Okay, so I am becoming an illustrator, and I am wondering something about student quality and artist quality mediums.
Does it really matter what quality of paint or pencils is used for your art? I am very stingy with money and my materials vary from student and professional quality, so does it matter what quality of paint or pencil I use?
>>2516766
Pencils it doesn't really matter much.
Student paint is cheaper because it has less pigment and more filler. So it is also more translucent and looks worse and you end up using more of it anyways.
Buy the professional line of paint, and if money is tight then use a limited palette (Zorn palette is one of the more famous ones, but if you research you can find many different limited palettes). I also would avoid the real pigments for things like Cadmium colours since they are very expensive. Buy the ones that have "(hue)" written after it since it is synthetic and much cheaper and until you are very experienced it won't make a difference.
What surface you paint on will also vary in price. If you want to go cheap, then buy a jug of gesso and a cheap big brush, then gesso your own panels or even cardboard. You can also go to Home Depot and get them to cut up giant boards of masonite for you into smaller panels.
>>2516766
if you're poor, use student grade, no big deal
if you can afford it, use artist grade, it has more pigment so you won't need to make as many passes.
>>2516799
cadmium is also poisonous, so it's not exactly easy to come by
>>2516804
Really? I've never had a problem finding it. All the art stores I've been have it, it just costs more.
I also don't think it is that toxic. Just don't eat it and you are probably fine. If you are very worried you can use gloves when washing out your brushes so it doesn't get absorbed in your skin, but I honestly don't think cadmium even does that. Maybe lead white would, but that is not as easy to come by now.
>>2516804
You can use mineral oil, a bar of soap and peroxide to cleanse yourself fully after a long session of painting. It may compell you to paint longer as well...!
>>2516766
Your capacity to self-organize is more important than any individual material item (which can be replaced).
I'd suggest buying W&N Artist Oil paints: Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow, Prussian Blue, and Carmine. Then you can mix your own paints, to fill up empty tubes with.
Be cautious when using Cadmiums, and when you're done painting, try to study your hands under daylight if possible.
>>2516799
you should be working from a limited palette anyway, especially if youre a beginner
I'll post what I posted in another thread here.
I'm sorry for my late reply. Yes, I use cheap oil paints aswell because I'm a poor bastard, but good oil paints are a good investment. Basically, there are two important differences between a good and a bad oil paint: pigment purity and strenght. A good way to know if what you are buying is decent, even if it's cheap, is to check the ammount of pigments used, for example, a Ultramarine Blue pure pigment is a PB29, so, if you check on the back of the paint tube and that's what's there, you know this is at least not a mix to try to reproduce the original pigment. My cheap Ultramarine Blue is PB29. I also have, for example, two Naples Yellow here. One of them is PY42/PW6 and the other is PY42/PY35/PW6. Both of them are crap. The pure Naples Yellow is a PY41. So yes, you should check for those things before you buy paints, sometimes there is little difference between an expensive and cheap paint. And, in the case of Naples Yellow, I should buy a better one.Here you can find a database of pigments. http://www.artiscreation.com/Color_index_names.html
Now for strenght. The quality of a pigment is known as you add white. The more white it takes to lose strenght, the more different values you can obtain with it. And also, observe if it maintains saturation instead of going torwards gray (that's a characteristic of dirty colors). I hope I helped."
I will also add that Naples Yellow was a bad example because PY41 is rare to find.
>>2516869
Carmine or Crimson Red, essentially the same.
For Van Gogh, Carmine was fetishized as being the colour of red wine.
>>2516872
I have several 'fake' NY & the real deal.
Unless you're into painting skin at the level of Vermeer, it's unlikely that there is a point for the real thing.
>>2517063
To be honest what you are saying makes very little sense. A pure, strong, clean color is important for you to understand what you are mixing and to have a decently satured color for highlights. And I said cheap brands can be clean and powerful enough depending on the pigments used, and that you need to check. But to say there is little difference between one thing and another is a complete ignorant statement, and it goes very much beyond reaching "Vermeer skin level" or not. In this photo, a comparision between different brands of Burnt Umber.
The first is W&N pro, the second W&N student. The 4th, a cheap brazillian brand, that looks almost exactly as W&N professional line. You just need to understand what you are buying, but there is a lot of difference, yes.
>>2517069
What is the brand featured in the 6th lineup?
>>2517070
Águia, another cheap brazilian brand.
>>2517069
why are those steps so bad?
>>2516766
I don't use one since I don't paint traditionally, but I heard a glass (with black background, in can sit on a table or wall) is good for beginners because:
>you are a beginner so things aren't going to be good enough to be worth keeping them
>you can scratch off the paint after you are done with it
>you don't have to keep buying canvases until you feel you are advanced enough
>you can use it as your color palette too, where you can mix oils very easy
and if you want to remember your mistakes you can always take an overall picture of your paintings or pictures focusing on the thing you might want to remember not to do or do
>>2516799
This.
>>2517069
I think you have the wrong end of the stick. I wasn';t suggesting there is little difference between different brands or mixtures, rather that there is little point shelling out for genuine Naples yellow unless your handling is God tier.
>>2517533
Oh wow, I misunderstood you completely, sorry. And thanks for info.
>>2517596
Heh
Anyway, burnt sienna is a funny one.
W&N make one using pr101, which is the transparent red oxide in most other brands. But it doesn't quite have the same rich red tone.
I'm taking it off my palette to use Michael Harding's trans red oxide for a while to see how it goes.
Total n00b here: what are the chances of me harming my health and killing the air in my room if I decide going into oil painting? I have to admit that main reason (besides having to learn all about chemistry involved around painting in oil) why I consider going gouache/watercolor over oils is that they don't seem to influence my health in long run.
>>2516766
Artist quality is much more efficient to use if you,re using medium to thin and you might find the student quality frustrating at times. I personally recommend using cadmium red over any other red because it won't take over your brushes like crimson. I would also not recommend ultramarine blue because if you're here asking these questions you probably won't be able to handle it. I would just get the primaries and maybe a green or earth tone with a shittonna white and I think you'll be good.
>>2517616
One easy way is use water mixable oils. The winsor & newton ones are cheaper than the artist's oils ranges & use the same expensive pigments (usually).
Don't use water while painting, just to wash up.
I use low odour solvent for cleaning brushes (& olive oil soap for final wash). There is very little smell.
>>2516766
Materials don't make an artist. I have seen some artists make incredible shit using crayons. Not even crayola, offbrand crayons. It's how you utilize the materials that matters.
I'm not saying go buy dollar store paints, but student grade is fine.
>>2517616
You can get certain solvents that aren't as bad for you. Whatever you use though put the lid back on when you aren't using it to reduce fumes and try to have a window open for ventilation.
Don't eat the paint. Literally hundreds of thousands of people have used oils without harmful effects. The only ones that had issues were ones who would do things like lick their brushes or eat it out of the tube. You can also research which paints are more or less toxic if you are super worried.
