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Does apple barrel paint have good color selection?
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January 13, 2009 at 8:23 pm #987674
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For a long time I have heard several good arguements on both sides of equation for which one tends to be better. I personally use both, and find the quality in both are completely fine. Most often people are against the use of craft paint (unless working on wooden surfaces). I have seen many artists who use the craft paint and make master-pieces, and I have seen many artists use the professional grade paints create master-pieces. The only thing I have found to be concerning in the craft paints is the lack of the acid-free factor and that they may fade in time. The only things I have found to be difficult in the professional grade paints are the prices, and the potentially harmful pigments (which can of course be avoided when selecting paints).
So, I am stumped. Which type of paint is better and why?
-Zach
It feels like falling, but not falling down.
January 13, 2009 at 8:48 pm #1111429
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Some of the craft paints are highly pigmented and equal to what is now being sold on the market as “fluid” tube paints. Folk Art is one that is very pigmented and says right on the label, “Pure, clean, true waterbase acrylic colors, completely intermixable” so that’s one point in their favor. As far as the acid free tho it doesn’t state it, whenever I’ve used it it’s never faded, and I use to paint on wood, but at times would use it on a canvas panel in conjunction with other tube paints and that was years ago and none of them have faded one bit. Now I’m talking over 20 years ago so. Jo-Sonja is another used by many artists with regular tube paints or alone. These are highly pigmented, sometimes the others fall a little short which can be why too they might fade, but I’ve never had a fading problem in the past. And any I sold then no one has come back to me and complained of fading so I think they’re fine. If they don’t fade using them alone on a gesso’d wood panel I doubt they
would fade on any other. Most varnish, crafters or artists, which preserves works done in both craft and tube paint. But that’s just my experience. Elaine
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January 13, 2009 at 9:07 pm #1111428
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Interesting thread. I just started looking into craft paint including the folk art brand. It’s like a 1.50 for a 5 oz bottle and seems to have a nice fluid yet thick consistancy, and like Elaine says some brands advertise themselves as archival, but I can’t find lightfast ratings on the bottles nor on the manufacturers websites. Some of the colors seem to be made from authentic pigments. Does anyone know where to find lightfast ratings for these crafters brands?
Christophervasil.com
January 13, 2009 at 9:47 pm #1111427
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Thanks Elaine! I haven’t been painting long enough to really see if they fade or not. I frequently use Apple Barrel paints along with my Galleria ones and I still haven’t seen any problems. (I also love the simplicity of them. Took me forever to get a decent skin tones with the professional/confusing names of paints, but I found a good starting tone with the craft paints )
-Zach
It feels like falling, but not falling down.
January 13, 2009 at 11:57 pm #1111426
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I use both in my paintings. I had some from a long time ago when I first started painting for real (I’m thinking 8th grade so 1..2…3…4…okay 7 years ago lol) anyways. I use them right along with my artist grade acrylics and there are times when they give me just the effect im looking for…and I’ve never had a problem with fading (only rusting through on a metal table and that was poor prep on my side). As long as it isn’t harmful, and won’t fade, use it if it does what you want. -Susan
Art by Susan
January 14, 2009 at 12:23 am #1111432
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I love Apple Barrel Metalics….there’s been a number of my paintings that I’ve mixed just a bit of one metalic or another in with regualar tube paint (of various brands) gives a nice sort of sheen & shimmer to the color. I really haven’t noticed any significant difference in coverage, or “feel” in the paints. Apple Barrel in the 8 oz bottles is what I keep on hand for the grandkids…but yeah, if I’m getting low on a color I’ll use theirs as a substitute.
January 14, 2009 at 5:14 am #1111431
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I think there is also an argument that you cannot tell student paints from professional, or low-priced paint from expensive, or “hues” from actual pigments. Frankly, you get a Sennelier color and compare it to any student brand (Utrecht, for instance) and you can tell the difference immediately if you have any kind of art materials training. It’s the difference between a wine connoisseur and a back alley stew bum. However, being kind (sort of), in a lot of cases, the buyer will not know the difference, only the art critics.
No longer a member of WC. Bye.
January 14, 2009 at 9:32 am #1111424
For a long time I have heard several good arguements on both sides of equation for which one tends to be better.
I think there’s little doubt that craft paints generally (not always) are not as good as artists’ paints for the same type of work. Apart from the pigment choices that artists’ acrylics tend to have that craft paints do not they are sometimes made to a higher standard and would typically be a lot better in terms of pigmentation; up to a point you do get what you pay for.
I have seen many artists who use the craft paint and make master-pieces, and I have seen many artists use the professional grade paints create master-pieces.
I know it’s hard but try not to be swayed by the quality of the work created with a paint of a given type – a good painter can work with muck and make something that looks great. It’s no guarantee of any inherent stability or longevity.
…the potentially harmful pigments (which can of course be avoided when selecting paints).
