Having been painting professionally for about 15 years I have tried out quite a few different paints in my time. Generally speaking when using acrylic paints for ‘standard’ paintings (i.e. where you don’t water them down) I have been happy to use most brands of paint that are not in the cheapest category. I do tend to use better quality paints for most of my paintings now though as I believe as a professional it is right to use high quality, pigment rich paints with a good lightfastness.
But, it is different when you are using paint for fluid acrylics because you do need to take account of how they work when watered down either with water itself or a pouring medium. Personally I only use water with white paint and add any other mediums to the other colours but that is just my preference and the way I have been producing my kind of liquid acrylic paintings for over 10 years.
In recent times I have veered between a few different white paints but I am now trying to nail it down to one particular paint that I think gives the best results for the way I work. So I thought it might be useful to do a comparison between the 3 different brands of white paint that I have used recently – Winsor and Newton Galeria Acrylic in Titanium White, Daler Rowney System 3 Acrylic in Titanium White and Jackson’s Studio Acrylic Colour in Titanium White. As I am based in the UK these are the best options for me here.
Firstly I will say that all 3 of these paints will work fine with fluid acrylic paintings but each of them do have slightly different characteristics.
Winsor & Newton Galeria Titanium White – RRP £20.50 for 500ml
Although the RRP for this is around £20 you can usually find it a bit cheaper. I recently found it on Amazon for £9.10 plus shipping which was the best price I have found so far but often it is around the £15 mark.
Pros: I find this paint to be really smooth and mixes easily with water – it dries to a really smooth finish as well which is not matched by the other two paints.
Cons: It is generally a bit more expensive than the other two paints but that is the only con I can find for it.
Recommendation: This is my favourite of the 3 paints because of the lovely finish that it gives but you do pay for that better finish.
Daler Rowney System 3 Acrylic Titanium White – RRP £14.95 for 500ml
Again you can sometimes find this at a cheaper price if you shop around. At the moment you can get a good deal on Amazon for the 2.25L pot which will go a long way!
Pros: It is one of the cheaper options so is good if you are on a bit of a budget.
Cons: I find that it is not as thick as the Winsor and Newton or the Jackson’s paint so doesn’t go quite as far. The finish is also not quite a smooth as W&N.
Recommendation: I will often have some of this paint in my studio for when I am testing out new methods or colour combinations – it is then still salable if it works but not so much of a loss in cost terms if it doesn’t.
Jackson’s Studio Acrylic in Titanium White – £11 for 500ml
Jackson’s are a great retailer for art products and I often buy supplies from them as they do have good prices (and a wide stock selection) on a lot of items. They also produce their own paints. The acrylic paint that I am looking at here is the studio paint rather than the more expensive artists’ paint that they also produce.
Pros: This is a economically priced paint for the budget conscious artist. It also is fairly thick and can take on a lot of water so extends very well.
Cons: It smells pretty strong. Not sure why but it does! It also needs to be mixed really well when you use it with water or else you will end up with lumps. In addition it will often dry with tiny holes in the paint which may be down to the fact that it requires a lot of mixing (this may well not happen if you mix the paint and then leave it but I tend to mix up as I go).
Recommendation: This paint is also a slightly bluer white than the W&N or the DR paints so if you are looking for a brighter colour this may work for you. It is a good paint if you need large quantities of it and also comes in a 1L pot as standard. This is also one that I will use for trying out new things.
Doing a practical review on these 3 paints has made me think about each one and why I buy it. Sometimes when funds are low I may have to go for the cheaper ones which still produce lovely paintings but if push came to shove then I would definitely say that they Winsor & Newton paint is the one I would choose for best results. If I do find it on sale then I will certainly get a few pots in to keep me going. At the moment I am finding that I will use around a 1/3 to a 1/2 a pot of the 500ml for a 60 x 60cm painting (depending on the design) so I can get through quite a bit of paint when I am producing paintings frequently.
You used to be able to get a 2.25L tub of the Winsor & Newton paint but I haven’t seen that around for a while. There is a 1L pot available which can work out cheaper depending on what offer you can find. It is around £27 on Amazon so at the moment the offer on the 500ml is better.