Best Cheap Paints and surface

Im getting into painting myself, still in my first tubes of windsor and newton myself. I like thick oils and paint wet on wet, and these slightly more expensive paints feel so much better than the cheap thinner oils I got to start.

>>3059662
Cheapest? go to blick.com and find them.

You answered your own questions. Cheap paint will have bad color, will separate, and will be hard to work with.

You don't need 75ml tubes unless you're doing huge canvases, and wasting paint. The small tubes are fine for traditional techniques on smaller boards, like 8x10. Cost? Depends on the brand and the pigments - ultramarine, the real stuff, will always be expensive because they have to crush a gemstone, lapis lazuli, to make it. Cheapest painting surface? Cardboard, with gesso. If you're scraping canvases, then who cares? Use cardboard. As long as it's flat, and on gesso, it's all the same. You're not keeping the paintings anyway. Another source is going to Goodwill and junk shops, and buying shitty framed are, and gessoing over them. You even get a frame with it.
If you're learning to paint, you don't need more than this:
http://www.dickblick.com/items/00418-1129/
Again, you don't need 75ml tubes, for traditional painting, except maybe white, and that should last you years. You should be using more than a dime sized blob of paint at a time, for a average sized panel, like 8x10, and you only need a handful of colors, and be learning to mix the rest with them. Larger tubes like 75ml last me years, in oils.

Art supply shop worker here.

For Oil I'd recommend either Gamblin 1980 or Winsor Newton Winton. They're both student lines but as far as student paints go they're pretty high quality. I know alot of professionals use them for underpainting or just use them if they're cheap bastards.

For acrylic I'd say try Amsterdam. Again, they're student grade but they're not awful and they make a ton of colors so you don't have to do a lot of mixing which isn't good on lower end paints.

For surface, Burch panels with gesso are sturdy and cheap but can warp. Fredrix makes a line of canvas sheet pads that are pretty nice.

Don't use Georgian, don't use anything Sargent, and don't use Daler Rowney system 3.

Also avoid shopping at Dick Blick if you can. They're a garbage company with a shit head CEO and literally every other art supply company hates them. They're on Walmart level.

>>3059791
Ultramarine is actually fairly cheap as far as high end paint goes since the pigment is fairly inexpensive.

OP if you do decide to buy some higher end stuff you can start with earth tones and whites, since they are all series 1 usually and as a result cheaper. Avoid stuff like Cadmiums that are gonna be higher series.

I actually highly recommend Ultramarine blue since it's a really strong deep blue but will mix with other colors easily.

>>3059791
>Goodwill and junk shops, and buying shitty framed are, and gessoing over them
I Never thought about that. I will definitely check it out. As far as those 75ml being enough, I am blowing through them. Maybe I should lay on the paint lighter. I have been laying it on really thick.

>>3059821
>For Oil I'd recommend either Gamblin 1980 or Winsor Newton Winton
>>3059821
>Don't use Georgian, don't use anything Sargent, and don't use Daler Rowney system 3

Thanks for the info. I already bought a bunch of Georgian, but I will be out in a few more months. Then I will restock on those or probably even before I run out of my current so i can do a side by side comparison.

The only thing is if I dont go to blick then where? there is nothing but a hobby lobby and a michaels near me. Blick was where i was thinking of going. I can get some colors of your recommended brands on amazon but I am having a hard time finding all my favorite colors. I almost only use ultramarine or cobalt blue, Cad red and yellow, burnt umber and sienna, zinc white.

Blick is looking like a good option. Is it only a moral problem you have with them? their prices and products seem fair.

Dont buy cheap oil paint. Get midrange brands like gamblin. If you are very poor, Get a tube of titanium white and a tube of ivory black and work in greyscale. Thats how a lot of ateliers have you starting anyway. Then when you get comfortable with that, get bunt umber and you can do warm and cool. (Burnt umber is warm and black is cool)

Then you can add from there, the only expensive colors you really want are cadmuims anyway.

My list of reccomended colors for a palate would be
titanuim white
titanuim yellow
Cadmuim yellow med
Alizarin crimson
Cadmuim red light
Burnt sienna
Ivory black
Burnt/raw umber
Ultramarine blue

And maybe if you want some others:

Pthalo blue
Sap green or viridian
Cadmium orange or cad yellow deep
Dioxazine violet
Yellow ochre

But seriously, cheap oil paints are a waste of money.

Ugh sorry for spelling

Georgian are no worse than any other student range of oil paints. You don't like the oil separation and dull colours? Prepare to pay £30 a tube (or however much that is in yank money) for some artists quality paints, then, becaue you'll get that with Winton and Van Gogh and any other budget oil range out there.

How about the brushes and surfaces? Is canvas needed or can I use oil in like a 300 gsm sketchbook?

>>3059896
you can paint on anything, but if you're painting oil on paper then prime it first because the oil will keep soaking into the paper, turning it translucent and making the paint chalky. I have heard it said countless times that oil rots paper over time but I honestly believe that's just another bullshit artists myth (there are so many when it comes to oil paint), because I've never once seen any photographic or archival evidence of it.

You can paint on anything hard. Just prime it first. Mdf wood ect. Shit that you find on the street or near dumpsters could work.

>>3059896
I have tried heavy weight paper, cardboard, and just some hardy board from home depo. All of it seems to warp aside from the thick hardy board when primed in a heavy frame (not like a hang on ur wall frame, just some heavy clamped wood.)

Shit hasnt worked great for me. Every thing warps. Annons above already suggested canvas, canvas pads, and burch boards. I intend to try them this month.

>>3059912
If you're painting on hard wood you don't even really need to prime it.

>>3059837
Yeah it's mostly a moral thing. They're the biggest competitor of the company I work for, and the CEO is just a money grubbing asshole.

Like I said if you can avoid it yeah but sometimes you gotta.

Hobby Lobby is just shit as far as selection goes. If you don't have any small businesses near you Id say even Amazon is worth a look.

>>3059896
Arches makes a line a watercolor paper that's been primed for oil painting. You can find it in pad form as well. It's pricy for paper but it works well and won't destroy your wallet like a single canvas would.

>>3059919

I would recommend a primer anyway for wood. If the wood is too textured it'll eat up his brushes and absorb paint too fast and if it's too slick it'll just feel weird. Either way will just cause OP to waste paint.

One more piece of advice I'll give is this.

If you buy cheap paint, save up and buy yourself one good tube of paint. Gamblin or Winsor Newton, but if you can afford it try Williamsburg, Holbein, or Old Holland if you wanna get crazy. Old Holland is super old school, they even still sell Cremtitz White which will straight up kill you. Just find a nice color and use it sparingly to appreciate the difference in quality. Kings Blue seems to be a popular color.

>>3059821
>Dick Blick
what's wrong with Blick?