FWIW I wouldn’t worry about that; as you say yourself it’s potentially harmful. Unless one makes a habit of sanding paintings, applying the paint with the fingers or spraying through an airbrush or spraygun ‘toxic’ pigments pose no more risk to the user than the ones generally considered to be non-toxic. Pigments have to get into the body in the first place in order to become an actual danger and the real-world toxicity of certain heavy-metal pigments has been consistently overstated; quite honestly the average underarm deodorant is likely to be more of a risk to the normal person! Einion
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January 14, 2009 at 3:25 pm #1111425
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I’ve used both for years but have drifted towards professional tube paints in the last five years or so. To be honest, if I get low on funds again, I’d go right back to them in a heartbeat. It beats paying 20 bucks a tube for paint and you’re working large and thick with paint, it can get expensive FAST. I still occasionally sneak in a color or two in the craft paints because they are inexpensive and sometimes Walmart is the only place that’s open on a Sunday at midnight. I love the fluidity and it’s basically the same consistancy that I use pro tube paints at once mixed with water/medium. I personally see absolutely zero difference in workability, pigment or anything else and I’ve been a professional, paid-to-paint artist and graphic designer for over 30 years using just about every product in the book. I have works that were done in 1978 that have not faded noticeably in all that time and that’s after years of being hung in bright rooms. One plus in some brand’s favor is that they dry with a flat finish instead of the high sheen that tube acrylics can have. This works well for me if I’m wanting to go back later with pencil or other mediums on top (which I do a lot). Once a painting is finished, it all gets a UV varnish anyway, so I really don’t see any reason to not use them.
Keith J. Hampton’s Website
January 14, 2009 at 6:55 pm #1111430
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Hi again, just to be clear on something I said, Folk Art paints are artist quality and should restate that it’s their Gold Cap Aritists pigments, tube paint in a squeeze bottle these can be intermixed between themselves and not muddy up, the other Folk Art colors are highly pigmented as well but since they offer every color under the sun the need for not mixing is the point to these. They can be mixed to a point but in general can turn muddy. Jo Sonya’s artist paints are connected with Chroma and these are not as inexpensive and come in tubes,they are permanent and are lightfast and carry ASTM ratings as your guarantee against colour fade. Her tubes run from 2.00 up to 4.00+ depending where you buy them and they do come in bottles for a little more but larger then craft size bottles. So just a little clarity and some more info…lol Elaine
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January 15, 2009 at 5:01 pm #1111433
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Hi there.
Re Jo Sonja paints. Years ago they used to be labelled “Acrylic Gouache” which was a bit nonsensical and were formulated to be opaque for coverage – full of opacifiers and fillers – which of course just limits their mixing potential. This is usually true of most craft type paints. Must admit it’s been a long long time since i looked at any craft paints though so could be some better ones out there?
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Acrylic Paint Comparisons
Acrylic paints are my favorite type of paints to work with. They’re inexpensive, and the color choices are almost limitless. I can stand in the paint aisle at a craft store and gaze at them for hours. The hardest thing to do is go in with a budget and have to decide which colors I’m going to take home. It’s a visual feast! If I had unlimited funds, I’d put one of every color in my cart!
I was recently looking at my stash of paints and realized how many different brands I had in there. I found that I was choosing paints at the store for the colors and not necessarily for the qualities the different brands offered. I started taking the paints out and playing with them with the purpose of seeing what the pros and cons were. Once I started doing the comparisons, I was amazed.
The 5 brands of paints that I did my comparison on are:
- Ceramcoat by Delta
- Apple Barrel by Plaid
- Americana by DecoArt
- CraftSmart by Plaid
- Anita’s
I started out with a canvas board that I’ve had since I was in my teens. I drew my design on this canvas back then, worked on it a little bit and then we moved, so it got put in a box and it’s been waiting all these years to be finished. I figured this was a great time to get back to work on it. I used this as my piece to compare my paints on as far as canvas went. I used a wooden piece for my other comparison for the same brands.
I’ll be honest and admit that when I took all of my paints out to look at them (and I have WAY more than what you see in the basket above – those are just the paints I use the most of), I found that I had more Ceramcoat (by Delta) than the other brands. One of the reasons for this is the first PRO that I have for their paints.
* The Ceramcoat line has an extraordinary amount of colors available, more than I’ve ever seen of any other brand on the shelves at a craft store. There’s a total of 233 colors.
I know the packaging doesn’t make the paint better or worse, but I really love their packaging. it’s so clean and simply. It doesn’t feel cluttered like other paint brand packaging does. I just can’t help myself. when I see that label on the front of the bottles, I’m drawn to them.
I used Blue Heaven on the sky of my canvas and found the coverage to be very good for a primed canvas board. Canvases tend to hold oil paint on a first coat better than they do acrylics, so it’s typical to need a couple coats of acrylic to get full coverage.
