When it comes to oil colours it is really important choosing the right one for your technique and specific style of painting and also trying to get the best you can afford because it really can make a big difference for your work. Over the years I have used several different brands of oil colours but the one  I keep coming back to is Winsor and Newton artists oil colour.

Many beginners feel a little bit intimidated with oil colours and think it is hard using that specific medium but in fact, oil colours are much easier to use since they have very long drying period and all the mistakes you make while painting can be easily corrected.

Even when the paint is fully dry and you feel that you need to correct certain areas of your painting you can scrape it off and just add new layers on top of it. I find this one of the most expressive mediums for painting.

The reason I recommend purchasing artist grade oil colours is a big difference in quality as opposed to student grade ones and prolonged durability of your artwork. In other words, your paintings will remain the same after many years to come if you decide to use quality materials to create them.

And in the end, that’s what every painter wants and strives for his artwork to outlive him. Basically, we create for ourselves.

Basic differences Between The Artist And Student Oil Colours

Difference between artist grade oil colours and student oil colours is in several different things most important of which is the quality of pigments and binders used in producing them.

Pigments used for producing the artist grade oil colours are of natural origin and most of the student ones use synthetic pigments, also there is the pigment saturation in the colour itself which is much higher with artist grade oil colours.

Pigments are very important because good pigments make the colour look much stronger and brighter giving much nicer results while painting.

Also, good pigments have much better lightfastness which means that the colours won’t change after prolonged light exposure.

This can also be avoided by using good varnish with UV protection but not every painter likes applying varnish on his on hers paintings.

Another important ingredient of oil colours in which these two can differ is binder used for binding the pigments.

Most of the student grade oil colours use linseed oil as a binder and it is known to make the colours go yellow in time. 

Winsor And Newton Artists Oil Colour

Winsor and Newton is a British company founded in the early 19th century. Long tradition and experience along with the use of top quality materials and experienced artists in producing their products are enough to assure you that with this company you get only top quality art supplies.

In other words, you can not make a mistake if you decide to purchase from Winsor and Newton.

Appearance

Colours come in a white tube with company logo and name written on top along with the specific brand name followed by the name of the colour and lightfastness rating. There is also a colour under the writing on each tube matching the corresponding colour.

The artists’ range has an amazing 115 different colours you can purchase. You can get them open stock in 37ml and 200ml tubes and an introductory set of 10x12ml tubes and a set of 8x37ml tubes in a nice bamboo case.

Colours in the introductory set are Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue, Cadmium Red Deep Hue, French Ultramarine, Phthalo Blue, Viridian Hue, Permanent Green Light, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Ivory Black and Titanium White.

Performance

Winsor and Newton artists oil colours have strong bright pigments, buttery and vibrant with excellent lightfastness. Each tone is carefully formulated for stability, tinning strength and coverage with good colour consistency.

They can be used directly out of the tube or mixed with linseed oil, turpentine or odourless mineral spirits depending on what effect you want to achieve, thickly with a palette knife or thinned to a fine film with brushes.

Price is very reasonable having in mind these are artist grade oil colours and what is a good thing with these you can find them in almost every art material shop so you do not have to wait for delivery in case you run out of any of the colours in the middle of the painting.

For the beginning, I would definitely recommend you to purchase a small introductory set of 10x21ml tubes just to get the feel of the colours and you can always buy all the colours from their amazing range of 115 separately.

Cons

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Overall Opinion

Winsor and Newton is a company with experience and tradition producing good quality products at reasonable prices with customer satisfaction in mind so you definitely won’t make a mistake if you decide to purchase their oil colours.

As I said these are the colours which I have been using for many years now along with other brands and I was always fully satisfied.

For those of you with the limited budget, they do have a cheaper but also good quality option in Winton student grade oil colours which so far had proven to be really good for beginners only downside is the strength and the saturation of pigments used and not as good lightfastness as in artists oil colours.

It all depends on what you intend to achieve with the art you create and how long you want your artwork to last or remain unchanged.

If you have any questions about the subject or you need any help feel free to leave them below and I will make sure to answer them and help in any way I can.