BRING OUT YOUR CREATIVITY
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Gallery
  • Blog
  • Store
  • Contact
  • Resume
  • Let Me Make Some Art For You
  • Prints
  • Painted Hats and Clothes

Art Thoughts:Are Student Brands Horrible?

11/8/2017

0 Comments

 
​Today I’m going to be exploring the question, are student paint brands horrible?
Student brands of paint get a bad rap and from my experience and what I’ve heard from other artists, they don’t seem to deserve it. I frequently use Liquitex Basics and Amsterdam Standard Series paint, both student brands, in my own work and these cards 
​were painted with Cotman, which is Winsorandnewton’s student brand for watercolors.
​Kelly Eddington, of Kelly Eddington Watercolors said of Cotman and Grumbacher Academy Watercolors, “They do everything that watercolors are supposed to do and their lightfastness(that is, how well they resist fading when exposed to sunlight)is very good”. Lisa Clough, of Lachri Fine Art, has repeatedly stated her preference for Liquitex Basics, sighting how their low pigmentation makes them easy to glaze with and how their matte finish makes it possible to draw over them with a charcoal pencil to allow for further layering. She noted in her video “Oil Painting For Beginners”, that WinsorandNewton’s Winton line, their student oil brand, was just as good as their professional line.
​Here are some other artists thoughts on student brands.
Yes...i have fabercastell student grade water color pencils and i have created amazing art work with them.. my art teacher told me artist are not dependent on branded art material. Art can be created with simple graphite pencil and any paper, only fingers do the magic..
I have colored pencils I bought (24 for ~5€ all together!) that work nearly as good as my polychromos. But I dont know if they are lightfast and the colorrange is really small... (only these 24 colors)
I now have good quality watercolour paints for their brilliance but acrylics have wonderful student brands that are affordable for us everyday painters, for practice or for selling. They are wonderful to work with
I personally find Cray-Pas Expressionist oil pastels (student quality) quite decent. I've done entire pictures with them They do have a professional line called Specialists that aren't that much better but cost significantly more. Also Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolors are pretty good too for being student grade.
I much prefer the Blick brand student oil pants to Windsor & Newton. I own and use both, but slowly phasing out the WNs as I run out. The smoother, more creamy texture of the Blick brand is what I prefer. In my mind the quality is much better for the lower price
​So why do student brands get hated on so much? Well, student brands don’t have as much pigment as professional brands, they have more binder. The colors are often not as vibrant. Something you’ll see a lot in student brand paint that you won’t see so much in professional grade paint is the word hue. That word hue means it’s a lower intensity version of the color. Student lines also don’t have as many colors in them as professional ones, but I don’t think necessarily a bad thing for beginning artists, as if you have fewer colors available it kind of forces you to learn to mix colors. I’ve also seen in stores that the professional grade paint comes in bigger tubes than student grade paint.
​Still, I don’t think any of this a reason to demonize student grade paint or discourage an art student from bringing it to a class. After all, those people are who those lines are made for. 
​Keep in mind, I’m talking about student grade paint for adults. I don’t encourage you to use Crayola or Prang or any of those brands marketed to kids. They won’t give you the results you want and they have terrible, really pretty much nonexistent, lightfastness.
​But Liquitex Basics, Cotman, Winton, and Grumbacher Academy are all high quality, reputable lines that will allow you to make beautiful artwork.
Another thing that gets a bad rap in the art world is working from photographs, instead of from life. I made a post about that too.
Here are my sources for this article.
"Cheap Vs Expensive Paint" by Kelly Eddington Watercolor
"My Top 11 Acrylic Painting Supplies-Supply List From Lachri" by Lachri Fine Art
"Beginners Guide To Oil Painting and Demonstration W/Lachri" by Lachri Fine Art
"Watercolor 101 Materials-All About Paint" by HulloAlice
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

      Never Miss A Post

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Sara Millett

    Painter of portraits and wildlife

    Archives

    March 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    May 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016

