Two New Product Lines - Alkyd and Acrylic

Two new paint lines have recently been released, giving artists more paint choices.

C.A.S. AlkydPro is a safflower-based oil paint to which alkyd resin is added to speed drying time.  All colors in the C.A.S. line dry within 24 hours or less. Drying mediums in the line can speed drying time to under two hours. Impasto and gel mediums are also available.  These are not water-based and require Turpenoid. Alkyds are great for plein air painting and for glazing techniques. In the studio I often use Griffin alkyd titanium white with traditional oils to speed drying time.  Oil paint and alkyds are mixable.  My main objection to using a full alkyd palette has been pigment load.  The C.A.S. line claims to have a professional rather than student grade pigment load.   Winsor Newton Griffin Alkyd has been the only alkyd available prior to C.A.S.   So, if you like oil paint but prefer the layers to dry more rapidly, AlkydPro might be worth a try.   

Winsor Newton Artist's Acrylic is replacing their Artist's Acrylic Colour line. The new line is packaged with a black label. Winsor Newton is my favorite acrylic line because of the buttery consistency and high pigment load. Recently other acrylic paint manufacturers have gone in the direction of increasing the open time of acrylics resulting in Golden Open and Chroma Interactive. Winsor Newton decided to tackle a different problem of acrylic paint - value shift. Winsor Newton claims their new line has no value shift from wet to dry. This by far has been my greatest problem with acrylics. They dry as much as 40% lighter and this makes it very difficult to maintain accurate values.  I have not been taken with the longer open time of Golden Open or Chroma Interactive because when I use acrylics, I use them because they dry quickly. If I require slower drying I use oils.  So, Winsor Newton's new line is a huge step in the right direction for me.  I hope they have maintained their pigment load! The secret in their sauce ...  the traditional acrylic suspension shifts from opaque to translucent as it dries and in so doing shifts the paint to a darker value.  Winsor Newton's new acrylic suspension starts out transparent.