Holiday Gift Guide-Heavy Body Acrylics

The Best Gift for an Artist Might Be a Gift Card

Always check exactly which paints your artist wants!

Jerry's Artarama Or, feel free to direct your beloved artist to the Paint List, where they can find exactly the paints they're looking for and even make a saved list.

Blick Art Supplies.

All right so here we go! We've got sets, we've got some wild offerings from Stuart Semple, and we have some solid standbys.

And of course, as you'll always hear us say, the best set is the one you make yourself, and so we'll have some comments about that, too. When it comes to our holiday gift guides, we have not purchased the sets- this is our take on what we see out there as painters.

Golden Heavy Body Acrylic Set

Gorgeous, high quality acrylics in a trial size

First we've got a set from some of the finest makers of acrylic paint we know of-- Golden Artist Materials. It's no secret that we love Golden and their dedication to art materials research.

Golden Heavy Body Set

The Golden Heavy Body Set is a great introduction to Golden Heavy Body paints with what strikes us as a great idea- mini tubes so that you can try things out without a huge investment. Each one is half as big as we would usually see in a tube of acrylic, so it's a great way to get introduced to the line.

These two yellows are of particular interest, as they are more lightfast than some of their Hansa counterparts. The Benzimidazolone Yellow Light is made with an interesting pigment, PY175, andBenzimidazolone Yellow Medium has PY154. For more about Golden's use of these pigments and their lightfastness see this article.

As a warm red Naphthol Red Light is semitransparent. While it does make smashing tints, it's lightfastness is not great at only LFII.

We'd consider pigment PR122 in Quinacridone Magenta to be an essential mixing color. Interestingly, Golden offers both Phthalo blues- Phthalo Blue (Red Shade) and Phthalo Blue (Green Shade). While both blues are lovely, the green shade would be our favorite if we had to choose just one as it is a helpful core color for mixing. Ultramarine Blue is a palette staple along with Titanium White, Raw Umber and Carbon Black.

In 2024, Golden announced that changes would be coming to their Yellow Ochre, so going forward the color will change a bit as it will be replaced by a synthetic. For more in-depth on the changes in their yellow ochre, see this article in Just Paint.

Explore the Golden Heavy Body Range.

Golden Heavy Body Acrylic Set

When purchased as a set, these palette-staples come in smaller tubes. These have a heavy body consistency- very different in viscosity from other Golden products

Search for more Golden Heavy Body Acrylics in full sizes

Golden acrylics come in a huge range of colors

Discover Golden Heavy Body Acrylics →

Liquitex Heavy Body Sets in Small Tubes

We love the mini size for trying out new colors

We have a special place in our hearts for Liquitex as one of our founders learned to paint using this brand. Liquitex Heavy Body are an alternative to Golden Heavy Body Acrylics, and they also have a different set of convenience blends.

Let's compare their more deluxe set, the Liquitex Professional 24 Essential Colors in mini tubes, with the 12 essential colors (explored below).

In this case, we found that the 12-color set was more attractive than the 24 colors, though of course this will come down to your preference.

The 24 Essential Colors include: Yellow Light Hansa, Yellow Medium Azo, Cadmium-Free Yellow Medium, Cadmium-Free Orange, Naphthol Red Light, Quinacridone Crimson, Light Pink, Brilliant Purple, Dioxazine Purple, Ultramarine Blue Red Shade, Prussian Blue Hue, Cerulean Blue Hue, Light Blue Permanent, Phthalocyanine Green (Blue Shade), Vivid Lime Green, Yellow Oxide, Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber, Unbleached Titanium, Titanium White, Payne's Gray, Ivory Black, Iridescent Bright Silver, and Iridescent Bright Gold.

This set contains some iridescents as well as some convenience blends.

The Liquitex Professional Heavy Body Acrylic Paint - Set of 24 Essential Colors in small size tubes can be found here

Blick may not be able to ship Liquitex overseas, so this set may not be available everywhere.

Liquitex Heavy Body Deluxe Set (24 Essential Colors)

Whether this set is best will depend on your needs, as this set contains a

Liquitex Heavy Body 12 Essentials Set

A Good Selection of Pigments in trial-sized tubes

The 12 Essentials Set of Twelve contains:

Yellow Medium Azo, Naphthol Red Light, Quinacridone Crimson, Dioxazine Purple, Ultramarine Blue (Red Shade), Cerulean Blue Hue, Phthalocyanine Green (Blue Shade), Yellow Oxide, Transparent Burnt Sienna, Transparent Raw Umber, Titanium White, and Ivory Black in 0.74 oz (22 ml) tubes.

So, in comparison with 24-color Liquitex set, the 12-color set is missing Yellow Light Hansa, and the Cadmium-Free concoctions -- as a general rule, we don't really recommend the cadmium imitation colors in general, regardless of brand, Brilliant Purple, Prussian Blue hue, Vivid Lime Green, Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber, Unbleached Titanium, Payne's Gray, and the Iridescents.

This set includes: Yellow Medium Azo, Naphthol Red Light, Quinacridone Crimson, Dioxazine Purple, Ultramarine Blue Red Shade, Cerulean Blue Hue, Phthalocyanine Green (Blue Shade), Yellow Oxide, Transparent Burnt Sienna, Transparent Raw Umber, Titanium White, and Ivory Black in 22 ml tubes.

