Acrylics as a whole are more transparent than oils so I imagine the student grade acrylics very transparent.

Acrylics are different from oils so you have to use them somewhat differently.

—Transparent paints darken when you layer them or paint thickly. That makes them look more opaque.
—You also might have to use some of the more modern organic tube colors (which are more transparent) if you want more depth (saturation). You can either use multiple thin layers or a somewhat thick layer. Saturation will drop a little, but that is sometimes a good thing with screaming bright transparent colors! The good news with the modern organic colors is they mix cleanly. I think the traditional, opaque oil colors (cadmiums, earth colors, etc.) are a bit more tricky to mix. For instance, some opaque reds and blues look really bad when mixed together.

I don’t use the student acrylics because I want as much pigment as possible in my paints. I suppose they are all right for quick sketches and studies though. They might be good for your first layer too.

Thanks…but I’m still wondering why the difference between artist vs. student is huge with acrylics but small with oils. Switching from W&N Artists’ to Galeria acrylics, or Liquitex Heavy Body to Basics is like day and night in terms of color strength…I would have to change the way I work. But I could switch from W&N Artists’ to Winton oils and I wouldn’t notice much difference in color.

My guess is that oil paint manufacturers expect (rightly or wrongly) that oil painters (even the more cost-conscious ones) are more discerning than acrylic users, and thus can’t get away with such drops in pigment levels from artist to student grade.

Patrick, the paint I’ve been making is mostly using acrylic emulsion (using Golden’s regular gloss gel as a basis), and I can tell you this:

In general, acrylics need to be less pigmented than oils. The reason is that they need stabilizing agents to prevent acidification, and humectants to prevent the paint from drying in the tube.

You see, while oils are acidic in nature, acrylics are highly alkaline. In other to be stable in the tube, their PH needs to be around 8.0–9.0. The PH of the water is 7.0, by comparison.

What happens is, if you add too much pigment, not only you risk damaging the paint film by future cleaning, but also there will be no room for those humectants.

It turns out that you can’t even add regular water to your acrylic painting if you plan to store it, as the pigment will start to separate from the binder and become very uneven! Sure, you can mix what comes from the tube with water, but you can’t add tap water to the paint that will be stored.

Now, keeping substances alkaline is a big challenge, and considering tap water might have an even lower PH than 7 (as low as 5.5), adding preservatives to acrylics isn’t a matter of “if”, but “how much” and “what”.

At first glance, adding a little of calcium sulphate (i.e, “marble dust”) seems to fix the problem. The problem is, calcium sulphate is a fast-drying agent – so while you’ll fix the problem in the short term, you’ll ruin the paint in the long term! Within 3 to 6 months, the paint you make by adding calcium sulphate will become a huge pile of useless goo.

The recipe to keep your paint stable is a bit complicated, but it is more or less like this: for around 30 ml of paint, you add a spoon of a mix of 50% alcohol and water (or more, depending on the consistency you want), and around 1-2 drops of household ammonia. Then, you add 2-3 drops of humectants (you can use acrylic retarder). This will help keeping the paint moist while stored.

Notice that acrylics are most stable at around 60% pigment load, usually. Adding more pigment will require at least more retardants. I suppose professional manufacturers have the means of improving the load and stability of their paint by adding more efficient humectants and stabilizers, but it adds to the price of paints.

What I think that it is going on with student paints is that students usually want cheaper paint with consistent creamy consistent that will never go bad. Thus, the paint probably has more stabilizers to prevent it from ever going bad in the tube.

If you want to purchase student acrylic paints, you might want to go for strong pigments. Since they’re hard to control anyway, their student-grade versions will probably be more pleasing to deal with.

A few good purchases probably are:

[*]Phthalo Blue (any).
[*]Phthalo Green (any).
[*]Titanium White (PW 6).
[*]Mars Black (PBk 11).
[*]Synthetic Iron Oxides (PY 42, PR 101, PBr 6, etc).
[*]Lemon Yellow (PY 3).

What I usually wouldn’t buy in student grade paints are pigments that are more expensive and require a higher pigment load to be useful. That includes Quinacridone Magenta (PR 122), Green Gold (PY 129), Azo Yellow Medium (PY 74), etc.

If you don’t like the pigment load of the student-grade acrylics in the cheaper colors, you might consider “studio” paints. Pebeo has some nice paints with a satin finish, but always check the pigments in the tube. Watch out for tubes that mix organic pigments to make earth colors, for instance!

