Arteza acrylic paint Honest Review | Things to consider as a beginner

As you may know I have use and experiment in many different mediums. I’m always trying to find the best quality in the materials and mediums while Being mindful of my pockets.

Because of this I think me up always willing to try new this and give different lesser known companies.

I know, based on the title you might think I’m lying but, I’m not new to the Arteza company. While they're growing in popularity, I wasn’t familiar with them before I started using their gouache.

I loved their wide selection or colors and how easy it was to pick up the new medium...

There are a few things I note when looking for a paint I would like to use.

1. Fumes

2. Consistency

3. Texture

I hate strong smells and chemicals. I'm very sensitive to fumes and I have two little budgies that I need to protect. That is why I'm cautious with the paints that I use. The Arteza acrylic paints are non-toxic and I do not get any fumes eliminating my brain cells, at least non that I notice.

When it comes to consistency, I look for an opaque medium thick paint. I prefer creamier textures because they tend to remain wet longer, bring out these gorgeous gradients that I love and dry vividly. Also, with previous paints, I would normally get cracks when they dried and chalkiness. I think you can tell how much I dislike chalky paints.

the last thing i look for is Texture. I love seeing the strokes that artists make in their paintings. I always try to emulate this within my own work. Textures add dimension to works and make them more interesting to look at. I believe that having a good acrylic paint will do this without adding product if you don't want to.

Things I've noticed when painting:

I stood by the Liquitex paints for a while - and still do - for many of the reasons listed above. However, I had a very hard time mixing my colors. They usually came out muddy even when mixing primary colors. Some of the colors came out in sort of...curdled.

Yeah...sorry about that visual (gag).

I also had to use so much paint to get the pigment close to what I wanted but, even so, the colors were dull. With the Arteza acrylics, I found the mixing process satisfying. The paints didn't dry out as quick as other acrylic paint that I've used, there may be better ones out there but, I can only speak on my experience.

I didn't notice any muddying of colors. I bought a set of 14 paints but as someone that is still learning how to mix their colors I chose to paint this with only primary colors. Blending was not a chore at all!

Paying for this on their site was also very convenient. On their site you can choose to pay in installments using allpay. I did four installments of $11 and some change. This made it very affordable for me but you can still pay full price up front.

Other things to look for as a beginner:

I already listed a few that I personally pay attention to which were Textures and consistency. This is known as Viscosity

Quality which are either Student grad or Professional grade. The acrylic paints that I used were considered professional grade on their site. The Liquitex--which are still amazing paints, were student grade.

Drying time is very important

- at least for me. I still consider myself a beginner but,

someone who is always learning and growing. Acrylic paints have a quicker drying time than oils which is great but annoying if you're like

me, may need to step away from the desk to do something around the house only to come back with hardened plastic bristles!! RIP to all those brushes I murdered! There are ways to slow the dry time by using other mediums like a retarding medium. I don't use anything like this, clearly.

Lightfastness or Permeance is how fast the paint's pigment fades overtime when it's exposed to light. Acrylic paint is better when it comes to this. I don't know why exactly but I think it has something to do with it's build as it's a kind of plastic from my understanding.

Brands are important to some. To me not so much but other popular brands include

Swatches using only primary colors

Liquitex, Golden Blick, Reeves, and Winsor & Newton. I've only tried very cheap brands like Apple Barrel, Artist loft, Liquitex and now Arteza. The last two are my preferred because the quality is very good for the price.

Space is another thing to consider. Because some may not have the room to spread their art supplies freely, they may need to swap the larger jars for paint tubes. There may be a difference in consistency between the two like, tubes tend to fluid or pasty while the paint in jars are more buttery.

I hope this blog post was helpful and gave you a bit of insight on my experience with using Arteza's acrylic paints and pushed you into the right direction for selecting paints for yourself. Next post I want to talk about some basics in drawing that I've learned and the following post will focus on some painting techniques. I hope in the future you will join me in drawing challenges, workshops and simply draw n chill sessions.

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https://youtu.be/rN6QytSgxwU

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Much love and God bless