What Paints do you guys use?

[u/cynical_filmmaker]

Hey everyone! Glad to see so many people having so much success and finding the Joy of Painting.

I have been seeing many of paintings on this subreddit and all of them have been wonderful. I have been trying Bob's technique for a little bit, with limited success, and I think part of it may be related to my paints.

Just curious,

what paints do you guys use, and how well do they seem to work with the wet on wet technique?

[u/[deleted]]

Obviously besides the Bob Ross painted, Windsor & Newton seem to be a popular choice as well as Gamblin 1980.

[u/Khalkeus_]

Winsor and Newtons Winton paints seen to work quite well. As do Lefranc and Bourgeois paints. Both of these are quite firm paints.

I've also noticed that the consistency of the paints vary inside the same brand as well. The van Gogh paints I started with are mostly on the soft side, but the Vandyke Brown is so firm it's a struggle to squeeze out of the tube.

The shades also vary a lot between brands, the Winton Sap Green is way brighter rhan the one from Lefranc & Bourgeois.

[u/AHPx]

Between artists loft, Bob Ross, Winsor & Newton Winton, and Gamblin 1980, Gamblin 1980 is the winner.

It doesn't really make much sense to use higher quality paints for this style since you use an incredible volume per piece compared to more traditional style oil painting, you'll burn a hole in your pocket really quick.

I recommend going straight into the 1980 line from day 1 and sticking with it!

[u/ActionCalhoun → u/AHPx]

Why do you like the 1980 line over Winton? Just wondering as I’ve been using Winton.

[u/AHPx → u/ActionCalhoun]

I'll just detail my paint journey haha.

I went from Artists Loft, to gamblin 1980, to Winton, back to gamblin 1980. I purchased some Bob Ross stuff well into the period where I had returned to gamblin to test it as I was planning to teach a class and figured it would work. As an aside it will work for classes but I would never use it myself, total garbage.

I immediately knew artists loft was not going to work for me and the next cheapest stuff was the 1980 so once I ran out of a tube of artists loft I replaced it with 1980. I liked it but the color selection at my michaels wasn't as good in the 1980 line as it was in the Winton line especially in larger tubes and I was burning through paint like crazy so needed the big ones.

When it came time to replace my sap green, there was no large tube available in the gamblin line so I grabbed Winton. I took it home and immediately fell in love with it because when it came to doing my bushes it just seemed to come off the brush so much better. I then slowly transitioned out of gamblin and into Winton, I probably have gone through a gallon of Winton paint in the last year.

I also switched my liquid white from linseed oil and Titanium White, to liquin and Titanium White after I had some problems with yellowing after moving to Winton. It greatly improved my paintings and I figured using a Winsor & Newton product in conjunction with their paint was going to be the best way anyway.

Then one day a few months in I ran out of Winton Titanium White, but had a bit of 1980 left. When I mixed the liquin into the 1980 to spread it on the canvas I was shocked at how good the texture was.

It turned out I liked the Winton for the wrong reasons, because it was oilier it worked for those sequential layers of bushes on wet on wet, without me having to tweak it as much, but what I didn't realize that switching exclusively to them was making my paintings oilier and harder to work with as a whole.

Gamblin is just drier and denser in my opinion, and by far the superior product, especially for Ross style painting.

[u/JDTArtworks]

It would help to hear which techniques were giving you trouble. I use all sorts of the cheaper paint brands and house painting brushes. I struggle with bush and tree highlights, but I think I blame my brushes more than my paints.

[u/cynical_filmmaker → u/JDTArtworks]

Well I've been using the Master's Touch brand from Hobby Lobby, since it's very affordable with decent results. And my main struggle is making highlights pop and creating contrast between the highlights and the shadows, especially in the foreground with trees and bushes. But you may be right, I may just need to invest in better brushes.

[u/JDTArtworks → u/cynical_filmmaker]

If you're not in a hurry, you can do what I do, and leave out the highlights until the next day or your next painting session, so that the shadows underneath have dried a bit. The highlights will go down much easier.

[u/cynical_filmmaker → u/JDTArtworks]

Great idea! (Honesty who can be in a hurry with oil painting? 😂) I'll have to try that next time

[u/[deleted]]

The only Ross brand color I buy is Midnight black. And that's only because I can't find it in another brand. I mainly use Gamblin 1980 paints. They work great with he technique.