1. Good products help you succeed.
2. All paints include three things: pigment
3. Paints are made with pigments rather than dyes.
4. Really great quality paint takes great skill to produce.
5. Artists’ paints cost money.
6. More pigment means brighter, truer colors, and cleaner, better mixing.
7. The best Artists’ quality paint is formulated to remain stable in the tube and not settle out.
8. Artist’s quality paint is formulated to last on the finished painting for centuries.
9. Great pigments come from all over the world.
10. All pigments bring different characteristics to the paint.
11. The best student grade colors include quality pigments at a slightly lesser concentration than artists’ quality colors.
12. Because they dry through two completely different mechanisms, oils and acrylics should never be mixed.
13. For your health and safety, always read the labels for information about how to use the products appropriately.
14. Artists’ quality colors are offered and priced in ‘series.’
15. Artists’ quality colors include permanence ratings on the tube.
The finest quality paints and colors mix brilliantly, offer the purest color, and provide the artist with all the essentials for creative, artistic success.  (to give it color), binder (to make it stick to the surface,) and vehicle (to help you get it onto the surface). Sometimes the purposes of the vehicle and the binder are served by the same material. Why? Because, by their very nature, dyes bleed into their surroundings. On the other hand, pigments remain discrete and stay where they’re put.  Every pigment is unique and absorbs the vehicle (oil or acrylic or gum) differently. It takes generations of experience to learn how to make artists’ color of the very best quality and stability, and with dependable consistency.  No news, there. The reason they cost more than house paints or model paints or some craft paints is because of the cost of pigment. There is a truly amazing concentration of pigment in artists’ quality color. When applied and used with the right techniques, the paint film will remain intact without fading, chipping, or peeling. House paint or craft paint, on the other hand, is formulated to last, at most, 10 to 15 years. Some pigments used in craft or model paints fade within months.  The best pigments come both from natural sources (minerals and natural earths), and from the lab (synthetically created pigments like phthalocyanine and quinacradone). And today’s pigments are more permanent and lightfast (resistant to fading) than any colors produced at any other time in history. Some pigments tend to be brighter, some more opaque, some ‘granulate’ (take on a mottled, textured appearance), and some stain the surface. All of these characteristics add to the painting experience and can be used to enhance the image.  Good student colors, even though less costly than artists’ grade, still make for clean, vibrant mixes. Direct mixing of oils and acrylics will lead to an unstable paint film. Avoid ingestion or inhalation, and always treat art materials with care and respect.  The cost of each series number reflects the relative cost of the unique pigment included in each formulation. The permanence that can be expected of the color is determined by the lightfastness (resistance to fading) of the pigment, the resistance to factors like atmospheric acid, and the stability of binder/vehicle. Winsor & Newton, for example, rates colors for all of those criteria with the following system, listed upon the tube labels:

Rated as: AA ; Extremely permanent

A ; Permanent

B ; Moderately durable

C ; Fugitive

Both AA and A ratings can be considered as permanent for artists’ use.

Liquitex rates colors for lightfastness by using categories I, II, and III. Both I and II can be considered permanent for artists use.

The "92 Incredible Things to Know About Art Materials" Guide was developed in cooperation with Winsor & Newton and with Liquitex Artists' Acrylics. Reprinted with permission.