What Paint to Use and When: Comparing Craft and Acrylic Paint
by
Megan Aubrey
Have you noticed there are multiple paint sections in the craft store? One is labeled the craft paint section. There you typically see small bottles of paint labeled craft paint, but upon closer inspection notice on the bottle it is labeled acrylic paint.
A few aisles over there is another paint section with tubes of paint, also labeled acrylic paint (usually in the art section).
At this point you may get the wild-eyed look of the crazed crafter, suspended with indecision, thinking, “My goodness, which paint to use?! What’s the difference?”
Let’s help banish crafting indecision today by breaking down some of these paint differences.
To see these paints in action I’ve put together test projects to allow us to actively see which paint works better on different mediums. In doing this you will always know which paint to buy for the project you are doing. So long indecision – hello uninhibited craftiness!
For these tests I tried to use similar colors in both the acrylic and craft paints. I also used the same simple paint brush for both tests. This will allow us to compare the projects equally.
Read below to check out the projects and results!
A few aisles over there is another paint section with tubes of paint, also labeled acrylic paint (usually in the art section).
At this point you may get the wild-eyed look of the crazed crafter, suspended with indecision, thinking, “My goodness, which paint to use?! What’s the difference?”
Let’s help banish crafting indecision today by breaking down some of these paint differences.
To see these paints in action I’ve put together test projects to allow us to actively see which paint works better on different mediums. In doing this you will always know which paint to buy for the project you are doing. So long indecision – hello uninhibited craftiness!
For these tests I tried to use similar colors in both the acrylic and craft paints. I also used the same simple paint brush for both tests. This will allow us to compare the projects equally.
Read below to check out the projects and results!
Here is what I am calling the craft paints in this test.
Here is what I am calling the acrylic paints for this test.
The first test was the PAPER TEST: To perform this test I took plain white cardstock and painted a pattern using four different colors.
The top is craft paint and the bottom is acrylic paint. Here are my results!
The CANVAS TEST: To perform this test I took two plain white canvases from the craft store and painted a taped out pattern using four different colors.
The top is craft paint and the bottom is acrylic paints.
The WOOD TEST: To perform this test I took two wooden whales and painted them both a metallic blue.
The top is the craft paint and the bottom is acrylic paint.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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2 of 22 comments
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Thank you so much for sharing this with us. It was very thoughtful of you to show these paint test. I often wondered about that craft paint!
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It only took me 48 years to discover that any, any paint is better than tempera ie primary school poster paint. I could never understand why I couldn't ever paint a nice flat surface. It drove me to tears. Only recently an artist friend commented that she never uses tempera - and the penny finally dropped. For me, acrylic rules!
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Thanks for sharing the pros and cons... can you experiment with glass paints? You're a huge help!!