King's Framing and Art Gallery is a leading Art Supply store in Canada, and we often come across artists who ask us about the best painting medium for their projects. Autumn colours is a great season to incorporate a splash of vibrant colours on your palette. The best medium to use depends on the artist’s vision, knowledge of the mediums and technical skill. Different mediums will give the subject a different kind of feel and character; encapsulating different types of emotions in the audience.
Good quality materials are very important.
Substrate – surfaces play a vital role in your success, but not just the surfaces, but the canvas needs to be prep properly for acrylic or oil. Choice of papers depends on relevant method.
Brushes – is an important investment! King’s has a range of quality various animal hair, blend and synthetic filament brushes available for every techniques and mediums. Suitable choices will depend on your technical applications, and the pertinent size chosen. The best practice employs the biggest brush applicable for the size of the painting, small brushes are best for detail work.
It is crucial to invest in good quality and lightfast watercolour paints. If a newbie; start with a limited primary palette, a yellow, red and blues, with a neutral tint, and learn to mix your own colours.
If you can afford more colours, get two primaries each, a warm and cool yellow, a warm and cool red and a warm and cool blue. In acrylic and oil add titanium white and black is optional. You have all you need to learn to mix your own colours and blacks. Buy a few colours from different brands and find out which you prefer.
Watercolours, for instance, provides an acquiescent, velvety smooth luminous painting. It can be colourful and have a more softened look. This is the only painting medium that can be lifted even after drying. Watercolours’ are ductile and light reflects off the white of the paper that bounces up through the pigment colours, giving its enchanted gleam.
Although watercolour, also known as aquarelle, maybe a problematic medium to use for newbies, but when properly handled, can be versatile and flexible, with unique technical application that is certainly worth pursuing. Check out more about the characteristic of watercolour here.
Oil paint is a very rich and vibrant medium. The pigments are suspended in oil, commonly, linseed oil or walnut oil and/or safflower oil and they usually give a luxurious luminosity that no other mediums can match. They have an extended drying time so that you can create colourful works of art through layering or impasto straight from the tube. Want to know some great tips and tricks of Oil painting? Visit this.
Acrylic paint is a versatile medium. When mixed with water, it can behave like watercolours. It can also be manipulated like Oil paints. Depending on the artist's technique, acrylic paints can look much like oil or watercolour, and the meshing of the two lends to a style that is unique in its own right. These are generalities; the outcome relies, of course, on the artist's method and technique.
Apart from the general characteristics of the mediums, there are fundamental variations between watercolour, oil, and acrylic paints that should be considered before selecting which medium is best for you. The characteristics of each medium could vary from brands to brands depending upon the manufacturing process and ingredients used. And since autumn season is upon us, we have compiled a few mediums to compare the favourite colours for your next autumn paintings:
Watercolour Paint
Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour Paint:
With the most exceptional possible permanence, Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour offers artists the most extensive and most balanced choice of pigments. The brilliance, transparency, and colour purity are unparalleled as compared with any other watercolour. The watercolour medium relies upon the variable characteristics of the pigments used. Our Professional watercolours use only the purest pigments and are renowned for their creativity, durability, and colour resistance. Shop for the Autumn colours: Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Orange if you want brighter, more transparent, and more solid colours.
Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolour Tubes:
Daniel Smith watercolours are filled with pigments of high quality using sheer gum arabic as a binder and with no fillers. Daniel Smith chooses the ideal grind for each colour to produce particle sizes that maximize the pigment characteristics, balancing the pigment load with minimum vehicle content. Beginners, as well as professionals, can use these tubes. So, if you are looking for beautiful colours, consistent performance and lightfastness, shop for Autumn colours Cadmium Red Scarlet Hue, Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, Cadmium Orange Hue.
Oil Paints
Lukas Studio Fine Artists’ Oil Paint Colours:
Loaded with pigment, LUKAS Studio Oils has outstanding covering strength and the oil and beeswax binder enables soft brushstrokes and an even-drying, powerful paint film. It gives an excellent lightfastness and is economical for the discerning artist. Lukas Studio uses refined linseed oil and sunflower oil due to which the tendency of yellowing is prevented. It gives a smooth buttery texture & consistency due to the beeswax. So, if you want to start with oil paints this Autumn season, shop for these colours: Cadmium Yellow Light (Hue), Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Red Deep.
M Graham Professional Oil Paint:
M. Graham Artists ' Oil Colours are produced using a walnut oil binder, an alternative to traditional linseed oil. Indeed, it is known today that masters of the Renaissance like Da Vinci and Durer usually favoured walnut oil over linseed oil because its unique refractive index and non-yellowing nature generate a more natural and brilliant colour. Walnut oil offers vibrant and dynamic colour. The bonus here is that M Graham oil paints are solvent-free. If you are looking for a solvent-free, walnut oil-based oil paints, M Graham Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Red light are the best Autumn colours!
New! Sennelier Oil Paint Sticks
Sennelier Oil Pastels (Pastels à l'Huile), manufactured in Paris, are made with carefully selected mineral and organic pigments, mixed with a specially formulated non-drying binder, and combined with the finest quality wax.
Sennelier's Oil Sticks are made from pure concentrated pigment, the finest safflower oil, and high-quality mineral wax. They can be used alone or in combination with tube oil paints. They can be diluted with turpentine just like oil paints. They dry to a hard film.
These creamy, very lightfast sticks can be used for sketching, or for producing complete works of art on any traditional oil painting surface.
Acrylic Paints
Holbein Mat Acrylic Individual Paint Colours
Holbein Mat Acrylic can be used as a painting medium or as a base for acrylics, oil colour, watercolour, and tempera paints. It has a consistency of butter and a distinctive texture that dries to a vibrant matt finish. It is a versatile medium that can be applied to various surfaces like paper, canvas, fabric, clay, concrete, stone, leather, and more. It can be used as coloured ground or gesso as the rich opaque colours cover everything. If your goal is to have maximum coverage in less time, shop for the Holbein Mat Acrylic Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Acrylic Orange, Vermilion Hue this Autumn.
Sennelier Abstract Acrylic Paint
Sennelier has revolutionized the idea of acrylic painting! They’ve come up with a new way of painting that is elegant, innovative, and handy at the same time. Sennelier's Abstract is an innovative acrylic scheme that comes in an easy-to-squeeze economic pouch. This highly pigmented paint features a heavy-body texture that still allows a lot of transparency, offering exceptional coverage. Perfect for all techniques of acrylic. Easy to store and carry. So, if you are someone who loves to paint while travelling, this is your ideal choice! Buy your Autumn colours such as Satin 541, Satin 543, Satin 545, High Gloss 545B, Satin 606, Satin 613, Satin 615, and much more!
New! Sennelier Abstract Acrylic Inks
Features the same high pigmentation as the abstract Acrylic paint, and much more! They are highly versatile; you can use these acrylic polymer inks in many ways from brushes and dip pens to airbrushing on any surface. These abstract inks come in a range of 43 colours which are highly pigmented, water-resistant (when dry), and light-resistant ensuring that your painting retains its colour over time. Deep Magenta, Chinese Orange and Primary Yellow, can be used in a glaze for lively Autumn shadows.
Autumn is the best colourful season! The best medium for autumn depends on your technique and the ultimate goal!
