Student Grade Paint VS Artist Grade Paint
Colour range With artist grade paint, you can get a much more varied range of colours than you can with student paint.
The reason why student paint doesn't offer as many colours is because it has a much lower pigment content.
If you want rich, deep colours, artist paint is definitely the one you should go for.
Colour shift Artist grade paint tends to have less of a colour shift when it dries.
In other words, it dries pretty much the same colour, whereas student paint tends to dry a bit darker, so the colour you put on the canvas isn't necessarily the exact same colour you're going to end up with.
Generally speaking, the cheaper the student paint, the more the colour will shift on drying.
Cost Artist grade paint is the more expensive of the two because it's made from ingredients of a much higher quality.
You'll notice how artist paints are split into different series depending on what raw materials have been used to create it.
The higher the series letter or number, the more expensive it will be.
Coverage You'll find that artist grade paint is the better grade of paint for coverage.
In other words, you should easily be able to paint one colour over another colour without any problems arising.
Mediums Mixing mediums into your paint allows you to be more experimental.
You can give the paint extra properties, try out different techniques and make it match your needs better.
You can add mediums to both grades of paint, but as you'd expect artist mediums are generally a bit more expensive than student ones.
Mixing If you want to mix colours a lot, you're probably better off with artist paint.
The reason student paint doesn't mix as well is because of the ingredients it contains.
Quality Of the two grades, you'll find that artist paint is the one that's of a higher quality.
You can still create a perfectly good piece of work with student paint, but if you invest a bit more and use artist paint, this better quality will show in your finished piece.
Skill level As its name implies, student grade paint is recommended for beginners and people who are still developing their artistic skills.
This is because it's a lot easier to master and it's great for practising with because of its relatively cheap price.
Artist paint is preferred by those who are at a higher skill level and are comfortable with paint that's a bit more challenging.
Spread If you want to use a little bit of paint to cover a large area of the canvas, you're probably going to be better off using student paint.
Artist paint, on the other hand, is better suited to finer details; some artists will use student paint to cover areas where there's less detail and will use artist paint for the finer details.
The reason why student paint doesn't offer as many colours is because it has a much lower pigment content.
If you want rich, deep colours, artist paint is definitely the one you should go for.
Colour shift Artist grade paint tends to have less of a colour shift when it dries.
In other words, it dries pretty much the same colour, whereas student paint tends to dry a bit darker, so the colour you put on the canvas isn't necessarily the exact same colour you're going to end up with.
Generally speaking, the cheaper the student paint, the more the colour will shift on drying.
Cost Artist grade paint is the more expensive of the two because it's made from ingredients of a much higher quality.
You'll notice how artist paints are split into different series depending on what raw materials have been used to create it.
The higher the series letter or number, the more expensive it will be.
Coverage You'll find that artist grade paint is the better grade of paint for coverage.
In other words, you should easily be able to paint one colour over another colour without any problems arising.
Mediums Mixing mediums into your paint allows you to be more experimental.
You can give the paint extra properties, try out different techniques and make it match your needs better.
You can add mediums to both grades of paint, but as you'd expect artist mediums are generally a bit more expensive than student ones.
Mixing If you want to mix colours a lot, you're probably better off with artist paint.
The reason student paint doesn't mix as well is because of the ingredients it contains.
Quality Of the two grades, you'll find that artist paint is the one that's of a higher quality.
You can still create a perfectly good piece of work with student paint, but if you invest a bit more and use artist paint, this better quality will show in your finished piece.
Skill level As its name implies, student grade paint is recommended for beginners and people who are still developing their artistic skills.
This is because it's a lot easier to master and it's great for practising with because of its relatively cheap price.
Artist paint is preferred by those who are at a higher skill level and are comfortable with paint that's a bit more challenging.
Spread If you want to use a little bit of paint to cover a large area of the canvas, you're probably going to be better off using student paint.
Artist paint, on the other hand, is better suited to finer details; some artists will use student paint to cover areas where there's less detail and will use artist paint for the finer details.
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