Why Should You Try American Journey Acrylic Paints?

With the sheer volume of acrylic paints on the market, it can be frustrating and expensive to find the right paints for you. How do you know if the paint has a strong pigment or if it can blend well with other colors? Most of the time, you have to spend money on the paints before you know what the quality is truly like, which can result in you taking a risk of possibly wasting your money on a sub-par product.

So, how do you choose the right acrylic paints? We think it’s best to rely on professionals for advice. At Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff, our mission is to deliver you the best quality products for the best value. And we believe that American Journey Artists’ Acrylics are some of the best acrylic paints on the market today!

American Journey products have been a staple at Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff since 1998 for two very good reasons: Their quality never fails, and their value is unmatched. American Journey produces a wide variety of art supplies, including high-quality brushes, sketchbooks, watercolor sticks, palettes, mediums, and even studio furniture. But their Artists’ Acrylic paints are truly the showstoppers of the brand. Their vibrant, concentrated formulas deliver stunning pigments that don’t dull when color-mixing and perform beautifully on paper and canvas.
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Pigment Quality and Paint Characteristics

The most important characteristic of acrylic paints is the quality and number of pigments used in the formula. Premium acrylic paints ideally contain only one pigment. The fewer pigments in a paint, the easier it will be to mix colors. If acrylics contain two or more pigments, mixing the paints can risk blending all three primary colors, creating a dull brown shade. Therefore, over half of the American Journey acrylics are single-pigment paints. This makes color-mixing simple and stress-free!

The American Journey Acrylic Paint formula contains a unique blend of acrylic polymer emulsion, which gives the paint a high viscosity, leaving a flexible finish when dry. The pigments are finely-ground and “mill-strength,” which gives the acrylics an especially high tinting strength. This high-tinting strength means less paint is needed to cover a surface, and they will retain their vibrant color when mixed with white to lighten. All 60 shades come packaged in air-tight collapsible aluminum tubes and are available in 60 or 150 ml.

Here are some noticeable qualities we found when working with the American Journey Artists’ Acrylics:
1. The paints have a smooth, creamy texture when wet
2. The acrylics dry fast and remain flexible when dry to prevent cracking
3. The pure pigments create an easy mixing process
4. The colors dry evenly
5. The paints have a moderate sheen when used in full strength
6. The sheen was reduced when mixed with Tint White
7. Tint White is good for mixing; Titanium White is good for covering



One of the best ways that we can demonstrate the quality of these acrylic paints is by creating a complete color swatch chart. Using all 60 American Journey colors, we created a color chart using the paints at their full strengths and then again at a 50% lightened version. Our eventual goal is to create such a chart for each of our paint lines, to be used as a visual tool for our customers. Having a color chart to reference when painting can be invaluable.
Use the step-by-step instructions below to create your own color chart!

Creating a Color Chart

All paint brands use different formulas, so their paints will perform differently. Having a visual aid that displays each shade and its lightened version can be very helpful when trying out new paints or re-using old favorites. Here is an example of how to make a color chart using American Journey Artists’ Acrylics:
Necessary Supplies:
• 60 Tubes of American Journey Artists’ Acrylics

• 18 x 24 Joe’s Prime Extra Fine Art Board

• Joe Miller Signature Series Gesso

• Richeson Grey Matters 12 x 16 Paper Palette

• ½ Inch Flat American Journey Interlocked Synthetic Brush

• #81 Cheap Joe’s Painting Knife

• Yupo Watercolor Paper

• X-Acto Gripster Knife

Preparation:

Apply three coats of the Signature Series Gesso to the Prime Extra Fine Art Board, letting each layer dry in between. Alternate directions of the coats to minimize brush strokes.

To fit all 60 shades on the art board, they should be arranged in 12 rows of 5 colors each. To minimize pencil lines on the board, create a placement template out of Yupo Watercolor Paper using a ruler and an X-Acto Gripster Knife. The paper template should have five 2” long by 1” tall swatch areas cut out. There should be ½ inches between the rows.

Painting:

Begin squeezing small amounts of the American Journey Artists’ Acrylic Paints onto the Richeson Grey Matters Paper Palette. Only use a few colors at a time so they don’t dry out while you’re mixing. Use the 1/2-inch flat brush to swatch the true color on half of the swatch area. Then using the #81 Painting Knife, mix a 1:1 ratio of the color with Tint White to show the tinting strength of each color. Swatch the lightened mixture on the other half of the swatch area. Each swatch area should represent a single color: the true shade and a 50% lightened version.

Continue mixing and painting swatches of each color until the board is filled. You can arrange the colors in any way that suits your style best. We used a typical color family sequence, similar to the color wheel, starting with bright yellow and ending with neutrals and black and whites. When you are finished with the swatches, let the paint dry completely. Then add names and item numbers to each swatch for reference. A swatch is only helpful if you know which color it is!