best brands...

[cvl]

okay...with all that said, what do you consider the best brands of acrylics in terms of quality and price?

[Electra]

Personally, I like Winsor & Newton Galeria series. Even at list price, it's a mere 2.99 a tube, for every color. Bright, bold colors, well-pigmented. They are a bit on the thick side for my taste but it just makes them last a little longer. I just add a little bit of fluid medium to them to loosen it up.

Liquitex also has a great line, Basics, a little thinner than the W&N line. They're a bit more expensive, though, and from what i can tell they're not as good a value.

Golden is excellent paint, but expensive. Tubes vary from 3.50 to 15.00 depending on color.

Until I find a reason not to use W&N, it's my paint of choice.



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Electra
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Life is less about who you are, and more about who you choose to be.

[ms169699]

I prefer the Liquitex Arclyic artist color. Michaels and Hobby Lobby here put them on a buy on get one free deal every 2 or three months.


The basics lack the stiffness that the artist color have and seem to be to transparent for me but they are good paints and cheap $4.99 for 4 oz.

The Winsor Netwon and golden are also good paints to use.

[LazarusCMII]

I actually really like Utrecht's "house brand" acrylics, possibly even better than liquitex, and they're nice and cheap. Golden is also nice when you can get it on sale (I see www.currys.com often has it for 50% off!) I also use liquitex just for a few particular colors that I really like from them (hookers green and unbleached titanium mainly). however, for mediums, I find I use Golden almost exclusively- personally I think they are far superior to all the other brand's mediums, even if they are a bit more expensive.

[talkingbanana]

I love W/N Finity - very affordable, at least around here, and great quality. And Liquitex mediums - I haven't tried anything else, but I've been very pleased with them and have no reason to change as of now.

[kiteless]

almost all my paint at the moment is golden, either heavy body or their fluids. i have a couple liquitex medium viscosity tubs and a tube of heavy body, and one tube of W&N finity. i also have some liquitex basics which are suprisingly really great. i don't dislike any of them. however...

i am a total golden fan and while yes it is more expensive, they pretty much do single pigments in most of their colours and i feel that makes a difference. i am also in love with their fluid acrylics. i do a lot of very graphic art style paintings and i find that these work for getting amazingly smooth lines.

i think it is hard to go wrong if you stick to "name brand" paint. all the brands that have been mentioned in this thread are great paints, and you won't do yourself wrong with them. each line has colours that are unique to it also.

it is also alot of personal preference. i like golden because they don't do anything to their pigments to make them all look the same. they don't add anything to make everything equally opaque, shiney, etc, so the characteristics of each pigment stay true. now some people don't like that, and like a consistancy across their colours. i'd try tubes of each brand and see if you find anything you love.

[Pegleg]

I'm using Galeria, they were the first brand I've tried. I'm a raw beginner to painting. I find the Galleria a bit too 'sticky'. Was thinking of trying Grumbacher Academy when I need to replace colors. They have some blending mediums that look interesting also.Any thoughts on this move? I'm disabled with limited funds, so the 'scholastic' brands will have to suffice.

[eezacque]

I use Talens, and recently moved from student-grade Van Gogh series to artist-grade Rembrandt series. I'm happy with it, haven't used anything else, so I cannot compare...

[impressionist2]

For any of you familiar with Charles Sovek's website: www.sovek.com , you know he is an amazing oil and acrylic painter and teacher.

I bought Golden heavy acrylics based on my research of WC reviews, but just received this feedback from him. He wrote:

Hi Renee,

Sorry for taking a while to get back to you. I've been swamped
with e-mail
and am just digging my way out.

Winsor and Newton acrylics are my first choice.

Charles

So, as soon as I figure out which ones are artist grade, I'll be trying them.

Renee

[Brian Firth]

I have tried the student lines and they really can't compare with the pigment load and color saturation of the premium artist's lines. I use the three major brands in America: Golden, Winsor & Newton Finity and Liquitex in that order.

I would have to say that my favorite is Golden. They pretty much stick to the single pigment theory, have great pigment load and the greatest selection of unique pigments. The quality that made them no. 1 on my book is the total lack of additives which means some very glossy colors some matte which I prefer. Their range of mediums is unbeatable! I love the their wide variety of gels and texture mediums!!

Winsor and Newton Finity come in a very close second, with great pigment loads and selection. I just don't like the uniform sheen across the range which leans towards a matte finish. They also add a small amount of retarder to keep them open and working longer. Winsor and Newton is really lacking in the mediums department.

Then there is Liquitex, overall great paint as well just a little lighter pigment load in my opinion. They have some great unique pigments like there Acra Red: Quinacridone Red Gamma (PR 209), Acra Red-Orange: Quinacridone/Pyrrolopyrrol (PR N/A) and their Iridescent Rich Silver which has real powdered Stainless Steel pigment. Liquitex gloss medium and varnish is my favorite and most used medium. They also have some nice unique texture gels and mediums. I should note that Colart owns both Winsor & Newton and Liquitex.

