It also really depends on what you're using your paints for. The cheapest of the paints (Craft Smart) was almost as good as the most expensive paints (Ceramcoat). Even some of the cheaper cost paints match up to some of the higher cost paints. The adage that "you get what you pay for" isn't always true. They don't necessarily work great for canvas work, as even with a second coat, the coverage isn't enough. The Apple Barrel line of acrylic paints are ideal for porous surfaces and great for wood, kids' crafts, and basic crafting. These paints typically dry within 15 minutes. bottle, though there are bigger bottles of the more popular colors in 4, 8 and 12 ounce sizes. Most stores sell them for a MSRP of $1.69 per 2 oz. The Ceramcoat did really well on the first coat.Ĭeramcoat touts their paints as "America's Favorite Acrylic Paint." The paints are a bit more on the higher end of acrylic paints. Wood is a much more porous surface and calls for a couple coats of paint as a primer.
The paint is thick enough for a good first coat, but not too thick to make it hard to work with in smaller spaces. It doesn't take much to touch them up after the first coat. Lighter colors do tend to show the canvas through them, but the Ceramcoat paints give a really good coat the first time. I just can't help myself.when I see that label on the front of the bottles, I'm drawn to them. It doesn't feel cluttered like other paint brand packaging does. I know the packaging doesn't make the paint better or worse, but I really love their packaging. * The Ceramcoat line has an extraordinary amount of colors available, more than I've ever seen of any other brand on the shelves at a craft store.
APPLE BARREL PAINT 2 OZ PRO
One of the reasons for this is the first PRO that I have for their paints. I'll be honest and admit that when I took all of my paints out to look at them (and I have WAY more than what you see in the basket above - those are just the paints I use the most of), I found that I had more Ceramcoat (by Delta) than the other brands. I used a wooden piece for my other comparison for the same brands. I used this as my piece to compare my paints on as far as canvas went. I figured this was a great time to get back to work on it. I drew my design on this canvas back then, worked on it a little bit and then we moved, so it got put in a box and it's been waiting all these years to be finished. I started out with a canvas board that I've had since I was in my teens. The 5 brands of paints that I did my comparison on are: Once I started doing the comparisons, I was amazed. I started taking the paints out and playing with them with the purpose of seeing what the pros and cons were. I found that I was choosing paints at the store for the colors and not necessarily for the qualities the different brands offered. I was recently looking at my stash of paints and realized how many different brands I had in there. It's a visual feast! If I had unlimited funds, I'd put one of every color in my cart!
The hardest thing to do is go in with a budget and have to decide which colors I'm going to take home. I can stand in the paint aisle at a craft store and gaze at them for hours. They're inexpensive, and the color choices are almost limitless. Acrylic paints are my favorite type of paints to work with.