Lighter colors do tend to show the canvas through them, but the Ceramcoat paints give a really good coat the first time. It doesn’t take much to touch them up after the first coat. The paint is thick enough for a good first coat, but not too thick to make it hard to work with in smaller spaces.
Wood is a much more porous surface and calls for a couple coats of paint as a primer. The Ceramcoat did really well on the first coat.
Ceramcoat touts their paints as “America’s Favorite Acrylic Paint.” The paints are a bit more on the higher end of acrylic paints. Most stores sell them for a MSRP of $1.69 per 2 oz. bottle, though there are bigger bottles of the more popular colors in 4, 8 and 12 ounce sizes.
These paints typically dry within 15 minutes.
The Apple Barrel line of acrylic paints are ideal for porous surfaces and great for wood, kids’ crafts, and basic crafting. They don’t necessarily work great for canvas work, as even with a second coat, the coverage isn’t enough.
After a second coat:
The bottle label recommends using them for porous surfaces and that’s definitely what I have to stick with unless I want to do 3 or 4 coats on a canvas. I find myself steering clear of the Apple Barrel paints when working with primed canvas, but when I’m working on paper crafts or wood, it’s an ideal paint to work with.
The bottle recommends allowing the paint to dry for 1-2 hours between coats, though I’ve found that I can administer another coat on a porous surface within a half hour.
There’s a little over 100 colors to choose from, including neons (which are hard to find in acrylics) and they also carry large economy size 8 oz. bottles of basic popular colors.
The price ranges from $1.29 – $1.49 in most craft stores, so they’re a good choice if you want a good-coverage paint for porous surfaces but you’re working on a budget.
This is a brand that has been on US craft store shelves for years, though it’s hard to find much in the way of information online about them directly from their company site, Design Objectives Limited. I’ve got a fair share in my paint supply and they are a bit on the lower price range at around $1.19 per 2 oz. bottle.
I do like the Anita’s brand paints on canvas as they have good coverage and the colors are vibrant and very opaque. That’s one thing I’ve realized about paints that claim they are opaque. Not all paints are created equal. What one brand’s standards of “opaque” is. another brand has a very different standard.
Anita’s paints even advertises as being ideal for using on canvas, which is a plus in my book. The first coat goes on thick and smooth and there’s not a lot of touch-up required.
There’s usually not as many colors available as Ceramcoat, which is why I tend to go with the Ceramcoat line more, but I find that the two brands are very comparable.
AMERICANA (by DecoArt)
There is a total of 235 color of Americana paint, which is 2 more than the Ceramcoat line, though I haven’t seen the full range of colors on a store shelf yet.
American boasts a total of 15 recommended surfaces for their paints and 5 of them are non-porous surfaces, which makes them ideal for primed canvas, one of my favorite things to paint. Because of the limited range of colors on most store shelves, I tend to veer toward Cermacoat, but the Americana paint is almost perfect for one coat on canvas. On wood surfaces it is even better.
This is one paint that I would really like to buy more of, as I like the appeal of a one-coat wonder.
Their price range is $1.19 – $1.29 per 2 ounce bottle, but they also carry 8 ounce bottles in selected colors.
I’m fairly new to this brand and just recently discovered it at my local Michael’s. This paint line is made exclusively for the Michael’s stores. Craft Smart also carries other art supplies that are made just for Michael’s.
I was looking for some low cost acrylic paints for my 9 year daughter to start out with, since she’s always getting into my stash of paints and especially my favorite colors (she has good taste!). When I found the Craft Smart line, I picked them up based on the price. At only 59 cents a bottle, it seemed like a really good deal for starter paints for a 9 year old.
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality when I tried them out on my own projects. The quality of these paints are just one step below the Ceramcoat quality, but more than a dollar cheaper.
One of the downsides to this line is that there are only 74 colors available, so unless you’re willing to mix your paint colors, there’s not a large range of shades to work on complex colored projects. They’re ideal for projects calling for bold colors and also for kids’ crafts. The price makes them a great deal, especially if you’re working on a budget.
So, what did I find in my comparison?
The adage that “you get what you pay for” isn’t always true. Even some of the cheaper cost paints match up to some of the higher cost paints. The cheapest of the paints (Craft Smart) was almost as good as the most expensive paints (Ceramcoat).
It also really depends on what you’re using your paints for. Some are formulated to work on all surfaces (Americana) while others are best used on porous surfaces (Apple Barrel).
I’ve found that my paint collection is made up of a majority of Ceramcoat paints, but it’s not been out of a choice of quality, but rather the selection and the packaging. Now that I know what the differences are in the paints since doing my comparison, I’ll be expanding my collection to include more of the other brands and try to bring my paints together in color families, rather than brands.
What brands are your favorite? Do you have a favorite color? What interesting surfaces have you used your acrylic paints on? Leave us a comment and let us know!
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