- Acrylic Paints
- Brushes
- Paper
- Tape
- Soap
- Suppliers
Acrylic Paints
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I mix the brands of paint, but I always use a pure pigment professional grade acrylic paints (made from only a single pigment). As we all know, the names manufacturers give to paint has little relationship to the colour, but some manufacturers have decided to be more transparent with naming, and stopped the whimsical or overly branded terminology. Pure pigment paints are broadly more compatible with each other as you are not having to contend with how individual manufacturers choose to blend a particular colour. Also, working with pure pigments means you need to own less colours, and use colour theory so you can mix; a good visual mixing guide book can be helpful but these also betry the colour preferences and perhaps sponsorship of the author who wrote the book! I buy from whoever is cheapest for what I am looking for.
A good reference on pigments is The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques, Third edition, by Ralph Mayer; Viking Press 1979. Understanding paint through pigments is about colour choices, and is important to achieving the visual impact desired. I don’t need to cover huge surfaces, so buying in tubes is usually fine for me. But larger works obviously require different solutions.
I use a limited palette, which changes from time to time (see below). I mix my own black, and haven’t found a red that I really like.
I’ve used Golden, Tri-Art, Nerchau, Talens, Winsor/Newton, Daler Rowney, Lascaux, Lukas, Schminke. I’ve not used Liquitex much. Pebeo, Maimeri, Lefranc/ Bourgeois, or Blokxx are still to try.
All acrylic paints as far as I’m concerned are broadly the same, but I like Cryla, Golden and Nerchau. I’ve given up on Tri-Art (hard to get and I dislike the new tubes. Cryla and W/N have reformulated recently.
- Daler Rowney Cryla, Golden, Winsor/Newton have similar working properties (buttery texture). Nerchau Rubens Premia is a bit more fluid-like. All have a good pigment load. You will very quickly learn that paint manufacturers are loath to tell users very much about the pigments they use. Golden is exceptional for its disclosure, and Lascaux virtually silent. Nerchau went to the trouble of sending me a list of their pigments, and I happily use their paint.
- I have never had a problem mixing paints from different manufacturers, even with the same pigment code, but caution is advised as variations reflect differently choices of the pigment material itself. There are some variations in the surface finish when the paint dries (more shiny or matt), but these are not sufficient to warrant exclusive use of one manufacturer in my view.
- I mix to get “black”.
My preferred palette colours: [pigment code: name: paint maker and their product code]
- PR 5: naphthol red medium/crimson: Cryla 512, Golden 1220
- PR 101: red oxide, aka English Red, Venetian Red: Cryla 583, Premia 612
- PR 101: Caput Mortuum (interesting royal purple): only made by Premia 614 as far as I know
- PR 108: cadmium red medium: Cryla 501 or Premia 308
- PR 108: cadmium red dark: Cryla 502, Premia 502, Lukas Pastos 4074
- PR 254: pyrrole red: Cryla 524
- PV 19: quinacridone violet/magenta: Cryla 429, Pastos 4062
- PY 35: cadmium yellow medium: Cryla 612, Premia 204
- PY 37: cadmium lemon yellow: Cryla 611, Premia 202
- PY 42: yellow oxide/ochre: Cryla 663, Premia 602, Pastos 4031 (also made by W/N, Golden, Tri-Art)
- PY 153: Indian yellow: Premia 212, Liquitex
- PY 184: bismuth yellow: Cryla 629
- PB 15:1: phthalo blue red: Cryla 139
- PB 28: cobalt blue: Cryla 109, Golden 1140, Pastos 4125
- PB 60: anthraquinone blue/indanthrone blue: Cryla 107, Pastos 4127 (also made by W/N, Golden)
- PG 7: phthalo green blue: Premia 504, Cryla 361
- PG 17: chromium oxide green: Premia 514, Cryla 367, Golden 1060, Pastos 4143
- PG 26: cobalt green: Golden 1142
- PBr 7: burnt sienna: Premia 610, Golden 1020
- PBr 7: raw umber: Cryla 247
- PBr 7: burnt umber: Cryla 223
- PBk 10: graphite: Schminke to paint the edge of canvases, rather than black (an affectation)
- Titanium white: Cryla, Golden, Schminke, etc.