I want to also mention a brand I tried recently that was truly unique. I ordered a sampler of Lukas Pastos acrylics from Jerry's Artarama. They are very different from any other acrylic I have tried. They are VERY thick right out of the tube equal to oil paint and after a minute or two on the palette even thicker!! The colors were very strong and formed a very hard paint film along with a consistent sheen. The name is very appropriate for these colors, they are definitely great for impasto work. I only had a small selection of tubes to use and it's inconvenient to order my paints so I haven't tried enough of their range to give a full review. However, if you paint THICK you really should try out the sampler it's pretty cheap and a good tester. They have a good selection of colors and great prices, you can even get them in crazy huge 275ml tubes!!

Brian

[impressionist2]

Brian, Thanks for the heads up on Lukas pastos-sounds Good!

What's your favorite gel, and why? I am looking for one that slows down drying a bit and plumps up the paint.

Renee

[Brian Firth]

Originally Posted by impressionist2

Brian, Thanks for the heads up on Lukas pastos-sounds Good!

What's your favorite gel, and why? I am looking for one that slows down drying a bit and plumps up the paint.

Renee

Renee,
My favorite gel is Golden Extra Heavy Gloss Gel. It is the thickest I have found with the gretest working properties (Golden also makes High Solid Gloss gel, which is even thicker but is a little too pasty and dries faster so it is harder to work with). The Extra Heavy Gloss gel is so thick and creamy to work with, you can create amazing textures as well as super thick translucent glazes. I love gloss mediums because they create the greatest depth in color. The Extra Heavy Gloss gel can almost double the drying time becuase it is usually used pretty thickly, although most gels are made of the same binder as acrylic paints so the drying time is comaparable. It holds peaks beautifully, and works great with either a pallete knife or a good hog bristle brush. It makes beatiful impasto, also great for mixing with colors for a luscious alla prima pallete. The gel dries very transparent. If you mix a small amount of a transparent acrylic color into the gel it will make an incredible deep glaze that you have to see to believe. Try dioxizine purple, pthalo blue/green or any quinicridone and you will see what I am talking about. When you mix up the gel with one of these pigments it will be milky and act as a weak tinting white, but when it dries the gel will become very clear and the transparent pigment will really shine! Above all EXPERIMENT!!! You will have so much fun with any of the gel mediums. I personally love impasto so my preferences lean toward a gel that is as thick as possible. If you love thick luscious texture then you will definately like the Extra Heavy Gloss Gel. Of course, there is also a matte version if that is your preference. The colors will not be as saturated in the matte gel as in the gloss. Golden makes a great range of gels and I am sure I would love to have them all! Hope this helps.

[dspinks]

I use a mix of WN Finity, Utrecht Artist, and Liquitex Artist, basically what I've picked up over the years, leaning toward WN. I also recently acquired a starter set of Golden which I will break into soon.

Lazarus, is the shipping expense from Curry's to US reasonable?

Renee, I have a heavy body gel retarder (I think I got it from Utrecht's) that I use first, sparingly. If I need extra stiffness, I add Golden's non-retarder extra body gel medium as too much retarder can make paint VERY tacky.
The Artist quality WN is the Finity line. Whichever you prefer, you can mix the brands until you've used up your least favorite.

Pegleg, If you must stick to student grade, try a couple of tubes each of Grumbacher and Liquitex Basic, so you have more comparison. And as soon as you can, slip in a tube of Artist quality - it goes a long way and you will love the clean mixing. You can use the mediums from one vendor with any other vendor's paint.

Debra

[hamsterdance]

I ordered a sampler of Lukas Pastos acrylics from Jerry's Artarama. They are very different from any other acrylic I have tried. They are VERY thick right out of the tube equal to oil paint and after a minute or two on the palette even thicker!!

OMG! You just sold me on this brand! I've GOT to get me some of these!

Right now I use Maimeri Brera, Grumbacher Finest, Daniel Smith and a single tube of Golden acrylics - all of which I enjoy. Of the brands listed above I tend to use Maimeri the most. I kind of like the "feel" they have while I'm painting (reminds me of a slightly thinned oil paint) but as far as the finished painting goes all those brands are great.

However, from the sound of these Lukas Pastos (since I love painting with a thick impasto) these paints sound wonderful! They may well jump to the top of my list of favorite acrylic brands.

[Brian Firth]

Originally Posted by hamsterdance

OMG! You just sold me on this brand! I've GOT to get me some of these!

Right now I use Maimeri Brera, Grumbacher Finest, Daniel Smith and a single tube of Golden acrylics - all of which I enjoy. Of the brands listed above I tend to use Maimeri the most. I kind of like the "feel" they have while I'm painting (reminds me of a slightly thinned oil paint) but as far as the finished painting goes all those brands are great.

However, from the sound of these Lukas Pastos (since I love painting with a thick impasto) these paints sound wonderful! They may well jump to the top of my list of favorite acrylic brands.

I think Lukas Pastos are the thickest acrylic I have ever used and they have a good pigment load and great colors. They dry pretty quick, a little faster than other acrylics, I think this is due to their high solid content. I would reccomend the sampler from Jerry's Artarama (www.jerrysartarama.com) That way for a small price you can try them out and see if you like them. The individual tubes are also very reasonably priced. Let me know what you think.