I get a lot of questions about which is the best acrylic paint to buy. It can be difficult to answer because it all depends on finances, how often you paint, your age, your ability and whether you like the feel and outcome of the paint. I personally use with Golden Heavy Body or Liquitex Professional Heavy Body. Golden is the higher end, expensive paint brand but I absolutely love the buttery and mixable qualities of this particular brand. Liquitex is also an excellent quality paint, but a little bit cheaper than Golden Heavy Body. However go and shop about and try out what you are drawn to, but please don't feel you have to buy the entire colour spectrum as money is precious. Remember you can mix colours.
Quality of Paint
Like anything, sometimes you get what you pay for. If you compare a cheaper acrylic to a more expensive one, you will notice that the consistency is different, or mixing the colours proves to be more accurate. You can mix different brands, but I would advise to keep to similar qualities if you do. If you do buy a high end paint, Golden Heavy Body Acrylic and Liquitex Professional Heavy Body Acrylic are similar in quality, so using both shouldn’t be a problem. Students and beginners often use System 3 from Daler Rowney or the Winsor and Newton Galeria range. These brands are a middle range quality and are a reasonable without breaking the bank. Do shop about, as businesses sometimes have discounts and sales. One brand I managed to get 30% off each tube, which was a massive saving.
Pigment
Pigments are fine coloured powder that are mixed with a binder such as linseed oil (oil paint), gum arabic (watercolour paint), or acrylic polymer (acrylic paint).
Colour Index
Somewhere on the paint containers or the website you are purchasing the paint from, it should state the pigment codes. They consist of letters and numerals. The numbers classifies the chemical composition. The letters stand for:
PY = Pigment Yellow
PO = Pigment Oran
PR = Pigment Red
PV = Pigment Violet
PB = Pigment Blue
PG = Pigment Green
PBr = Pigment Brown
PBk = Pigment Black
When there is a combination of codes listed on the paint container, pigments are usually listed in order of predominance. Just like the ingredients in a shampoo, the pigments used in a colour, such as Sap Green, is listed with the greatest amount first, followed in descending order by those in smaller amounts.
Mixture
In the Golden range, if the paint states ‘mixture,’ it means that there is a combination of pigments mixed together. If you look carefully, you will see that there are two or more colour codes stating what has been mixed, such as Sap Green. If the tube doesn’t say ‘mixture,’ hunt about on the tube to find the list of pigments used. If it’s more than one, then the paint has a combination of pigments. This could potentially mean that you could be wasting money on buying these tubes of paint, where you could have mixed them yourself.
Lightfastness
Lightfastness stated on a paint tube describes how resistant the colour is to fading when it is exposed to light. In the Golden range, 1 is the best lightfastness you can get. 2 is also very good. 1 and 2 are the better ones to purchase if you want the colour of a painting to last. A lightfastness of 3 isn’t the best one to purchase if you don’t want the colours to fade over time.
Transparency and Opacity
If you look on the tube or the website of the paint brand or of the business you have purchased the paint from, it should state the opacity or transparency of the pigment. On the Golden range they paint over a black and white striped section on the front of the tube so you can see the opacity or transparency of the paint and sometimes there is information on the back of the tube.
So next time you are hunting for paint on the internet or in an art shop, take some time to get accustomed to the properties of the paint and think carefully before you buy the whole colour spectrum the brand has on the shelf.
Note: the recommendations are not ads or paid sponsorship. They are recommendations from my own personal experience.