I know you’re an experienced painter – probably far more than I am – but the warning of watching what’s on your paint tube is never enough!

Actually, I think it has more to do with how much pigment you can load into an acrylic binder versus an oil binder. Oils accept higher pigment loads than acrylics.

I think the idea that oil painters are more discerning that acrylic users is a myth. Less discerning artists can be found in both camps.

Lower quality paints can be found in both camps too. Perhaps you could try professional grade acrylics. I think they are still less costly than oil paints.

Tiasa, I agree with you on the most part. But I also agree when Patrick says it’s easier to find good oil paint at cheaper prices than it is to find good acrylic paint at cheaper prices.

The reason good acrylic paints cost more is the manufacturing. Making acrylic paints is a lot more complicated precisely because of the more careful balancing of that must be done between pigment load, film integrity, and, finally, how much (and how many) stabilizers you’re going to use to keep the paint good for years on the tube.

When working with oils, I managed to get myself a small tube of student-grade Cobalt Blue (PB 28) from Van Gogh (Royal Talens). It cost me around $10.00. If I were to purchase the same paint in acrylics, it would have cost me $20.00.

Of course, it’s much harder to find good art quality materials in my country at an affordable price too.

I am really surprised. I don’t know where you are located, but where I am oil paints are painfully higher than acrylics. Here are the prices in US dollars at Dick Blick near me for professional grade paints:

Golden Acrylics Cobalt Blue PB28 – $10.79 for 2 oz. or 59 ml
Liquitex Acrylics Cobalt Blue PB28 – $8.90 for 2 oz. or 59 ml

Gamblin Oils Cobalt Blue PB28 – $22.09 for 1.25 oz or 37 ml
Winsor & Newton Cobalt Blue PB28 – $17.75 for 1.25 oz or 37 ml

[FONT=Verdana]Not only are the prices higher for oil paints, but you also get less in a tube. I couldn’t find any Cobalt Blue PB28 in student grade acrylics. Everything was a “hue,” so I couldn’t compare student grade prices to the professional grade acrylics for that color.
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[FONT=Verdana]I only have 2 tubes of student grade acrylic and I pretty much don’t like them and don’t use them. [/FONT]

Yikes, Tiasa! You’re right. These colors are expensive!

If you like oils, making your own paint might also be much cheaper for you. Have you considered that?

Mythrill,

Actually, I like acrylics. I have oil paints too, but mostly I use the acrylics. Can’t beat the price, the easy clean up–and I really like the fast dry. If I make a mistake, I just keep painting and 20 minutes later I can come back to the mistake—and paint it out! No scapeing. No muss. No fuss.

Hi, Tiasa!

I’m a big fan of acrylics too. It’s mostly because of the fast drying, the possibility of working as if you were doing oils, watercolors, or both, and not needing to worry to worry about which pigment dries fast and which dries slowly.

I do like to paint in oils once in a while, though, because they dry much more slowly. The extra time is nice when I want to take my time to figure something out.

Thanks Mythrill for the detailed answer on how to mix acrylics, I have a couple of liters of binder waiting to be used.

Also, I wonder if the price difference between acrylic binder and oil might have something to do with it. Surely, oil must be cheaper..? so student acrylic tubes may have less binder?

Indra, how did you buy your binder?

Here, acrylic binder is very expensive to buy. Linseed oil is much cheaper, no matter how you look at it. If for some reason you can’t buy it, you can make your own linseed oil!

Regarding price difference, it’s not really the amount of binder. Certainly, pigment load and the availability of more expensive pigments (like Pyrroles and Perylenes) add to the price.

Other factors that might influence the price heavily include:

[*]Binder quality. Does it load more pigment than the average? Is it more resistant to scratching? More transparent? Does it resist to mold a little better?

[*]More expensive stabilizers. Some stabilizers have an unpleasant smell. The more expensive ones can almost completely eliminate the smell of the paint (e.g, Winsor & Newton, Golden, Daler-Rowney) or even give it a pleasant smell (Daniel Smith).

[*] Packaging. I tore apart some Winsor & Newton tubes to save the paint due to heavy pigment load and bad stabilizers. The inside of Winsor & Newton tubes was covered in gold! Nice packaging is important to sell, but it also makes the paint cost more.