If they were good enough for Andy Warhol… Liquitex Professional Acrylic Artist Colour Heavy Body has the consistency of butter at room temperature, and is particularly good for impasto work and heavy application, retaining brushstrokes and even peaks without gels. Stretched Canvas is perhaps the most common painting surface. It has a long history of use, and offers a good support to ensure your painting will stand the test of time. Today’s artists have much more choice in the surfaces they paint on.

All discounts against RRP are made against the United Kingdom Recommended Retail Price (RRP). Unless specified, offers and vouchers are not valid on products which are already discounted from RRP, gift vouchers, books and from the I LOVE ART range. Meanwhile, some acrylic paints have a longer working time – how long it takes for the paint to dry – than others, making blending and mixing colours easier, but slowing down layered approaches. Consider what you need your paint for, what kind of look you are going for, and choose what is best for your needs. Is there a difference between cheap and expensive acrylic paint?

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The chemical properties of acrylic are much of a muchness from brand to brand. Where they differ is in their consistency and the levels of pigment they contain. We’ll go into pigment in the following section.

Slow Drying acrylics ( Golden Open Acrylic Colours) have an extended open time. This property allows acrylic artists to work with techniques usually restricted to oils. Best used in thin applications, these paints are not suitable for impasto techniques. If used in a stay wet palette their colour can remain usable for weeks – reducing the chance of paint wastage. The type of brushes you choose is mostly down to personal preference and your own painting technique. There are a few considerations to make before you take the plunge and invest in a good set of brushes. Long Handled and Short Handled Brushes If stretched canvases are too bulky then you may prefer to work on canvas board or painting panels. These surfaces are much thinner, so are easier to store if you don’t have much storage space available. Acrylic paints come in what I consider to be three basic types for fine art painting. These are what you will most likely be faced with for artist grade paints.As with any acrylic from the Liquitex lab, Heavy Body is at the forefront of acrylic innovation. The formula represents the latest in acrylic resin technology. Its low-odor acrylic resin base gives an increased open time and colors of great clarity and vibrancy, with minimal wet-to-dry shift. The paint film is highly flexible, durable, non-yellowing, UV-resistant and water-resistant when dry. Acrylic paints made from high quality eco-friendly water based pigments and finest acrylic emulsions. Professional grade acrylics on the other hand, are designed for professional artists and advanced students. They are made with higher quality pigments and binders and have a greater color intensity, lightfastness, and permanence than student grade acrylics. They handle better than student grade acrylics due to a smoother consistency. You'll also find that they have a higher price tag than student grade acrylics. Heavy Body Acrylic is our nearest paint in terms of viscosity and behaviour, but has many other characteristics that are different to oil paint. Try it out and see how you go. Each Heavy Body color formula reflects the qualities of its pigment. Colors that tolerate a higher pigment load dry to a more opaque, matte finish. Colors that are more reactive and do not allow as much pigment loading tend to have a glossier, more transparent, finish. Because Heavy Body colors contain no matting agents, the gloss of each color will be different. Characteristics:

Winsor & Newton: Winsor & Newton's Professional Acrylics are considered to be one of the best in terms of color intensity and permanence. They offer a wide variety of colors and is suitable for artists of all skill levels. Liquitex: Liquitex is one of the most well-known brands in the acrylic paint industry. Their heavy body, soft body, and fluid acrylics are widely considered to be some of the best quality. Short handled brushes are suitable for fine detail or small scale work. Their short handle means you can work much closer to your canvas, making adding those fine finishing touches easy. They are the preferred choice for artists who favour a precise, detailed technique. Synthetic and Natural Hair Brushes When you are squeezing paint onto your palette it’s important to consider the scale of your work and how much colour you will need. Even though stay wet palettes will keep your mixes fresh, it’s best to only squeeze out as much colour as you need to prevent wastage. Preparing Your Area Newbies, beware: there are many so-called ‘beginner’s sets’ that contain as many as 24 different colours. While this range of colour might look enticing, the choice is likely to be a little bit overwhelming. Far better you rely on a limited range and develop your colour-mixing skills. How much should I expect to spend on acrylic paint?

The best acrylic paint to buy

If a more economical paint is called for we are more than happy to recommend our new STUDIO Heavy Body Acrylic 200ml Tubes. They can act as a perfect starting place for someone looking to experiment with heavy bodied paints or, for artists searching to add bulk colour to their palette at a reasonable price. Not only that, they come in a robust range of 31 highly pigmented colours. Please note. Due to differences in computer monitor displays colour samples should be used as a guide only. There aren’t many hard and fast rules when it comes to acrylic painting. Sometimes the best approach is to experiment and see where your work takes you. Other artists prefer to do some preliminary sketches or paintings to help keep their focus. Once you’re settled on your composition, your sketches can be scaled up onto canvas. This can be done using a grid transfer method, with scaling dividers, pantographs, tracing paper, tracedown or even a projector. Use Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic Paint with Liquitex String Gel for some interesting effects For lightfastness, NR means “Not rated” – meaning that it has not been tested by ASTM for lightfastness. ASTM D4303 is the test method for Lightfastness for pigment-based artist materials. Fluorescent dyes and color coated micas are not usually in scope for this test as they are not real pigments with Color Index as such. Fluorescent colors by their very nature are dye based, they are known to be fugitive and cannot withstand the negative effects of UV light like most pigments. This pertains to all fluorescent colors and has nothing to do with a professional or student range of art materials. We do our own in-house Blue wool test for Permanence rating where we test all our colors.

Liquitex Professional Acrylic Artist Colour Heavy Body comes from the world's bestselling brand in acrylic colours.

Further Reading

The first thing you'll need to decide to choose the best acrylic paints for you is to decide whether you're looking for professional or student paints. The latter contain less pigment and have a more plastic-looking surface when dry. They're useful for sketching and more affordable for big projects that require lots of paint, and they're also great if you're just trying out the medium and don't want to commit to spending more on better acrylics. If you're looking to buy artists' quality paints, you'll notice that some colors are much more expensive than others (although still cheaper than oil paints). This is because some pigments are very hard to obtain. Some manufacturers will group their paints according to " series" with " 1" being the cheapest and " 7" the most expensive. Typically the earth colors are the cheapest, while the colors derived from cadmium can cost up to four times as much! Some brands offer cheaper options by substituting with synthetic pigments, but they will likely have a lower permanence rating and less color intensity. You can spot this on the product by looking for the word "hue" after the pigment name. With that said, I use some of the "hue" colors in my art and I'm quite satisfied with the quality. DPP stands for the pigment DiketoPyrroloPyrrole. It is a hybrid pigment - an innovation in pigment manufacturing where blends produce pigment with a balance of properties (i.e blend of organic and inorganic pigment). Organic and inorganic pigments differ in performance. Organic pigments have strengths in chroma and tint strength but are weaker in lightfastness and opacity; it is the other way round with inorganic pigments. Hybrid pigments provide an alternative, that help to bridge the gap between performance without neglecting environmental consideration. While lots of high-street shops create their own-brand line of acrylics, these are nearly always produced with poor-quality ingredients with low pigment level. One notable exception is Cass, a hugely successful chain of art stores that is popular with curious hobbyists and serious professionals alike. The company’s own-brand, eight-colour set will set you up nicely for a foray into acrylic painting – and the inclusion of Sap Green will be very handy for those interested in painting landscapes, since organic greens are notoriously hard to mix.