Paints and Mediums

If you are going to be painting or using any type of medium you should know a little about what you are working with. A medium is they type of material you are working with. Watercolor, Acrylic, Tempera, and Oil Paints are all different types of medium. All of these have different binders in the paint that binds the pigment together. These binders are what makes a paint that type of medium.

In Acrylic paints you have a water based binder called polymer. Having this water based binder gives the paint the quick drying that you get. The reason why I work with Acrylic is for this type of quick dry. A quick drying paint lets me go over previous work a lot faster. Where as with oil paints you might have to wait up to a week before you can go over anything or just to start a new layer. Acrylics blend very well together and you can easily come up with the perfect shade and hue that you are looking for. And another nice thing about Acrylic and it being water based. It makes clean up really nice. You can easily clean your brushes and palette with just water. No chemicals or paint thinners needed. A little soap can be used when cleaning your brushes but that's a whole nother canvas we will paint later :) How the binder works in this paint is as the paint is drying on your canvas, paper, or whatever type of surface you are using, the water binder evaporates. Water evaporation gives you that 10 minute quick dry. The water base in acrylics make the paint very versatile. You can add more water to the paint to make a watered down effect, or make it appear like a water color. If you hate what you made you can easily paint over it with white paint once it is dry and start over. And with a short drying time that makes it even better. And if you want a little extended drying time on your paint you can add a special medium to your acrylics to slow down the drying. It's called a retarder. There are different types of retarders out there so make sure you do your research and read the label of what you are using before you mix it in.

Oil paints on the other hand are a completely different medium. Before with acrylic you had a water based binder. This one has an oil based binder...thus the name. Different pigments have different drying times. Some could take a day to dry, others could take up to a week or more to dry. And keep in mind, the thicker you make the paint and the coat you are working on, the longer the drying time. Try to keep it simple if you are just starting out. I myself am not a fan of Oil paints. I don't like to wait to paint. And with oil paints you can easily over work the painting and by the time you realize it you can just start over in 15 minutes. You either have to scrap the canvas all together or wait till it is dry. Now some painters love oil paints because you can easily go back in and work with the same color because it is still wet. And some don't. Work with what you are most comfortable with. If you don't mind the wait Oil paints are for you. If you are not a waiting type painter....well you might want to find a different type of medium to work with. Oil paints and clean up are not as easy as acrylics are. You might need different paint thinners and cleaners to clean your brushes out. I also do not recommend putting a lot of paint down the drain if it is oil based. You are better off putting a palette lid on if you can or just dump it in the trash. I wouldn't recommend putting any paint down the drain. Acrylics you can do a little because of the water base in the paint, but I still don't recommend doing it.

Watercolors are pretty self explanatory. I was never a fan of watercolors. It takes a good hand and skill to master this. Too much water and you can ruin your piece, not enough water and you won't get the look you are looking for. I personally need to play with watercolors a bit more to explain more of what the paint is and does compared to the others.

Lastly, but not least you have Tempera. Tempera is another water based type paint. It is a thinner paint that when it dries it produces a smooth surface. It is very hard to put texture in the painting like you can with oils and acrylics. A lot of famous painters have used tempera, but more and more I think tempera is the lesser used medium. Tempera is more used for window painting and poster painting because of the thinness and the smoothness it gives once dry. Tempera paint dries very quickly like acrylic paint. Clean up is fairly easy. A little water and soap will do the trick.

Price Scale:
-Tempera you will find is the cheapest, and you get the most for your money. Thus why in most schools such as elementary and high school this is used the most in their art classes. It's cheap and cleans up nicely. 16 oz bottles of the paint range from $2.50-$5.50 area

- Water Color is a little more money but still affordable. This paint you can buy in the tubes separately or in a set. Usually you are better off buying a set and then buying a tube of the paint you use most of. Prices vary here from $2.00 up to $14.oo it just depends on the brand and the number in the set.

- Acrylics are about the same as watercolor. Individually the prices might be more but again like the water colors you are better off buying in a set and then buying the color you need more of...like white (for me anyway). So prices are from $2.00 - $14.oo.

- Oil paints are your most expensive paints. I recently bought a paint set for $32.00. I would recommend buying these paints when they are on sale. But beware...paints go fast when you are using them...and with high prices you might want to watch how much you are using and how much you are wasting. Just a little idea.