Blick Matte Acrylics

I've done several posts over the years about my favorite art supplies. I thought I'd post about the acrylics I've been using for the past two years. I am not a fan of inexpensive acrylics found at the craft stores. They often contain more binder (glue) than paint. This produces not only unwanted effects but it can also cause your pages to stick together when the paint is applied too thick. Call me a paint snob, but I never could do what I wanted with them.

One day I was at Blick buying supplies for a class and I came upon a new display, Blick Matte Acrylics. They were priced at about $2 each. I usually paint with transparent, gloss acrylics but thought that these would be worth a try especially with the new direction that I wanted to take my collage work. I bought white, aqua, brilliant magenta, yellow bright, dark blue deep, dark blue light, off white, red deep and black. I took them home to play and they quickly became my core colors. 

I like the Blick Matte Acrylics because they are also opaque and they cover and layer beautifully. Sometimes I combine them with better quality acrylics (Nova and Holbein) for rich, deep layers. I like how I can apply them to my collage papers and get different looks depending upon how I apply them.

One major problem I have found with the acrylics is quality control. Sometimes I will open the bottles and the paints smell something awful (I apologize when this happens to my students.) It doesn't happen often to me and I am lucky that when it does, I bring the guilty paints back to Blick and they exchange them.

For $2 a bottle (or less when they go on sale), you can't go wrong. I do mix my own secondary colors (orange, purple, green, I am talking about you.) I also just realized the photo of my color palette is missing brown, which is another of my favorite colors to layer with. I love playing with layers to create new looks. 

Have you tried these paints? What do you think?

2020 UPDATE: I've been using these acrylics for several years now. I'm about to stop. They've switched to a harder plastic, which makes it more difficult to squeeze the bottles. Even more concerning, I've noticed that the yellows have a tendency to change consistency, becoming cottage cheese like. Both the yellow bright and yellow deep have done this to me, multiple batches (I've checked the serial numbers on the side.) This is incredibly frustrating as someone who buys paints in volumes for her workshops. For my workshops, I will eventually be switching to Utrecht brand. I also use Holbein, Sennelier and Nova Paint as well.

Favorite Art Supplies
Favorite Acrylics and Tips on Using Acrylics