Student grade paint

A num­ber of the larger paint com­pa­nies have a line of “stu­dent grade” oil paint. Stu­dent grade paints are made with cheaper sub­sti­tute pig­ments and inex­pen­sive exten­ders. This allows them to be sold for sig­nif­i­cantly less than “artist-quality” paint.

If you are just start­ing to learn oil paint­ing, don’t buy the stu­dent grade paint. It’s hard enough to learn how to work with good oil paint, let alone hand­i­cap­ping your­self with the cheap stuff. Stu­dent grade paint doesn’t han­dle very well and the sub­sti­tute pig­ments are of much lower qual­ity. Because they use exten­ders and fillers, the paint doesn’t go as far.

If you don’t have a lot of money, buy fewer dif­fer­ent col­ors of good qual­ity paint. Get earth col­ors, ultra­ma­rine, and other pig­ments that are inex­pen­sive. You can do a lot with just five or six tubes of paint. Add more col­ors as you can afford them.

Robert Doak makes very high qual­ity paint that is quite afford­able, by the way.