Student Grade Acrylic verses Professional Acrylic Fine Art Paints by Kimbrella Adair

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What is the difference between student and professional grade acrylic paints? The answer is the pigments. The ratio of pigments to the vehicle carrier (or acrylic and water). Student grade fine art acrylic paint has less pigments in the acrylic base with more water. Professional fine art acrylic paint is loaded with pigments. Often very inexpensive brands of student grade acrylic paints are mostly acrylic base and water. The better grades of student fine art acrylic paints (including some very good craft paints*) are full of pigments. I recommend staying away from cheaply made fine art paints. Curators, gallery owners, professional fine art painters, appraisers etc. can will notice when the artist uses poor quality paint. Poor quality paint may have a negative effect on the appraisal value of the piece. If a customer is ordering an original painting from an online image and receives the piece painted with poor quality acrylic paints they may return it. You really don’t want the painting returned because of using poor quality acrylic paint.  (The customer generally has 30 days to return an item. Return time for purchases may vary from state to state. Ask your local chamber of commerce for more information.)

Professional grade fine art paints are loaded with pigments and you can tell with one swipe of the paint brush. If you are used to working with the student acrylics the professional grade will take some adjustment. Acrylic gel medium will work when you want to tone down the professional fine art acrylic paints to what you are familiar with in the student grade paints. (See Grinding Pigments in Student Grade Fine Art Acrylic Paints)

*DecoArt makes a fine art line of paint called Traditions that are heavily loaded with pigment. I highly recommend the Traditions line of paints for paintings with a lot of fine detail.

Grinding Pigments in Student Grade Fine Art Acrylic Paints by Kimbrella Adair

https://www.maxgrumbachergallery.com/products/collection/ZBp9s7i1s_NfK36H
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/kimbrella.html
http://kimbrella.artistwebsites.com
http://www.kimbrella-studio.net 

Boosting student grade acrylic paints to the professional level is easy. All you are doing is adding more pigment in the blend of acrylic mixture. Adding a tiny amount of water to the pigment (powered pigment) and then add the pigment to the student grade acrylic paint. You will be using the student grade acrylic paints as a base and tinting the base. This process is similar to tinting paints that are used for construction. If you are using a liquid or paste pigment limit or omit the water.

When you are adding the dry pigment to the acrylic you have to use a process called “grinding in”. Grinding in is using a palette knife that looks like a cake/pie spatula and applying pressure on the handle to push the pigment into the acrylic paint. Scrape and push (not stir) until you achieve the consistency that you want. Some artist like the paint thick and some like it thin. It depends on the level of detail I want in the painting that determines the paint consistency. As you prepare the paint don’t add too much pigment so that it affects the adhesion of the paint. You don’t want the paint to peel off of the surface because you added to much pigment. You must put an acrylic varnish over the finished painting to protect it. I prefer a varnish with a UV protectant.

There are certain colors that are more prone to fading. Purple is a good example so keep that in mind as you are mixing your paints. With today’s modern technology purple is more stable than it has been in the past but I recommend contacting the pigment manufacturer for more details about their product.

When you are grinding in cadmium yellow into a yellow acrylic base the yellow will intensify. Yellow is the only color that will become more intense with the addition of more pigment. As a final note always wear a respirator mask when working with dry pigments. Make sure the area you are working in has adequate ventilation. Pigments are made from toxic minerals and may cause serious illness. Please read the labels on the packages and take proper precautions to protect yourself. If you are under the age of 18 do not use any pigments without parent and/or adult supervision.