Why oil paint is so expensive | Winsor & Newton
Vložit
- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
- Have you ever wondered why oil paint is so expensive? Business Insider did. We showed them exactly what lengths we go to make our Artists’ Oil Colour, including the quality of our pigments and the high concentration we use them in. This is 200 years of history unpacked.
Follow us:
Facebook: bit.ly/WinsorNewtonFacebook
Instagram: bit.ly/WinsorNewtonInstagram
Pinterest: bit.ly/WinsorNewtonPinterest
Windsor and Newton Artist oil paint is the brand I always steal whenever I go to the art store.
I still haven't spent a dime on oil paint.
Same brah.
Bro is shameless. And I respect it.
Windsor and newton oil paint are great, I’d recommend Winton series as they’re much more affordable than the Artist series which can go for around $45 per 200ml tube.
1) a lot of beginners are not into mixing they think they just use the color out of the tube. So what is the difference? But if you want to learn to paint, you need to start mixing from the beginning, and that is why you need to be careful about what paints you start with.
2) Tinting strength is not the main reason, in fact, some student grade paints are just as good or better, because they are cheap and will have decent properties in some colors, I know artists who use Ti white, and Ultramarine from the cheap bin, because those colors work fine for them, but in other colors it is not going to work out if you use student grade. Some colors people complain about the artist grade being too strong, so again less powerful can be good.
3), One situation to generally avoid (despite the possible exceptions noted above) is mixing student and artist grade paints. The experiments where two types of the red are mixed, as in this video, often end up with mixing the student grade into artist grade, or vice versa. This is a bad practice with stronger tints, because they totally overpower. But it is often seen because students will look at the paint display and buy artist grade where it is cheap and student grade where it is not cheap, and end up with a totally out of balance palette. A brand of student grade owned across the spectrum should balance out well, but in general choosing a lot of different tint based solely on price, will not.
4) The biggest reason to use artist grade paints is when you get to hues. The cheap paints will substitute mixtures (hues) for a single pigment. So a cadmium red medium in a cheap hue may be a yellow and red pigment, while in an artist grade it is a single true color. If your next move is to mix blue with the Cadmium hue, it will come out brownish because you just mixed the 3 primaries. But if you mix blue with the true artist grade cadmium, you get a purple.
So if your art requires mixing as portraits and landscapes do, then you need true colors, and that means artist grade. Unfortunately these are doubly expensive because they show up in artist grade, and there are a lot of reds, yellows, oranges, and purples that only really work in cadmiums that are expensive.
However, if you are doing a modernist painting with some squares of paint out of the tube, you aren't mixing, then you can use hues.
So what about the expense?
1) weirdly, I have actually found some artist grade paints to be cheap. Michaels, often blows out the tubes at my local store as they get shop worn. I have picked them up 80% off. The cheaper paints actually get bought, so they don't go on deep sales. There are relatively cheap artist brands, Utrcht is inexpensive and recently was on a 50% off sale. I bought some 150ml tubes. And then there are the usual arguments about one needing less of expensive colors.
2) You are mixing right? There are some palettes (selections of color) that only use two earth tones, or four cheap colors only one of which is a cadmium, the Zorn palette being one. I have been in stores a few times when someone next to me told their friend that some day, when they got rich, they would buy oils, the hiccup being that they are looking at the whole array of maybe 100 different colors when you can literally start with one tube and a white canvas.
3) Do lots of smaller studies.
4) This doesn't always change the cost, but some professional painters do their underpaintings in acrylic, particularly if they paint thick. If the underpainting is a black and white values study, it can be done very cheaply. Then they overpaint in artist grade. Acrylic also dries a lot faster and tends not to crack. You can paint oil over acrylic, most canvases have acrylic preps on them anyway. You can't paint acrylic over oil.
Watching this video hoping to one day be able to mix my own paint and have it be good quality
Thank YOU....I do use Only Winsor & Newton. And really have to limit their usage due to Costs. Thank You.
