paints

[Roach1976]

Hello all A balmy 35 deg in Montana

My ? is Windsor artist level 2 paints is this the same as series 2 paints and what is the difference between professional and these paints and is it worth the money to buy artist level 2 or spend the extra on pro level ? any help is greatly appreciated..

[sidbledsoe]

Hi mike, all the WN artists grade are artist level paints and are professional grade. I think the series 2 number you are referring to is the price grouping for whatever pigment/processing is used for that particular paint. Both the pigments used and the manner in which they are made contribute to the pricing variations within the entire artists range of paints. It doesn't mean that they are a higher quality level, it just means that they are more expensive to make so they charge more commensurate with their cost of manufacture. At least I think that is what you are talking about.
Wintons use less expensive pigments and have two levels of cost for their entire line, WN artist grade have four or five, I forget exactly. I think you might be asking is it worth it to buy the series 2 wintons vs the artist grade paints and that is debatable but I would answer yes, I prefer the artist grade over the winton student grade, in the Winsor Newton lines anyway.

[timelady]

For oil paints:
Winton is the student range
Artists' Oil Colour is the artist/pro range

For acrylic paints:
Galeria is the more affordable range (they say it's still artist grade tho)
Artists' Acrylic is the very high end professional paint

It sounds, like sidbledsoe says, like you're confusing the quality of the range of paint with the level number of the actual colour. All paints of the same quality, within the same 'brand' will have series 1, series 2, series 3 for different colours. This just means the pigment ingredients used actually are more expensive so they need to price that particular paint higher.

[Roach1976]

Thank you Sid and timelady the paints At Michaels I was debating say winton artist level 2 and the other say professional grade. Michaels had a buy 2 get 1 free sale on the artist level 2 paints

PS. sorry it took so long to respond I was in Texas

[Patrick1]

Originally Posted by Roach1976

Thank you Sid and timelady the paints At Michaels I was debating say winton artist level 2 and the other say professional grade. Michaels had a buy 2 get 1 free sale on the artist level 2 paints

The series number (1, 2, 3, etc.) in any given line of paints groups the paints by cost. It isn't necessarily indicative of quality. The overall paint quality is determined by the line of paints - for example W&N Winton Oils (student grade) vs. W&N Artist Oils (artist grade).

In my opinion, when choosing paints it's best to determine the pigment(s) you want first (which will determine the series number), and then choose which brand and line you want to buy it in.

[Patrick1]

It just occurred to me: are you talking about Michaels grading the paint lines they sell in terms of general quality levels? There's a Michaels that opened in my city (Ottawa) last year, and they place their 'serious' acrylics in 3 or 4 (or 5?) hierarchical quality categories...something like scholastic, student, artist and professional. The acrylics they sell are neatly located on one of the distinct shelf sections (leftmost is the cheapest, progressing to the best on the right). I remember that W&N Galeria acrylics were categorized one grade up from Liquitex Basics - a bit of a surprise. The only other Michaels I've been to is an older store also in my city and it doesn't categorize their paints like this - so maybe they are doing this in their new stores only.

Anyways Roach, just wondering if this is what you meant by the levels you mention? Or perhaps you do indeed mean the cost series for a given line of paints.