The Paint You Use

If you are interested in plein air painting you probably have oil, water soluble or acrylic paint already.  For anyone who hasn't here is my advice.

Acrylic - dries very quickly and is pretty difficult to use outdoors - now that I have said that there is a brand and I believe it is Chroma which can be manipulated longer.  At the bottom of this article I will include a link where you can get more information.  I know there are youtube videos with instructions too.  I have some artists in the plein air group that I started (Low Country Plein Air Society) which use acrylic and they are happy with it but they do keep a misting bottle near by to keep it moist.  I began with acrylics but only used them inside.

Water Soluble Oil - My first forray into oil painting, both inside and out, was with water soluble.  I thought it was ideal that I didn't have to be involved with turpentine  My fear of turpentine stemmed from those days of interior room painting with oil paint and the messy, annoying and prolonged time it took to clean the paint brushes.  So, water soluble was it for me.  I like them but as I watched my friends with their juicy and beautiful colors of regular oils I just had to switch.  The water soluble paints of today are available in many more colors than those of 10 years ago but they still just aren't quite as juicy and they still don't have all the wonderful colors.  One additional note on water soluble - you can use them with regular oil paints - yes, you can, but, they lose the water soluble aspect and you then have to clean up with turpentine or mineral spirits.  So, if you are out painting and missing a color you can borrow from one of your oil paint friends but remember to use turpentine to clean your brushes.

Which brings me to oil paints.  I love them and find the clean up just as easy as water soluble.  Yes, you do have turpentine to deal with but with the no-odor kind or Gamblin it isn't so pronounced.  For beginners who really aren't committed to painting i suggest you by the Blick student colors - they are large tubes of the basic colors and are very inexpensive (relatively).  For those who have made the commitment I have no single recommendation.  When I buy paint I just ogle all the various colors and buy what appeals to me - sometimes it is nothing more than a name, ie: Carribean Blue, a color that was introduced to me by Drama Tolle Perry.   I also love Radient Violet by Gamblin and the other radient colors.  The basic colors I try to buy in the large tubes (it is more cost effective).  You can buy small, basic, unfilled tubes into which you can squeeze some of your larger tubes so you don't have to drag around those large ones.  

My next post will discuss the colors of your palette both basic and the "everything but the kitchen sink" kind.

For those of you interested in the Chroma Acrylics here is the link  Chroma Atelier Interactive Artists' Acrylics

As a final note, I am in the process of accumulating some links which will help you find some of the items I have mentioned in my blog.  So, look for these in future posts.