I never seen a series 7 W&N tube of paint. Series 5 is as high as I've seen a W&N tube.
Moving production to France doesn't seem to have reduced the quality of Winsor & Newton's Artist oil colour. However my purchase from the range has dropped to about half for two reasons.
1: You no longer make Cremnitz White. The lack of this lead white naturally reduces my consumption of W&N. Out of any 'colour', lead white is the one I use most.
2: Your present stupid tube design. 2:23 I like to roll up my tubes as I use them, and one quickly loses sight of not only the small colour sample at the bottom, but the colour name above it as well. The very small colour strip and pigment number, (but not the pigment name) at the top of the back is of risible compensation. I've complained to my local art store and they said; "yes, I know. Even the painters who don't roll up their tubes have problems telling them apart when they get a little paint transfer from other colours on the labels. We've tried telling the sales reps, but they won't listen."
Exactly. Their new design is the worst. Too modern and yet useless for such a company that always talks about their rich and strong traditions and history. I really do hate these new completely white tubes.
soo modern and trendy, like an apple computer
I love 💕 how to do oil paint videos amazing!
Why does W&N use a mix of linseed AND safflower oil in Artists’ oil colour instead of only linseed?
Maybe because safflower yellows less and dries less quickly
Lovely
Oil paints are the Rolls Royce of paints, the highest & best quality paints of all. They're a treat & luxury. They make exquisite birthday or even Christmas gifts for oil paint lovers like myself. I adore painting with oil paints. This brand is top notch the best of the best. 🎨🖌👩🏻🎨👨🏻🎨🖼♥️♥️♥️💯
In the selection of Oil paints. One clearly think of the future duration of the colours blended together on Canvas, Wood, specific board used as support to Paint.
Windsor and Newton, has the finest quality, of oil paints’ , that will give the
Artistic presence a lifetime of Beauty of the colours painted in oils; by the Windsor and Newton Oil Based Paints.
Oils are very forgiving, as you will see how beautifully they appear; being used on any surface .
I find the “ quality “ of this company to be the most exceptional of all oils or any type of paints in which you are searching.
They have been around for well over One Hundred Years or more! Perfection, is what you want from your paints.
Windsor and Newton, will give you this and more, based on trials of other less expensive paints. Let’s just say, once you’ve painted with Windsor and Newton, you’ll never go back to inferior oils, or acrylics, again! Time is the test, which Windsor and Newton have surpassed, all these years 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟. Enjoy 🌅
😂😂😂 W&N is a low grade artists quality paint. Fact.
As a professional artist whose used Winsor & Newton for 20+ years, I can say they are superior paints. My paintings look as fresh and vibrant today as they did I painted them years ago.
@@1755ma
I absolutely agree with you! My “ boys “ that have painted, all their lives; always use’s Windsor and Newton. ‘Tis the reason, their paintings are still ever so beautiful, as the were back in the 1970’s 🌟🧡🌟
I would love to view your paintings 🖼️🌅. Thank you for your positive comment 🌟
I like Winsor and N still, but why are art shops recommending Michael Harding/ Old Holland paint and other makes more? I frequently mix my own paint as well, simple pigment and oil, vastly cheaper, pigment and oil! Cobalt blue dries in a few months so use it fast. Cadmium red and other expensive colours worth mixing in small quantities, wonderful to use. Naples yellow particularly. Beware pthalo colours extremely powerful stains everything.
"why are art shops recommending...........other makes more?"
Two reasons for this.
1, They, or the salesperson, actually believe another maker is better. They've personally used it and they love it.
2, Market leading brands that are considered indispensable in the sales of any field often insist on a larger percentage of the take from sold product. They have the shop "over a barrel" of sorts, because if they don't supply the most well know brand with a long established history. In the mind of the public, there must be something wrong or incomplete about the store.
However this reduces incentive to sell the market leader before the other brands supplied. Some of which just entering the market pace might be taking a very small profit percentage indeed.
