Shall I Compare Thee?

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Rainbow Lorikeets

We all have our favorite colors and brands when it comes to oil, watercolor and acrylic pigments, some tried and true that we’ve used for years, some referred to us by another artist or teacher, and some bought on a whim when seeing a new color chart. It would be an expensive endeavor to sample every brand out there, but we don’t have to! Olivier Jennes, founder of the British arts and crafts website, WonderStreet, has made use of his contacts with artists around the world to compile three informative articles comparing the top brands in watercolor, oil and acrylic paints. He wrote to us assuring that, “We are in no way connected to any of the brands, we are just a blog with a passion for art and design.”

In his watercolor article, Jennes has compared brands of professional tube paint, student grade tube paint, pan watercolors and gouache. The comparisons take into account pigment load, intensity of color, affordability…