Acrylic Paints

[jim1215]

just wanted to know if anyone has any experience using apple barrel paints orn ones sold in craft stores like michaels etc..i was at the long island show and noticed some fabulous painting and found out a couple of well known and experienced painters used craft store paint ...reasons being price 1.19 a bottle , drys quick and matte , also the wide range of colors . please if anyone has used these craft paints please let me know , would love to get feedback , thanks james cicalese

 

[Einion]

These are usable for figure painting, just about; as a demo I painted the bust in my avatar using craft paints for everything except the metallics.

But they have some problems, notably with coarser texture and low opacity for some colours (the brighter colours generally but especially common with yellows and reds). Both issues can be pronounced enough that if you'd never used anything else to give you a baseline for comparison you'd probably still notice. The colours that are often the best are white, black and browns/earth colours so they're definitely worth trying out even if you only end up using them for groundwork and base painting

There is some variation in quality amongst this class of paint and the stronger brands are noticeably better than the weakest IME. There are a few threads on CMON about them if you want to go searching for more details.

Einion