Use from time to time:
- PR 149: perylene red, but this is a strange red
- PR 15:3: phthalo blue green, luminous
- PB 29: ultramarine, but only for mixing my black, which I don’t use much
- PG 36: phthalo green yellow, luminous
Brushes
I use hog brushes in the main.
Brushes
I also use wide brushes for laying down larger areas. I haven’t found the nylon brushes to my liking. I also have some sponges for effects, and palette knives for other effects.
I also use the wide brushes from the hardware store, a plastic spatula, a silicon basting brush, sponges and paper towels to apply paint. And of course my fingers.
Paper
Paper is a wonderful support and where possible I prefer paper to canvas.
Here is my opinion of some papers I have used with acrylic paints.
- Paper
- Arches 300 gsm hot pressed: takes a nice finish, but seems too floppy in the end.
- Arches 300 gsm cold pressed: a firm and good all round paper. Handles water well.
- Arches 850 gsm cold pressed: my preferred paper for all final works on paper.
- Dalbe 250/300 gsm handmade paper, bought in Brussels: lovely soft paper, particularly wet/wet, but will disintegrate with sgraffito.
- Hahnemuhle 300 gsm cold pressed: didn’t like being very wet; handling at this weight is not very good.
- Hahnemuhle 450 gsm cold pressed: reasonably good weight, but has a mechanical texture; handling at this weight is good.
- St Cuthberts Mill (Saunders Waterford) 425 gsm cold pressed: nice paper.
- Strathmore cold pressed 300 gsm: ok for sketching.
Conclusions:
- the edge of the paper (straight cut or deckled) is important and part of the handmade process; I prefer to frame showing the deckled edges, so advise clients to float the picture, rather than mask it. Having said that, many people do not like to see the edge and the matte will inevitably cover some image.
- anything under 300 gsm is for sketching and not suitable for selling; the exception is high quality handmade paper which will usually be around 250 gsm. Such papers have real character and add to the finished work, but are not very forgiving when worked heavily, unless there is an effect to be achieved.
- St Cuthberts, Arches make very good paper.
- Tape
Tape
- Many artists advise using brown gummed paper tape for securing paper to a surface. It is expensive and messy. I don’t like this approach. I certainly don’t recommend using a staple gun, either, as I’ve seen some academics advise!
As the paper gets heavier, though, you will find the tape less useful. When I work with 850 gsm paper, the tape is really just to mask the edge rather than hold it to the plywood base I use.
I prefer to use the green painters’ tape, available in North America, but not sold in Europe as far as I can tell, despite being made by Henkel of Germany. The advantage over regular masking tape is that it isn’t very sticky, and comes in various widths. Paint supply stores in Europe will sell this type of tape made by other companies, but I think the green tape is best value for money.
If I want to bleed the work to the edge of the paper, then I work on a flat surface.
I attach the paper to either plexiglass sheets (but after awhile they will scratch. I also had a 4×8 panel of quarter-inch (metric?) plywood cut into various sized shapes. I then marked a simple measurement grid on the wood to guide positioning with the tape.
If you are worried about the tape pulling on the paper, simply use the tape to remove lint from the carpet or your clothes, which dulls the tackiness and makes it come away a bit easier. Buy tape in bulk.
Soap
- Soap
- Soap
I wash my brushes in the cheapest soap I can buy from the supermarket. It is white and comes in packs of 3 bars at a cost of perhaps £0.15 or $0.25 per pack. Simple and much less expensive than the branded products and achieves the same result. This works, of course, with acrylics and watercolours.
All you want is to clean the brush as the hairs are essentially dead material; if you are moved otherwise, you can always use shampoo and conditioner if you believe the ads on TV!
Suppliers