This is an issue with do DIY mixes... a paint chemist will know what is needed to keep particular pigments from drying out too fast, or from never drying. They will know how much to mix of say pthalo colors in a tube so they won’t ruin everything you have or at least not waste the pigment to get the same strength in color. There are formulas that need to be figured out so they will remain durable and archival. Just mixing a binder and pigment or pigment and a medium may not be durable or archival and other ingredients are needed in small quantities to give best performance.
I compare it to making a cake - anyone can throw flour, a couple of eggs, some sugar and a flavor and get sorta of a reasonable cake. But it can months, year or more for a baking chemist to figure out the perfect combination of flavorings for most unique taste of sweetness; just the right amount and types of sugar or sweeteners for tenderness and sweetness and perfect crumb; how many eggs are enough, but not too much; which flour works best for a particular type of cake; how much beating of the eggs is needed to make a cake fluffy but not a soufflé; do you need more yokes or more whites; and the list goes on and on. Change one thing, and you might have to start over to get the perfect combination of all the parts. Then there is all the chemistry between the ingredients, the water involved and the chemicals in the water (minerals, chlorine, chloramines, fluoride, etc.) along with the addition of heat in the baking as to how long to cook, how hot, and it goes on and on until the tasting panel, and the customer is happy.
And it’s the same for artists paints or for that matter any paint or product manufactured. It seems so simple, gather some rocks, or clay, grind it up, add gum Arabic and water for watercolors, or some medium (linseed oil or other sunflower, and dozens of other choices), mix and mull until smooth and start painting. But there is a whole lot more to think about in terms of that painting holding together, the paper and canvas not falling apart, the pigment staying on the surface, etc. Nobody wants to walk down the hall 3 years later, and find their pigment lying in the floor because it’s flaked off the canvas or paper. Or glance at it a couple of years later, and notice it’s all faded, or worse, it’s mildewed and mold is growing in the paint, or worse, that 2-3 years later, some portions aren’t cured. The old masters spent much time trying to figure out these formulas and didn’t get it right because now those old paintings are a nightmare to restore and repaint. Sure the colors are beautiful, but there is the issue of toxic pigments.
And artists died or went crazy from mediums and toxicity. You have to consider if the paint is safe for the environment when you discard the paper towels, solutions, mixtures, paper palettes, etc? Will you burn your house down from improper handling?
So sure you can buy some pigments and throw in some linseed/flax seed oil and do a painting - but will it still be around in 25-50+ years? Will it last 6 months? Do you care? Hopefully you do, and hopefully, you have aspirations of being the type of fine artist that people will be wanting to buy your paintings decades into the future.
So be careful just assuming you can dig up some dirt, or grind up this or that and mix your own paint, and you will save yourself a bunch of money. Yes, in some cases you can, and yes corporate greed does play a part in higher prices but it’s not the only thing. Higher wages, benefits, taxes, capital costs, and a long list of other considerations affect costs. If everyone, from employees to buyers of products would consider themselves business owners, and sit down and figure out actual costs, pros and cons - they might find cheap isn’t really cheap. That in the long run, cheap costs a lot more than a better made product.
