Paint Brands: Professional vs Student grade

I have rewritten this blog post, to see it go to: 

katherinegriffinstudio.com

The most perfect paint brand that money can buy is...the one that you most prefer. :) Which could potentially sound frustrating and expensive and wasteful, but it isn't. Finding a good brand for a good price is easy, but finding a bad brand for a good price is also easy.

Let's quickly talk about what makes a paint good or bad, and then we will get into brands. 

Straight out of the tube, a bad paint can very easily masquerade as a good paint. The color and texture could all seem adequate, but once the beginner starts painting they will meet with nothing but frustration. Here is why: 

The lefthand square is my illustrated version of a student-grade, cheap, poorly made paint. The righthand square is a high quality, well-made paint. As you can see, the purple pigments of the poor paint are uneven and lacking in quantity. Paint makers make up for the lack of pigment by adding fillers to the paint in order to add more body to it. This would be like adding corn starch to a soup in order to thicken it. The same way that starch does not alter the flavor of the soup, the fillers do nothing to the color, but they do thicken the mixture.    

Fillers are a problem because while they do not alter a single tube's color, once you start mixing different colors together the amount of filler to pigment is overwhelming and you end up with mud. Fillers also make it difficult for paint to stretch, and you will need to use a larger amount of paint from a poor grade to cover a canvas than you would from a professional grade. 

Now let's get into brands. Not all brands are created equal, and therefore not all brands are within my budget. Below is a list of brands that are worth your money. The list is according to each brand's price for the color Yellow Ochre and it is arranged from most expensive to least. I picked Yellow Ochre because it is color everyone needs, a paint every company makes, and it is a Series 1. I also included each brand's most expensive paint in order to show range. This list, however, does not rate quality.

Note: The "Blick Price" is referring to the site Dick Blick Art Supplies. They always have great prices, and I arranged the prices for the items according to their price point when possible. Please note that their prices do fluctuate, so this list will not always be exact, but pretty close. As you can see two are not sold on Dick Blick's website. Please note that if you purchase the paints from other sites, not only will the prices most likely be different, but the arrangement of brands will be as well. 

A few brands that you should avoid are Winton by Winsor and Newton, Grumbacher Artisan Paints by Grumbacher, and Utrecht. 

Both Winton and Grumbacher Artisan are their respective company's student brand and should be avoided. Utrecht, decades ago, was THE paint to have; however, now they have been purchased twice over and both times the quality significantly suffered.  

However, how do all of these paints rate amongst fellow artists? Great question: 

Note: As you can see, some of the paints that I included in my own list of professional paints are not included in the final poll (Rembrandt, Vasari, Grumbacher), however I included them because I have read many a review from other sites about them. Please remember that the above poll, while a great one and a good comparison, is one of many and not the final say, for sure. 
I have also included one 3% in my list, and that is Blue Ridge. Blue Ridge is a one-man-show with a small but faithful cliental. I personally would love to try his paints. Maybe next time I need something I will. 

This was a poll, taken on the site Making A Mark, of 30 "professional quality paints" with 74 respondents. To read more about the poll read here and here.  

But which paints are worth purchasing? Do I go more expensive or cheap? To be honest, I am sure that the more expensive paints are luxurious, but not necessary. I find little need, unless you have lots of moneys, to purchase the poll's top three and my own most expensive top seven. That being said, however, I would also not purchase anything below Blue Ridge on the poll. 

So which brand should you try out? Finally, I am going to answer this. Any beginner would be more than happy with M. Graham, Gamblin, Grumbacher, or Winsor and Newton. 

But what do I personally use? Primarily M. Graham. For a few reasons: their price, general availability, and their environmental work ethic. Their facilities are completely solar powered, and they do not use any type of solvent to clean their machines. Each color is made by one person, and the paints are of a solid quality. 

At M. Graham, we've made conscious choices about our product, our processes and our materials -- all with an eye towards protecting and preserving our people and our environment.

I will be writing more on "Going Green" as an oil artist later. Also, on occasion I use Grumbacher and Gamblin. I actually prefer their tubes; the tube opening is smaller and allows for better control when dispensing paint. 

If you have any questions or better ideas about paint brands, please leave a comment! For more about painting check out my main Tips and Techniques page.