Liquitex is most likely the most widely recognized artist acrylic paint in the world. Most every who paints in acrylics has used it. Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic paint, sold in tubes and jars, is available in almost every craft, hobby, and art store in America.
Availability sometimes brings about a sense of the ordinary and commonplace. Experienced acrylic painters often overlook Liquitex, choosing instead to use paint that seems more “exotic” or something that feels exclusive.
Liquitex Heavy Body Artist Acrylic Paint is real paint. It is a high quality artists acrylic paint that performs well and contains a high pigment load.
If it matters to be “first” in the acrylic paint world, then Liquitex pretty much was the “the first” to manufacture and sell paint in the 1950′s. See Liquitex Company Profile. I personally don’t think that matter to me as an artist. Big Whoop! What matters to me is the quality, longevity, and price.
Liquitex produces 100 colors of Heavy Body Paint. Now that’s a big palette.
How thick is Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic?
Liquitex Heavy Body is about the consistency of soft butter. The thing is, when you paint, you can spread it more thinly or thickly.
If you have been painting awhile, you might remember this paint being called High Viscosity.
I think the new name is less confusing. I only mention this because you old-timers might have some tubes in your box labeled this way. Then when you go to purchase more paint, you can’t find it.
Heavy Body = new name
High Viscosity = old name
Brushstrokes and Impasto
Heavy Body Paint will retain some amount of brushstrokes.
I have not found it easy to use Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics for impasto work without adding some type of gel medium.
Looking for thick, stand-up peaks and texture? I suggest you try the Liquidtex Super Heavy Body Line developed in 2004.
If you don’t like your brushstrokes to show, then save yourself some time and trouble and try fluid acrylics. Loyal Liquitex fans seeking something thinner than the heavy body line, can dip their brushes into Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic Colors.
Myth-buster: Liquitex is not student paint.
Due to price and availability a lot of art students use Liquitex. Don’t be fooled. Liquitex Artists Acrylic is NOT student paint.
Liquitex produces a line of paint called BASICS that is student grade acrylic paint. Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic Colors is artist grade paint, full of pigment.
Use or Lose?
I vote to use Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics. Overall availability, quality pigment load, and 100 colors make this a keeper for me. If you are just getting started and want to try Liquitex Heavy Body, you can grab a 12 tube pack from around $50 bucks.
In numerous reviews you seem to be confused about what viscosity means:
High viscosity means thick, resists flowing. ie heavy body acrylics
Low viscosity means thin, flows easily. ie fluid acrylics
Steve,
Me? confused! Yes, you are most likely right, as I get my right/ left confused at times as well. Sounds like I need to go back and edit some of my articles. Thanks for letting me know.
Glazed and Confused,
Cindy Davis, editor
Acrylic Paint Review
I realize that Liquitex has many fans, and I respect your favorable opinion of Liquitex acrylics. But I’d like to offer my own experience, which is less than satisfactory, overall.
Though I always immediately put the cap back onto each tube of paint as soon as I have dispensed paint to my palette, and store the paints in a room with a steady, moderate temperature, and am otherwise very careful to preserve the paints I have bought (with hard-earned money), I have had MANY tubes of Liquitex paints go completely bad (unusable).
Of course, by no means has every tube of Liquitex has gone bad; but it has happened often enough that I now have no desire risk more purchases of Liquitex products, especially since there are other, more reliable options available. (I recommend either Golden or Winsor & Newton, though there are also other viable options–though I would definitely AVOID Utrecht.) I hope my experience will help your readers. Thanks.
I love Liquitex Heavy Body and Super Heavy Body Artists acrylics. I have tubes and tubes of them that I have had in my studio (top floor of a walk up in Chicago in which the weather goes from subzero to over 100 degrees depending on the season) and none of the tubes has ever gone bad. I have had many a Blick Artist Acrylic tube go bad though and same for Winsor & Newton Infinity (their old line). With those after about a year there was a separation of a clear thick goey substance from the rest of the paint (especially with the iridescent colors). But never once with Liquitex. These days I use Blick Artist Acrylic as underpainting for oil works. But for my acrylic works I use Liquitex, Golden (regular and open), M.Graham, Sennelier and Winsor & Newton (new line). I use Liquitex in the beginning. It goes on easy, smooth, dries quickly. Then I use M.Graham and Golden Open for areas I need to do more blending because they have long open times without need for mediums. I use Golden regular and Sennelier for finishing touches. They are pigment loaded, vivid, and have very short drying times. Sennelier dries within minutes. M.Graham has become my favorite for everything: acrylic, oil, watercolor, goauche. They are very reasonably priced the quality, pigment load is outstanding.
Some of my soft body Liquitex has seperated out after 15 years of storage. Not all of my “old” Liquitex has done this though. This really did start until the paints were at least 10 years old. I blame my self for this initial lack of use of the paints instead of the Liquitex product itself! To use the seperated product all I do is mix it back in with my knife. I find no problem at all the Liquitex product. Hats off to Liquitex!