@@Divertedflight There are many reason a shop can recommend some brands over others. It can be technology, it can be profit margins, incentives, and dozens of reasons. Or it can simply be superior products. The ones you names are those with high quality, high pigment, low toxicity mediums and pigments, etc. While Michael Harding is newer, it does offer great pigment strength and that saves you money both in the painting process and later on when the paintings look better for decades. Cheap paints full of fillers and low grade or low amounts of pigments will take more to get the colors you want, and when the fillers dry up and fade, you got nothing but a faded out painting not worth the time to throw it in the trash. In addition cheap paints make med when you start mixing unless very careful. You have to add more “stuff” to them to make them act like higher quality paints. If you want vibrant paintings, and to be able to work with small amounts of paint to get the same color strength, tints, shades, tones - then buy the best artists paint you can buy. If you can’t afford to buy their professional artists grade line, then look to their lesser grade paint - call the company and talk to them and see which of their lines they recommend - some of the larger companies have several lines. Small batch manufacturers typically only work with one line and that’s their professional artists grade. Some might have a small student grade line but others stick to the best they can offer. Now keep in mind price isn’t always the determination of quality - you need to check out the paint, check the properties for lightfastness, permanence, etc., read reviews, go to artists fairs or trade shows. Then buy a few tubes and see what you think. Don’t go whole hog, just one or two tubes and expand from there if you like what you see. Old Holland, one of the very top oils out there, does have an Academy line. But their professional line is used by top museum quality artists and restorers. That’s another thing, check with restorers, art schools and see what they recommend. If you see oil paintings you like, or water colors etc - send an email to the artists and tell them you like their work and see if they will advise which manufacturers and which lines they use. All of this applies to brushes, surfaces, mediums, etc But read their websites first to see if it isn’t already on their sites. Check for their YT channel, or other social media and see what products they use. You can find out a lot from these sources. Lastly, see if manufacturers or even retailers offer samples of any type.
Note these old manufacturers have been around for a long time for a reason. They care about quality, have kept up with technology, and trends. This doesn’t mean that newer small batch types like Michael Harding, Daniel Smith etc are anything to sneeze at. These are high quality paints too, with high pigments and many of these are concentrating on low toxicity or are being very transparent on those made of toxic materials, and offering alternatives if possible. There are just some like the cad reds and oranges that can’t be accurately duplicated - close but not perfect. In those cases, use gloves, use excellent ventilation, use sparingly, use common sense.
Now Old Holland is another top quality paint but it’s been around for centuries. They were started by the old Dutch masters way back in 1600s. Take a look at their history and their website www.oldholland.com/discover/about-old-holland/
Windsor Newton has been around since the 1800s and was granted Royal Warrant by the parlance back in the time period. Check their site for history etc.
Another oldie is Schmincke who has been around since the 1800s and makes top quality watercolors, oils, acrylics, etc. I,know them best for their watercolors and haven’t used their other lines. They also make an academy or student grade line.
I would be look at the professional fine artists grade paints first, and if certain colors were out of range in one, check another brand and then look at their student grade line prior to switching to cheaper paints all together.
Pull up any of the paint company’s websites. Compare the properties of their paints compared to another brand you are considering. Keep in mind though - paint colors even with the same name can vary quite a bit, sometimes you may want the same name of a paint in several manufacturers because they are just different enough that you can’t get there easily mixing on your own or at least from a convenience standpoint.
I’d like to recommend that you reconsider mixing your own products like the Cad Red or any of the lead pigments - sure you can buy 4oz of Cad Red for $28 and you don’t need much to mix up for individual or a number of paintings. (Cadmium Red pigment is cadmium zinc sulfoselenide (CdS, CdSe) produced by co-precipitating and calcining, at high temperature, a mixture of cadmium sulfide and selenide sulfide in varied ratios forming a partially crystalline structure.).
Others are any of the lead pigments but there are a number of others. For example you can buy Lead Tin Yellow Lemon or Lead Tin Orange, or Chrome Yellow Primrose,, etc all contain lead and are highly toxic . A small amount is like $39 of Lead Tin Yellow Lemon - again these are pure pigments. Don’t try to save money on pigments, cheap pigments that aren’t normally toxic (carcinogenic) may be so if from a region that has lead or cadmium or other highly toxic pigments or materials mixed in and they don’t tell you or it’s from countries that don’t enforce laws the same as we do.
Also keep in mind, just because something says “pure”, or “natural” doesn’t mean it’s safe like natural pure turpentine.
