Cheap vs. Expensive OIL PAINTS: Which One Wins?

I have both the really cheap stuff and the more expensive paints. The cheap paints I just use for sketchbook stuff and fooling around with, when I'm having a bit of fun. My expensive paints are for anything more serious. I might use the cheaper stuff if all I'm doing is creating prints from it, exclusively. But, for selling originals, it's the expensive paints and no compromises. Some of my expensive paints are like your Williamsburg paints when it comes to price...nearly $70 for a 40ml tube! A 150ml tube can cost up to $195! Depending on the series, of course. I think, if you're on a budget and wanting relatively good paint, a student grade paint is perfectly good to use, especially when it's from one of the better brands. But, if you want to just play around with some paint and not be too serious about it, any paint will do. They're really just a "suck it and see" proposition, something to whet your appetite. They'd be perfectly good for kids, to get them into doing art. So, they maybe cheap but they have their uses😊

The exact same tube of green paint cost you just 30 dollars in Chile!!

The most expensive tube of Williamsburg (37m) here in Chile cost $57 dolars, we have the absolut best prices in the planet, it really crazy, the titanium white is just 8 bucks

I enjoyed this video, but was kind of familiar with the subject having painted for years. It would have been nice to see the demo for the exact same painting to compare apples to apples, but I like the Williamsburg paints over the existing painting. Really shows the coverage.

It would be interesting to see a comparison of “student” grade paints, like Winton by Windsor Newton or Van Gogh by Talons, to professional grade. I have some large tubes of Winton paints that I bought back in college (won’t say how long ago that was) that I use. The coverage seems good, but the paint is thicker and less fluid so I have to use medium with it.

I appreciate this lesson, because it's a question I've been asking for myself. I use paints in the medium price range, so I'm assuming they will perform better than the very cheap but not as well as the more expensive. Thank you.

Yes! Thank you for this video. The "proof is in the pudding" (or maybe the pigment in this case). I wonder what the "middle ground" paints would be like? (NOT the most expensive and NOT the least expensive).😃

La verdad no se por que le llaman pintura de estudiantes , los estudiantes deberían usar las mejores pinturas, aprender a pintar con pinturas baratas es ta difícil como aprender a tocar el piano en un piano barato y desafinado

Right, cheap paint, fillers and less pigment. Not super cheap but, a student grade like Gamblin 1980 for an OMS thinned out underpainting then quality paint for final finish layer. Something like the old masters did, earth and cheaper colors for underpainting and costly precious pigments for the finish layer.

Thanks for this information.

I appreciate your explanation of the different characteristics and what is good and bad. Overall a good video. Thank you.

And just a clarification, maybe this was understood, but maybe not. When you say "series" of Williamsburg paints what you are referring to is the price point. All Williamsburg paints are of the same professional quality, but certain pigments cost more and are therefore classified as one series or another. Just wanted to make that clarification. Some brand have both student grade and professional grade - for example Windsor and Newton as Winton has their student grade and Artist's Oil Colors as their professional grade. These are not different series of the same paint. They are two completely different lines of paint. Just to clarify.

You kind of alluded to this, but I'll expound a bit more. And that is the difference in tinting strength which affects how colors mix and your ability to get a certain color. First is the choice of pigment used by the manufacturer and second is whether other fillers are added.

To address pigments first, certain pigments are very expensive. So less expensive brands use substitute pigments that closely match the expensive colors when you squeeze it from the tube. For example a cadmium color is expensive. A cheap paint will make something labeled as "cadmium hue". But the difference is quickly apparent when you start mixing with them. They will behave differently. The 'hue' colors don't have the tinting strength and therefore become muted and dull rather quickly. Or you discover that they have different undertones that veer the mixtures into different directions than you intended. This makes it more difficult to achieve a mixture that has clean bright colors - or colors with more chroma. And also alluded to in the video, sometimes less expensive substitute colors are more light fugitive - less lightfast - and will fade with time. But most brands do have a lightfastness rating on the tube of paint, so you can pick and choose your palette based on that criteria.

And to address the filler issue, the highest quality paint you can use has nothing but pure ground pigment and oil. Nothing else. Student grade uses less pigment. But to achieve the right consistency, they add a filler. This is usually something like chalk (which is basically calcium carbonate - also known as marble dust). This means that when mixed with other colors, the pigment doesn't go as far...doesn't have a much tinting strength...it becomes muted and dull a lot quicker.

Both of these issues result in frustration when using less expensive paint if you want a clean, non-muddy, more vibrant, higher chroma mixture.

I'll bring up one other point that doesn't get discussed as often. There are many different professional quality paint brands that use only oil and pigment with no filler and yet there can still be a difference in price. The price difference is less extreme, though. So what is the difference with those? This becomes much more nuanced.

In some cases it's a matter of production method - hand made batches will cost more than mass produced using mechanized machinery. But there are other factors at play too.

Sometimes the difference is how finely the pigments are ground. A coarser grind vs a very fine grind. This will also affect the depth and richness of the color, the tinting strength, the lightfastness, and overall texture.

Sometimes the difference is in the desired body of the paint. Those brands that have a softer, more buttery feel tend to have more oil and less pigment. There are pros and cons depending on your painting style. Some people love their paint to feel buttery and many artists even add more oil or a painting medium to achieve a smoother consistency. Those artists are willing to sacrifice the higher pigment concentration. Paint that is much stiffer or full bodied will have more pigment, be more expensive, but have greater tinting strength and go much further.

So once you get into the realm of professional paints, the nuanced differences largely come down to painting style and paint handling preferences. More buttery or softer paints or paints with coarser ground pigments will often (not always) be the more moderately priced brands.

Now, having said all of that....can you make beautiful paintings with student grade paint? Yes! Absolutely. But there will be limitations. Some people learn to work around those limitations to great success. And limitations can be a great thing sometimes. But once you've tasted the vast potential of higher quality paints, those limitations are often very frustrating. And as you pointed out, you will learn color theory much quicker with better paints.

Enjoyed the comparison. One thing I have never understood, which I see in many YT painting demonstrations, is when the artist paints wearing rubber gloves. It would never have occurred to me in 1000 years to find any reason to wear gloves while painting, unless one is simply freezing out painting a snowy landscape. My point being: I would rather just not paint if I felt it required burdening myself with the annoyance and insensitivity of rubber gloves.

Most of my oils are Old Holland and Michael Harding. I like OH pigment load. You get a lot of bang for your buck.
But, if you're on a budget, Lucas professional oils are a great option if they're on sale. Georgian oils are pretty good, too. Always compare prices online. The cost can vary a lot from week to week.

I love Utrecht paint. Good pigment load and great value. Windsor is also a go-to. Most art supplies are a rip off.

It's all about the pigment load

Thank you very much Elizabeth, I think that Williamsburg paints are excellent, and I love their earth colours in particular.
Take care, David.