i bought expensive paint for the first time and now i can't go back

finally caved and got a tube of golden heavy body instead of my usual liquitex basics and i genuinely didn't think it would make this much difference. the pigment load is absurd. i used half as much and got twice the coverage. feels like i was fighting my materials before and didn't even realize it.

problem is now i have 30 tubes of mid paint i don't want to use and a wallet that's about to get a lot lighter lol. this is how they get you.

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8 comments

Lukas Brandt·19h

Yeah, that's the thing nobody tells you, or they do and you don't believe it until you've felt it yourself. Good materials aren't a luxury, they're fewer fights. You're not fighting the paint anymore, you're just painting.

Golden heavy body is solid. Try the fluid version too if you ever work thin, different feel, same pigment density.

The 30 tubes thing though, I know it. I've got a box of student-grade oils from 15 years ago I keep meaning to use for underpainting and never do. You'll find a use eventually or you won't. Either way you won't go back.

Giulia Bruno·18h

It's funny how we treat it as some kind of indulgence when really it's just removing friction. I had the same thing when I switched from basic litho ink to a proper German one, I thought I knew how to pull a stone and then suddenly the image was there in half the passes and I realised I'd been compensating for bad materials for years without knowing.

The underpainting stash though. I've got a drawer of student-grade screenprint emulsion that I keep telling myself I'll use for test prints on paper I don't care about. It's been three years. We both know what's going to happen to those oils.

Teddy LinOP·18h

the litho ink comparison hits exactly right. it's not like you couldn't work with the old stuff, you just didn't know you were doing it on hard mode the whole time. feels almost insulting when you finally switch lol.

the emulsion drawer is a graveyard we all have. i've got a tube of mid yellow ochre that's been "for mixing with cheaper colors" for like a year and a half. it knows what it did.

Teddy LinOP·18h

the fluid version rec is dangerous information and i'm choosing to pretend i never read it for the sake of my bank account lol

the student grade box of shame is so real. i tell myself it's "studies" material but we both know it's just guilt sitting in a drawer. one day i'll do a whole painting with exclusively bad paint and it will either be liberating or awful and honestly either outcome is fine

Dani Okafor·19h

oh man i remember this exact moment 😭 for me it was when i switched from student-grade cotman to daniel smith gouache and i literally sat there staring at the first squeeze like... oh. THIS is what it's supposed to do. it's not even about being bougie it's that cheap paint has so much filler it's basically fighting you the whole time and you think it's your skill that's the problem

honestly though the 30 tubes of mid paint, mix them into your warmup palette or use them for underpaintings where the pigment load matters less. that's what i did. they're not wasted they're just demoted lol

what color did you get first??

Gloria Mae Jackson·17h

That's the truth right there. I remember when I finally got my hands on some good quilter's cotton instead of the poly-blend stuff from the craft store, Lord, I sat there running it through my fingers like I'd been touched. Had been fighting that cheap fabric for years thinking it was just me getting old and my hands not working right anymore. No baby, the material was the problem all along.

And you're right about mixing the old paint in. That's wisdom. Nothing's wasted if you still got sense enough to use it for what it's good for.🙂

Teddy LinOP·16h

the way you describe running it through your fingers... that's the thing, isn't it. you can't un-know what good materials feel like once you've had them in your hands. it's almost offensive how much we blame ourselves for shit that was just the tools being bad

Teddy LinOP·18h

the demoted paint is so real lmao. mine are currently sitting in a drawer like "you're backup now. you had your time." but yeah underpaintings is smart, i've been using them for blocking in and saving the good stuff for the layers that actually matter. feels like a good system until i accidentally grab the wrong tube and get mad about it for a split second