Buying acrylic paints

Acrylic paint comes in lots of forms, but I recommend starting with the most commonly available form, in a tube. It looks kind of like a short toothpaste tube, with a plastic screw-on cap. Tube acrylics can be pretty stiff, so you may want to soften them with a little water when you're painting.

You can find tubes of acrylic paint at your local art or hobby supply store. I strongly recommend shopping locally, at least to get started. Later, once you know what you like, you can buy online (where prices and selection are much better). My favorite online store for buying paint is Dick Blick.

Tubes of acrylic paint look a lot like tubes of oil paint, and they usually are in the same aisle as oil paints. Be careful not to buy oil paint by mistake! The word "acrylic" should be on the lable somewhere.

Acrylic paint comes in different "grades" or quality levels. The best (and most expensive) grade is "artist" grade, the worst is "craft" grade. A good compromise for the beginner is "student" grade, also sometimes called "academy" grade.

You'll probably be very limited in the selection your local store offers. That's okay, you just need a little paint to get started. Buy what they have. If they have two or more kinds, you can decide whether you want to pay for the better grade. If you think acrylic painting is going to become a serious hobby or even a career, you probably want to start out with the best grade available, so you don't have to relearn how the good stuff behaves after getting used to the cheap stuff.

It is a common misconception that you can't mix different brands of acrylics. Don't believe it! That was only true in the very earliest days back when acrylics were first introduced a half century ago. The formulations used by the different manufacturers have all become so similar over the years that you can mix brands with impunity now.

If you can afford it, buy the "real" colors, that is, colors that don't have the word "hue" in them. If it says "Cadmium Yellow Hue" it's not real cadmium yellow but some artificial formulation that is supposed to look like the real cadmium yellow. I strongly recommend using real colors rather than "hues", because real pigments are much stronger in coloration, have better coverage and mix better. However, if you're on a very tight budget, go ahead and use the "hues".

The only other reason to use the "hues" is because many of the real pigments they imitate are poisonous. Some of the brightest colors are made with cadmium, which is a poisonous heavy metal like mercury. If you use the real cadmium colors (and I suggest you do) just remember not to eat your paint. If you're painting with children maybe the "hues" are the way to go.

What colors to buy?

Now we finally get to it, the colors! Boy, when you first go to the art store and see the dozens of colors, row upon row, it sure can be intimidating.

Don't be scared! Most of those colors are what I call "lazy" colors, that is, they're colors you can mix for yourself from the basic (primary) colors. You don't need all those colors, you can make them yourself (and it's better practice anyway).

Depending on your budget, you can buy a minimum of 4 colors or a maximum of, well, the sky's the limit but I'd recommend no more than 6 or 7 to get started.

The bare-bones 4-color palette: For the absolute least number of colors, you'll need these four: titanium white, cadmium red dark (cadmium red medium is okay if they don't have dark), cadmium yellow, and cobalt or ultramarine blue. This is a very restricted palette, and you'll have trouble mixing certain types of colors with it, but if you really can't afford more colors, this will do.

The recommended 6-color palette: I would recommend a slightly expanded palette of these 6 or 7 colors: titanium white, cadmium red medium, alizarin crimson permanent (or if they don't have that, get quinadricrone crimson), cadmium yellow, cadmium lemon yellow (or any other yellow that's a cool, lemony, almost chartreuse color), ultramarine blue (or cobalt blue), and an optional earth color of your choice (such as burnt umber or yellow ochre).

What about black? There's no need for black in the basic palette. A nice rich almost-black color can be made by mixing a dark red with a dark blue. True black is kind of a flat, blah color. You don't really need it, but you're welcome to use it if you want to.

Remember, it's okay to use paints from different manufacturers if you can't get all the colors you want in one brand. I use Golden brand acrylics for most of my colors, except I use Winsor & Newton's Permanent Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Lemon Yellow, because Golden doesn't make those colors.

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Articles on Acrylic Painting - Getting Started

Why paint with acrylics?
Basic equipment for acrylic painting
Buying acrylic paints
Painting with acrylics
Mixing colors