Materials: Colors

HOW MUCH PAINT SHOULD I BUY?

For the painting in this course, you won’t need more than the smallest 1oz bottles. It’s definitely cheaper in the long run to buy larger bottles, but if you just want to tiptoe into this brand, the small bottles will be plenty. I use a lot more blues than I do reds, so you’ll see me using bigger bottles of those colors.

THESE PAINTS ARE KIND OF EXPENSIVE … Can I USE SOMETHING CHEAPER?

Yes, you can try. Golden is a high quality paint and the price reflects that. Another brand of paints, may have different names for the colors detailed here. Usually the biggest differences come in viscosity and pigmentation.

GOLDEN SELLS STARTER KITs OF 6 or 10 SIMILAR Colors … Will THAT WORK?

Those are solid kits and you’ll get very similar results to what I’m using. When we start to mix and match our paints, you should be able to substitute the colors you see me use with the ones from this kit. I still recommend you get White Gesso to act as a thickener.

I ALREADY HAVE A SIMILAR COLOR … CAN I USE THAT?

You can probably make them work. I’m going to teach you to match colors accurately based on the palette I use, but you can accomplish the same thing with slightly different colors. For example, we’ll be using Ultramarine Blue, which is a “warm” blue leaning towards violet. If you tried to use a cooler blue — leaning towards green — like Cerulean Blue, you’ll have some difficulty mixing colors in the same way. If you mix Ultramarine Blue and Red, you’ll get a brighter violet than you would with Cerulean which would come out closer to gray.

CAN I MIX BRANDS?

You can mix different brands of paint as long as they are the same medium. So, only mix acrylics with acrylics. Acrylics and oils should not be mixed as they are not compatible.