Acrylic paints come in a variety of grades and can be summarised as student grade and professional. Can you mix the two? Why would you want to? When should you use one over the other? What happens if you do mix the different grades? Will the world explode? Will the artworld disown you? So many questions! I’ve used acrylic paints every single day for over a year now and here’s what I’ve learned.

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Paint Quality

Acrylic paints generally come in two grades: student grade and professional (also known as artist grade). Professional paints tend to come in a wider range of colours than student grade and have deeper colours due to the increased amount of pigment compared to binder. Students' colors are cheaper but you will find there tends to be a smaller selection of colours and specialist colours may not be available at all. I’ve also found that, due to the increased amount of filler, the colours tend to be weaker. I have found that professional grade paints are more vibrant and lively and are often more consistent in their viscosity (how thick or thin they are) and this makes them easier to blend.

The ability to blend paints is key for me. I paint a large amount of abstract and landscape paintings where fine blending is required. I have found from experience that mixing the two grades of paint and cause the paint to suddently stick or drag which makes blending extremely difficult. Of course, you can blend in both grades but I find it harder if the two grades are mixed so I don’t do it.

There is of course a place for student grade paints. I use them for prototyping my larger paintings and commissions rather than using expensive paints. They are also perfect if you are just starting out but if you are intending to sell your work then I would recommend moving on to professional grade paint, particularly because you will want your colours to have longevity.

Colour Longevity

If you intending to sell your artwork then you will undoubtedly want your work to last a long time. Paints, like anything that is coloured, will be affected over time from exposure to variations in temperature, humidity and light. Fairly obviously you should recommend that your paintings are not kept in direct sunlight - UV radiation will very quickly dull your colours and lead to fading. But there is something you can do to help - use paints with high pigment to binder ratios, which means using professional grade paints.

A subtle point I learned was what is meant by the word “hue”. Without getting into the detail, hue simply means that a colour is intended to closely mimic a natural pigment of that colour but it isn’t actually the genuine pure pigment. This too can have an effect on how long your colours remain as you painted them. So put simply, use the best quality paints you can if you want your work to last.

So, if you ever wondered why many paintings are quite expensive it is likely to be partly due to the cost of the materials used as well as the skill of the artist. The benefit to you of course is that you can be sure that your painting will last a very long time and maybe even increase in value over time.