    Categories

    All
    Acrylic Floral Paintings
    Acrylic Nature Paintings
    Acrylic Painting
    Acrylic Paintings
    Acrylic Painting Tips
    Acrylic Painting Video Tutorials
    Acrylic Portrait Paintings
    Acrylic Portraits
    Acrylic Wildlife Paintings
    Advice About Art Supplies
    Advice For Artists
    Advice For Beginning Artists
    Animal Drawing
    Animal Paintings
    Art
    Art Advice
    Art Discussions
    Art For Stress Relief
    Art Habits
    Artist Questions
    Artists And Social Media
    Art Lessons
    Art Motivation
    Art Productivity
    Art Thoughts
    Art Tips
    Art Videos
    At Thoughts
    Avoiding Blooms In Watercolor Painting
    Avoiding Plagiarism In Art
    Being An Artist
    Canvas Choice
    Challenging Yourself
    Colored Pencil
    Color Layering
    Color Mixing
    Color Mixing Exercise
    Composition Tips
    Concepts For Paintings
    Creating Depth In Your Painting
    Creating Texture
    Creative Process
    Creativity
    Dealing With Difficulty In Art
    Drawing Animals In Pastels
    Drawing Glass
    Drawing Portraits
    Drawing Tips
    Eastern Painting
    Encouragement For Artists
    Famous Artists
    Fixing Color Mistakes
    Glazing(technique)
    Graphite Drawing
    Hair In Watercolor
    How To Work As An Artist
    Impressionism
    Improve Your Drawings
    Improving As An Artist
    Inspiration
    Issues With Watercolor
    Landscape Painting
    Landscapes In Acrylics
    Learning New Mediums
    Lightfastness
    Mood In A Painting
    Mood In Art
    Nature Art
    Nature Drawings
    Nature Painting
    Nature Painting In Watercolor
    Nature Painting Tips
    Nature Scenes
    New Ways To Mix Skin Tone
    Originality In Art
    Painting A Deer In Watercolor
    Painting Advice
    Painting Animals
    Painting Animals In Acrylics
    Painting Animals In Watercolor
    Painting Backgrounds
    Painting Birds In Acrylics
    Painting Birds In Watercolor
    Painting Clouds In Watercolor
    Painting Detail
    Painting Dimension
    Painting Experiments
    Painting Feathers In Watercolor
    Painting From Life
    Painting Glass
    Painting Human Features In Acrylics
    Paintings
    Paintings Done On Ampersand Boards
    Painting Skin Tone
    Paintings Of Animals
    Paintings Of Birds
    Painting Sunrises
    Painting Texture
    Painting Textures
    Painting Tips
    Painting Transparency
    Painting Turtles In Watercolor Pencil
    Painting Water
    Painting White Things
    Pastel Drawings
    Planning Paintings
    Playing With Paint
    Portrait Drawing
    Portrait Painting
    Portrait Painting In Acrylics
    Portrait Painting In Watercolor
    Portrait Painting Tips
    Portraits
    Portrait Tips
    Productivity For Artists
    Product Reviews
    Routine For Artists
    Routines
    Shadows And Highlights
    Sketching
    Sketching In Watercolor
    Skin Tone Tips
    Soft Pastels
    Sumi-e Painting
    Thoughts On Productivity
    Tips For Artists
    Tips For Beginner Artists
    Tips For Painting Fur
    Trying New Mediums
    Types Of Strokes
    Understanding Color As An Artist
    Use Of Color
    Use Of Color Art
    Use Of Color In Art
    Use Of Light And Shadows
    Use Of Underpainting
    Using A Reference Photo
    Using Color In Art
    Using Felt Tip Pens
    Using Reference Photos
    Videos
    Watercolor Nature Painting
    Watercolor Painting
    Watercolor Paintings
    Watercolor Painting Tips
    Watercolor Portrait Painting
    Watercolor Portraits
    Watercolor Techniques
    Watercolor Tips
    Watercolor Wildlife Painting
    Ways To Draw Better
    Ways To Improve Your Paintings
    Ways To Use Color In Your Art
    Wildilife Painting
    Wildlife Art
    Wildlife Drawing
    Wildlife In Watercolor
    Wildlife Painting
    Wildlife Painting In Acrylics
    Wildlife Paintings
    Wildlife Painting Tips
    Working As An Artist
    Working Through Difficulty In Art
    Working With Ink
    Working With Pastels
    Youtube

Privacy Policy​
Terms Of Service​
Contact​
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Gallery
  • Blog
  • Store
  • Contact
  • Resume
  • Let Me Make Some Art For You
  • Prints
  • Painted Hats and Clothes