,
and please subscribe if you haven’t.
Shoutout to Leslie, who tweeted me that she was my 100th subscriber. It was so exciting!
Thanks so much for watching, and I’ll see you guys next time.