Another difference is that the 24 set includes the regular versions of the earth tones, while the 12 set contains Transparent Burnt Sienna and Transparent Burnt Umber, which are different paints.

As noted above, Liquitex might not be able to be shipped outside of North America, at least from Blick, so that's just something to keep in mind.

Liquitex 12 Essentials Set in Small Tubes

Pigments for a limited palette

Winsor and Newton Heavy Body Acrylic

In darling little tubes these are a great introduction to the line

Next we've got a set from Winsor and Newton. The first thing to note is that these are really petite tubes!

Azo Yellow Medium, Lemon Yellow, Mars Black, Naphthol Red Light, Olive Green, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Phthalo Blue Red Shade, Phthalo Green Blue Shade, Raw Umber, Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, and Yellow Ochre. Please note that the Paint List pages that these link to are for the full sized versions.

Ok there is a lot to love about this set but as far as providing a self-contained palette of colors, we're missing the Cadmiums. It's helpful to note that Naphthol Red Light may not be totally lightfast. Paint makers often use less expensive colors in their sets which often leave us longing for more in the yellows (for example Lemon Yellow has PY3-10G which is ok, but tends to be more transparent and some versions of Hansa yellow have lightfastness issues). One thing to note is that their Permanent Alizarin Crimson contains some purple in the blend and isn't a single pigment.

Winsor and Newton Heavy Body Acrylics- Sample Sized Tubes

These mini-versions of their regular acrylics are great for trying out colors

Search for Full-Sized Versions of Winsor and Newton Acrylic

Professional, Heavy Body Acrylic in a variety of pigments

Explore Winsor and Newton Professional Acrylics →

Build Your Own Set

We love the pre-made sets because it's a great way to get a half-sized tube of acrylic and experiment with its properties.

If you're buying a tube, most of them will be roughly twice the size of what's in these sets.

We'd recommend the following colors:

Cadmium Red (PR108) Cadmium Orange (PO20) Cadmium Yellow (PY35) 2 Forms of Phthalo Green (PG7 and PG36) Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) (PB15:3) Ultramarine Blue (PB29) Quinacridone Magenta (PR122)

There are many other worthy colors to add, however these are just some basics, and not all of them are contained in started sets- mainly because of cost.

Cadmiums are helpful for lightfastness as well as opacity. Phthalo Blue Green shade (PB15:3) and Phthalo Green (PG7) are helpful to have for mixing teals. In order to get some delicate violet-pinks, the Quinacridone Magenta (PR122) is very handy.

It's helpful to have a set of earth tones on hand as well. The classic earths include Yellow Ochre (PY42 or PY43), Raw Sienna (sometimes PY42 or PY43), and Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and Raw Umber, all usually PBr7. Another recommended color for realistic work is Transparent Red Oxide (PR101). There is a bit of variety in the pigment naming for earth tones which is a more complex topic than we need to go into here. Something we recommend is trying to find single pigment earths.

Some people like to paint with a true black on hand. There are several to explore but Mars Black (PBk11) is a good place to start. Also ubiquitous is a tube of Titanium White.

Build Your Own Basic Set of Golden Acrylics

While many more colors could be added, this is one idea for a set of palette staples in full-sized tubes

If You're Shopping for Yourself- Muted Colors

Liquitex caught our eye with this set of full-sized convenience blends

Ok so this is not a showstopper, unless you know what you want and you're making your own holiday list.

The Liquitex Professional Heavy Body Acrylic Muted Colors actually caught our eye as having some utility for realistic painters. The reason has to do with the pigments in the blends. As all realistic painters know, those muted tones can be super helpful, and we thought this deserved a special call-out as Liquitex clearly put some thought into these.

This set includes includes Muted Violet, Muted Turquoise, Muted Pink, Muted Grey, Muted Green, and Titanium White in 59 ml tubes.

What we like: we love that these actually look like helpful blends to bring down the chroma of certain color groups. The Muted Turquoise contains PB60 which is an interesting inclusion and the Muted Violet contains PR179 which is also a helpful color for lowering chroma.

What we don't like: The Muted Pink contains PO36 which may not be the best for lightfastness. Also, one of the colors is white, which is a bit disappointing as we'd usually be inclined to buy that in a larger quantity at a time anyway.

You can find the Muted Collection as a set here. However due to the lightfastness of one of the ingredients in Muted Pink, you may opt to try them individually, as they are sold in full sizes.

Liquitex Professional Heavy Body Muted Collection

Convenience blends to explore

Golden Heavy Body Acrylics- Essential Small Tubes

Terrific set for beginning painting

This set has cadmiums, and that's a huge boon. We love seeing Cadmium Yellow Light and Cadmium Red Light in a mixing set as they are some of the essential colors to our palettes.

The Golden Traditional Set seems to be particularly attuned to the needs of painters.

Cadmium Yellow Light, India Yellow Hue, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson Hue, Ultramarine Blue, Prussian Blue Hue, Viridian Green Hue, and Titanium White, plus one 59 ml (2 oz) bottle of Gloss Glazing Liquid.

In an inversion of the usual issues with set, this set contains the expensive colors, such as the cadmiums. To this set we'd recommend adding a phthalo blue PB15:3 (use in moderation), Phthalo Green PG7, and a Quinacridone Magenta PR122 for mixing those elusive cool magentas and violets.