Acrylic paints are one of the most common mediums for artists. If you're a beginner, you're probably experimenting and exploring the mediums. If you plant to get your first tubes (or cans) of these paints, then you're probably searching for acrylic colours online and wondering what to get. Here are a few tips to help you choose your new paints.
Why Use Acrylic Paints?
Acrylic paints are excellent for most painting surfaces such as canvas, wood, stone, fabric, and metal. Quick-drying and long-lasting, the acrylic paint medium is mostly non-toxic, water-soluble, easy to clean, and affordable. So, this makes these paints safe to use near children (and animals). You can find these paints in any colour you need, and if you can't find the hue you want, you can easily blend them and get the desired one.
What to Consider When Buying Acrylic Paints
Quality
If you're searching for acrylic colours online, you'll come across two main types of acrylic paints: student-grade and artist-grade. The student grade is cheaper because it has less pigment and contains fillers that weaken the pigment strength. The artist-grade acrylic paints are richer in pigmentation and have higher permanence ratings, hence their higher price. If you’re a new artist, it's better to start with a cheaper medium until you get used to it. Of course, you can use the artist-grade type, but if you're on a budget it's OK to skip that option; even some professionals choose to work with student-grade paints if they can't afford the artist-grade paints.
Permanence and Lightfastness
Permanence and lightfastness refer to the ability of the pigment to withstand fading over time through exposure to light. Pigments that fade fast over time are known as fugitive colours. Almost all acrylics are ranked higher permanence-wise in comparison to watercolours and oil paints, making them a great choice for artists who want their work to last longer. When buying acrylic paints, be sure to pick paints with above-average permanence ratings (of course, unless you're only practising).
Colours
When you check art stores you can easily get lost in the offer of colours. The great thing is that today you can find almost any colour of the spectrum. If you don't know what to get (as is the case with most beginners) go for an acrylic painting set, as it includes the hues that most beginners need. You can easily blend basic colours and create the hues you need, without spending too much on hues that you may only use once.
Acrylic paint sets are perfect even for professional artists on a budget. If want to buy quality colours, you'll notice that some are more expensive than others (although still much more affordable than oil paints). This is mainly because some pigments are very hard to get. Some manufacturers group their paints according to "series" with "1" being the cheapest and "7" the most expensive. The earth colours are the cheapest, while the colours derived from cadmium are about four times more expensive.
Some brands sell cheaper alternatives by substituting with synthetic pigments, but usually, they have a lower permanence rating and less colour intensity. You can notice this on the product by searching for the word "hue" after the pigment name. You can also find "speciality colours" such as fluorescent or iridescent paints that contain pigments that (on their own or mixed with regular paint) create attractive luminous effects. Some of these pigments aren't permanent, which is important if you want to experiment.
Viscosity
Viscosity is the consistency of the paint. Heavier body acrylic paints have a thicker consistency compared to fluid acrylics. The heavier body acrylics retain brushstrokes and are better for blending and mixing colours; the fluid acrylics are better for detailing, staining, and dry-brush work. You can think of heavy-body acrylics with water.
Drying time
Most artists prefer acrylics because they dry fast. This might not be the best thing if you aren't finished with your work. Fast drying might not work best for artists that have to mix paint and make blending effects.
You can change the permanence and drying time of these paints by using a retarding medium or by using open acrylics, which already include a retardant to slow down the drying time.
Tube or Jar
Most heavy-body acrylics come in tubes or jars. Tubes are small and portable, but if you need more paint, choose jars as they have more paint. This is a good way to save money in the long run. Tube and jar paints have a bit different consistencies. The pain from tubes is like paste, while the one from the jar is thick but will platen out when you put it on a palette.
If you don't know which one is better, start with the tubes. See how fast you'll use the paint and how it works for you (some people prefer having a small tube so they can carry it in their bag and take it anywhere). Jars are a better choice if you paint mostly in your studio. Fluid acrylics usually come in bottles with screw tops or drippers and are easy to apply the paint to the palette.
