Four of Acrylic Paint for Visual Artists: The Pros and Cons of Each
Acrylic paint is a great way to get started learning to paint.
Here’s why:
You can find the medium at any craft or art store and it works on almost any porous surface. You’ve also got ample color options and a bunch of variety when it comes to brushes.
Plus anything works as a palette including, as Lisa Daria Kennedy (Ep. 14) points out, even an old phone book.
Photo by tabitha turner on Unsplash
Even better, if and when you want to invest in higher quality paints, you’ve got great options.
Acrylic artists paint with everything from house paints, craft paints, student grade and professional grade paints. All are great for learning and experimenting but not all are created equal in longevity and consistency.
Let’s look at the types of acrylic paints available to painters today.
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HOUSE PAINT
You can find acrylic house paints at any hardware and any general goods store. You can buy a sample can or a small quart. House paint comes in dozens and dozens of beautifully premixed colors.
The Pros of Acrylic House Paint for Painting
Artists, including Teddi Parker (Ep.77), love the creamy consistency of house paint and its availability. There is a sense of abundance when you know your can of paint only cost a few dollars. It splatters and drizzles amazingly and you don’t have to mix your own colors when there are so many colors already mixed. Plus, house paints follow trends. This means if you choose from available colors, you can be confident you’re painting with a color that’s already in.
The Cons of Acrylic House Paint for Painting
Unlike student and professional grade acrylic paints, house paints are not necessarily designed to last more than about 10 years. Paints might fade much more quickly than other acrylic paints.
CRAFT PAINT
You can find acrylic craft paint almost anywhere including art stores, craft stores and even general goods stores in the craft section. Prices vary from incredibly inexpensive to a bit more expensive. Each brand has a slightly different feel to it.
The Pros of Acrylic Craft Paint for Painting
The creamy consistency is great if you’re interested in layering or making acrylic papers. The coverage isn’t too bad and if you like matte finish, you are in luck. There’s also a great color range.
The Cons of Acrylic Craft Paint for Painting
Thinned down, craft paints get weak pretty quickly. They have some trouble mixing and you’ll get muddier colors more quickly than if you were using student or professional grade paint. I haven’t been able to find any science on how lightfast they are. However, if you’re planning to sell your work, you may want to consider that they aren’t necessarily designed with longevity in mind.
STUDENT GRADE ACRYLIC PAINT
You can find student grade acrylic paints in many places these days. Even general goods stores have tubes of them sometimes. They come mostly in heavy bodied although some brands have them in soft bodied paints (closer to the consistency of craft paint.)
In the art store, you will find student grade acrylic paints organized by brand. They will sit adjacent to that brand’s professional grade paint. You can tell the difference between student and professional grade by their price. All student grade paints in a brand (no matter the color of the pigment) will cost the same. With professional paints, the prices differ between pigments.
The Pros of Student Grade Acrylic Paint for Painting
Students grade paints are good because they have a lower price point than their professional counterparts. They also come in bigger containers so you’ll be less worried about the amount you use. They are designed with longevity in mind so student grade paints won’t fade over time like craft and house paints.
Additionally, student grade paints often will start using real names for the colors to begin acclimating you to the real names of paints. Instead of names like sea breeze, it will say Phthalo blue. Instead of fire engine red, Cadmium. This is a useful transition because it gives you more leeway when it comes to learning about colors. And you can start building your knowledge library.
The Cons of Student Grade Acrylic Paint for Painting
Because of the filler to pigment ratio, sometimes student grade paints don’t go very far. They are a bit more transparent in nature (again because of all that binder to keep it inexpensive as possible). They may also handle a bit more inconsistently when it comes to color mixing. When you’re first starting out, this may not matter as much. But as your skills develop as an artist, you may want to be able to trust your pigments a bit more. At that point, move to professional grade paints.
PROFESSIONAL GRADE ACRYLIC PAINT
Professional grade acrylic paints are found primarily at a fine arts store. They will be in the acrylics section and then divided by brand. One brand may have several thicknesses (viscosities) of paint in their acrylic line. For example, Golden has high flow, fluid, and heavy body paint under its acrylic professional brand.
The Pros of Professional Grade Acrylic Paint for Painting
Professional grade acrylic paints are designed with the artist in mind. You will be able to thin them down (through water or polymers) and still get good pigmentation. They mix well and won’t create mud too easily. They are both highly pigmented and highly saturated.
Professional grade acrylic paints also come in a wide variety of thicknesses. If you want to paint impasto, grab the heavy body paints. If you’re more interested in a fluid feel, go thinner. You’ve got a ton of options when it comes to professional acrylic paints.
The Cons of Professional Grade Acrylic Paint for Painting
The biggest issue with professional grade paints is price. They are expensive. So if cost is a real consideration, wait for sales and work with a limited palette mixing your own secondaries and tertiaries. It may take some time and practice to feel free using a lot of color.
They also come out of the tube very bright. Professional grade paints are meant to be mixed. So there aren’t a lot of colors that are greyed down right out of the tube. (Although some brands do offer less saturated tube options.) This can be tricky if you’re coming from craft paints and all those beautiful premixed colors.
FINDING the RIGHT ACRYLIC PAINT FOR YOU
The fastest way to get better at painting is to paint a lot of paintings. And to do that, you need to feel free with your materials. When you’re deciding which paint to use, choose the one that allows you to paint with the most freedom. No matter any of the other considerations, that is the most important characteristic you want in your acrylic paint.
As you develop as an artist and begin to want more consistency in your paints (along with trust of more lightfastness) then it’s time to consider moving to more expensive and better quality options.
What paints do you paint with and what do you love about them? Let me know in the comments below!