Affordable art supplies
Acrylic Paint Brands - Pros and Cons
Some of the best and not so great acrylic paint brands, in my opinion.
Liquitex Acrylics
Liquitex basics are a highly pigmented, medium viscosity, great beginner paints. Not all the colors are opaque. In fact a lot of the colors are translucent, mixing them with titanium white can help make your colors brighter and more opaque. Widely available in North America. I usually get mine from Michaels.
Pros: many custom colors to choose from if you are not great at mixing yet, affordable, pigmented, easy to layer
Cons: many of them don’t have too much coverage so you might need more layers
Master’s Touch Acrylics
These paints are bang for your buck! 4.99 USD per tube (4.1 fl oz), some tubes are 5.99. The large ones (8.5fl oz) are 8.99 or 10.99. They are cheap for what you are getting. These are available at Hobby Lobby and I really like working with them. P.S. keep a lookout for half off sales at Hobby Lobby!
Pros: affordable, viscous, can be thinned down, opaque, heavy body, high pigment
Cons: sticky, difficult to thin down, dry faster than other acrylics, tacky finish sometimes
Artist's Loft Medium Viscosity Acrylics
Cheap and great for what you pay. Not as heavy body as Master’s Touch Acrylics, but decent pigment. The coverage is okay, but you may need more coats with certain colors. Michael’s has frequent sales on these tubes, I have purchased them once for 2.50/tube.
Pros: affordable, slightly better than craft paint
Cons: not opaque enough in thin coats, need thick layering to be effective
Of course the creme de la creme of acrylic paints, the holy grail, is none other than Golden Acrylics. These are professional grade superior acrylics. That being said they also come with a hefty price tag. But totally worth it in my opinion if you are consistently selling your art work. Another student grade acrylic brand that works really well is Grumbacher; excellent paints. And of course Windsor and Newton, a classic.
