Choosing a brand of acrylic paints

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Choosing a brand of acrylic paints

by Aanchal
(US)

Reader Question: Are Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics good for a beginner or should I go for artist quality paints of some other brands like Galeria, Golden or Grumbacher?

I am new to the brands and painting mediums in the US so I'm unable to decide what to buy. I have worked with oils, watercolors and some student quality acrylics earlier using brands not available in US. Couple you please suggest what to buy?

Hi Aanchal,

I'm happy to help!

The Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics that you mention are a very good brand, so yes, I can definitely recommend them for both beginners and professionals. Liquitex is one of my favorite brands of acrylics and I use them often to create my acrylic paintings.

My other favorite brand of acrylics is Golden, which is one of the brands that you mentioned. I use Golden brand and Liquitex brand acrylic paints almost exclusively. Both brands of acrylics have excellent consistency and coverage.

Winsor & Newton also makes good, artist quality acrylic paints. I have a tube or two of the Winsor & Newton Artists' Acrylics and I've found them to be of good, reliable quality as well.

Winsor & Newton also creates a more fluid Galeria line of acrylics, as you mentioned. I haven't tried this range myself, because they are thinner and I generally prefer thicker acrylics. They are listed as professional quality paints, however, so you might consider trying them.

Grumbacher is more of a student quality paint. To be honest I once bought a tube of Grumbacher Academy Acrylic Paint in Alizarin Crimson at the university art store when I was a student and needed crimson for a class, and I wasn't happy with the quality. I haven't purchased Grumbacher Academy Acrylics since.

There are a few other brands of artist quality paints: Amsterdam, Chroma Atelier, Holbein and Lascaux are some of the more famous ones, but I haven't tried these, so I can't comment on them.

In short, I can happily recommend both Golden and Liquitex if you are looking for brand recommendations.

Hope that helps and Happy Painting!!

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Choosing a brand of acrylic paints

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Jan 15, 2011

Difference between Flow and Student quality acrylics
by: Anonymous

Thanks for your prompt reply....

Actually I checked the artist quality paints of Golden, Liquitex and W&N and feel at this point they fall out of my budget. So I was thinking to start with W&N Galeria or Grumbacher Academy as had read good reviews about them and eventually switch to artist quality if I feel acrylics are the way to go for me. From your reply, it's evident that you don't like Academy though seem okay with trying Galeria.

So my question is: what's the difference between Student quality and Flow acrylics? Galleria is Flow and Academy is student but both are in the same price range or can you recommend some other starting acrylics in the low price range?

Also should I be buying 60ml or 22ml tubes and how long does a 22ml tube last?

Jan 18, 2011

Fluid acrylics vs. Student acrylics
by: Thaneeya

The main difference between flow formula acrylics (also called fluid acrylics) and student quality acrylics lies in the pigment content. The flow or fluid acrylics will contain more pigment than the student quality acrylics, so the strength of the colors is higher with flow acrylics.

For this reason I'd recommend Winsor and Newton's Galeria over Grumbacher Academy. Galeria is still a professional quality paint even if it is less dense than the heavy body acrylics (like the Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics or the Golden Heavy Body Acrylics). Some professionals actually prefer Fluid acrylics over Heavy Body acrylics because of how well the paint flows off the brush, making it easier to attain nice, even brush strokes.

Golden Fluid Acrylics is another fluid acrylic that receives rave reviews. The price for Golden Fluid acrylics start around $3.39 for a 1oz (30ml) bottle, and a little goes a long way, making them a very economical choice.

Fluid acrylics are best suited for "thinner" painting techniques, because they are designed to be easily thinned with water. But if you like to paint in a thick, impasto style, then you can mix them with a heavy gel medium to make them thicker and more dense.

With that said, there are some artists who do like the Academy acrylics, so go with your gut feeling. If you are undecided between the two you could buy a few colors of each to compare.

Jan 18, 2011

Low Priced Artist Quality Acrylics
by: Thaneeya

As for acrylics in a low price range, the cost for student acrylics seems to start around $2.50 - $3.50 for small tubes.

I came across some other brands that are listed as Artist Quality that have tubes starting at $3.25 each:

Blick Artists' Acrylics

Amsterdam Expert Series Acrylics

Daler-Rowney Cryla Artists' Acrylics

I haven't tried any of those brands myself, but I noticed that they were the lowest price Artist quality acrylics available. I'd recommend reading the user reviews of them to see what people think. In general they all seem to be well-liked.

Jan 18, 2011

What size to get?
by: Thaneeya

The size of the tube or jar you get depends on how large you are painting and how much color you expect to use, which can be hard to predict in advance. It also depends on your style (thick, impasto style or thin, watery style or somewhere in between). In general I've found that a little paint goes a long way. I've had some small jars and tubes for over 5 years and they are still good as new and not empty yet!

I'd say if you're trying a brand for the first time, get the smaller tubes so that you can see if you like that brand or not. If you like it, and you think you'll need a lot more of it, you can buy bigger tubes as needed.

Hope that helps!

Sep 30, 2011

I don't know if its the right one??
by: Anonymous

Hello,
I have a little problem. The only art supply store around here has only two types of varnish:

1st kind is spray on and only takes a few hours to dry , but the problem is that on the back it says "not recommended for fine art.

2nd kind comes in a bottle and its for acrylic paintings on canvas, but it says it takes around SIX MONTHS to dry!!

From what I've read here and in other places it only takes a few hours. Now I don't know whether I'm looking at the wrong thing and I should look down a different aisle.

I did try to ask someone who works at the place and they recommended the spray-on but I'm worried about using that - I don't what my painting to get ruined. What should I do???

Oct 22, 2011

Varnish
by: Thaneeya

Hi there,

With regards to your varnish question, I could give you better advice if I knew the exact name of the brands you are looking at.

Both of those statements on the labels are rather worrying, one being "Not recommended for fine art" - which could mean that the varnish is not archival and may yellow with age.

If the other label says it takes 6 months to dry, that is a long time indeed! I'm very curious what brand that is!

Your best bet may be to buy an acrylic varnish online. I personally like Golden Acrylic Polymer Varnish. The back of the bottle says, "Dries in 1-3 hours, can be recoated in 3-6 hours, but should dry for 1-2 weeks before handling or storage." I get mine online from Dickblick.com.

Hope that helps and good luck with it!

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