See Natural Pigments website for the safety of each pigment they carry. However, these toxic pigments and they, like others, are most toxic in their original form - the powder. Once these are in your body through skin or lungs - there is no getting it out. It is cumulative. Even non toxic pigments and micas are harmful once in the lungs and the pigments are dust like and protective equipment is needed from clothing to go lives to masks and respirators depending on the pigment being used. Personally though mixing my own colors is very interesting to me, I already have a chronic autoimmune lung issue and I’m not sure if I want to take a chance on adding anymore issues. If already made up, and I wear gloves, and long sleeves, keep paint off my skin, I’d feel better considering the very small amount of paint we use in a painting unless doing large wall size paintings. Please consider too ventilation for your studio and general studio safety especially if you are pregnant, have children or pets. Keep paint brushes out of your mouth. I have seen many artists with several oil brushes going - have one with the handle in their mouth and one or two in their hands. These handles always have paint on them. Keep them out of your mouth. Keep your fingers out of your mouth or eyes. Don’t eat or drink in your studio while painting. Here are a couple of articles on Natural Pigments about studio safety and pigment safety but there are books available.
www.naturalpigments.com/artist-materials/cat/health-safety/post/guide-to-studio-safety/
www.naturalpigments.com/artist-materials/cat/health-safety/post/pigment-health-safety/
@@plips71755 I'm at my most critical of a brand on their own channel where they can see my comments and feel the most free to reply. In conjunction with this I prefer not to tout a rival's products in that same channel. However if a brand's channel deletes a comment of mine then I'll feel free to post this same information elsewhere at a later date. Which is why I post this now.
Old Holland have NOT been around for centuries. The original family owners had been making their own oil paint for their own use (as they were artists) in the middle of the 19th century. Later they started making paint (one imagines for a fee) for fellow artists in their circle. Such was the demand for their well made paints they opened a small factory shop. Like a bakery, they would of made the product in the back and sold it in the front. This was close to 1900. They did well and expanded in the twentieth century. Perhaps this expansion faulted a little in the century's second half? I'm not sure, but they were bought out by the late Theo de Beer in the early 1980s, who put in a larger factory and a new marketing campaign; OLD HOLLAND SINCE 1664! Theo had taken the founding date of the royal institute that had trained the original artist owners and claimed that as the beginning of the company! The present de Beer has walked this claim back a little without actually stating it to be false. 1664 is mentioned less and the original owners, the Roelofs, are now mentioned in the company history.
Its my fav oil paint ❤️
Did I mention, I insist my Inpainter, use only Windsor and Newton oils; to add the areas of missing paint, on a restored painting. They use this Brand because, they are the absolute Best, and must be painted on my Paintings, after Conservation, to last the lifetime of the original painting. Thank you. 🌅🖼🎨
Oils for art conservation? My info is you need to use reversable paints to conserve paintings
@@AnnikaBergmannArt
One must use all, reversible supplies and materials for conservation. :)
@@artchem1 yes, and oil paints are not reversible, if you ask Baumgartner Conservation for example. He mentions this time and again
To those whom replied; W& N Olis, are indeed “ reversible “ . It’s a matter of Chemistry of how to apply the Inpainting, using Windsor and Newton.
I’ve been in this business over 47 years ~. Time tested, and experimentation, on painting’s of little value; give us the opportunity to test our results based on compare and contrast the oils . Thank you for your thoughtfulness 🌟🧡🌟
They put fillers
Working there could be pretty cool I’d think.
Come mai la Windsor e Newton produce in Francia.
I find it disappointing that the Munsell coördinates of your oilpaints are not available. I don't see any harm in sharing that information like for example Gamblin.
It's a bit arbitrary... meaning that any company can publish the color index spectrum of any pigment they use in relation to the "coordinates" of any chosen color-space system. I like Munsell, but there are others, and Gamblin's visualization of color-space is worthwhile. Proprietary mixtures are another story. The exact spectrum from one batch to the next can also vary. Optics may be a branch of physics, but paintmaking is more an art than a science.
dollars ? WTF ?
Mummy Brown? 😨
what a scam ..