Why are Some Paints So Expensive?
In my last post, I shared some cheap and cheerful paint brands, as well as other more affordable supplies.
Let’s talk about the other end of the scale: the expensive paints…
Why are some paints super cheap and other’s shockingly expensive? It comes down to two things: the quality of the ingredients and the formulation.
Paint is made up of two main ingredients: pigment and binder. The binder is a combination of ingredients that enable the pigment to be worked with and adhere to a surface. Without the binder, pigment is just very fine powder that will simply blow away. Even if you mix it with water, once the water evaporates, the pigment will have no way of sticking to your paper other than perhaps a slight stain of colour. In watercolour paint, the main ingredient for the binder is gum arabic.
Handmade paint is typically the purest form of colours you can find on the market and often made by small businesses or artisans, using the bare minimum ingredients. In the commercial tubes and pans of paint, you will find that there are additional ingredients added such as preservatives, brighteners and fillers.
In the cheaper paints, there is typically less pigment in the tube or pan which in turn means you end up needing more to get vivid or saturated colours. In a way, cheaper paints can end up costing you more in the long run as you will likely use more paint. Another thing that tends to happen in cheap tubes of paint is that the ingredients can separate, causing an oily looking substance to come out with the colour. Sometimes mixing them helps but other times you end up squeezing a lot out of tube to get past that separation.
Expensive paints tend to have less fillers and a higher concentration of pigment. They also utilize higher quality ingredients, not just for the binders but also for the pigments. Daniel Smith paints for example, use gemstones and minerals for some of their colours. Hematite Genuine is actually made using hematite!
Here’s a little chart to help you visualize these formulas:
The highest quality of paints will be around 50% pigment to 50% binder. La Sirena watercolours and other handmade paints follow such ratios and use minimal ingredients for the binder. As we move towards the cheaper end of the scale, you’ll find less and less pigment and more “extra” ingredients.
And there you have it: the reasons why some paints are much more expensive than others! If the more expensive paints are within your budget, I recommend treating yourself to a few choice colours, either in tubes or a set. You’ll be amazed at how long these paints can last because of how little you need to get brihgt colours on the paper.
Thank you so much for reading!
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