ldakers
Here is a brief introduction about myself. I am Renate, working at the GreatArt Sister shop in The Hague in Holland. I also paint in acrylic for exhibitions and commissions. I do this mainly with Old Holland, Ara Acrylic Paint and Amsterdam Expert Series.
When I saw that there were new acrylic paints coming from Blockx, I thought this was definitely worth trying after looking at the product description and price ratio. After all, the product description talks about maximum pigmentation, high opacity, 100% lightfastness, buttery with a smooth consistency and quick drying. So, these are the factors I am going to judge the paint on.
What did I use for this project?
– MUSEO® | Professional Cotton artists’ canvas, cotton universally prepared
-50x60cm
-100% cotton (mixed fabrics) and is primed with 3 layers of gesso. Weight 335 g/m2.
– Blockx Acrylic colours (010,011,706,758,257,042,100)
– Talens Amsterdam Retarder 070 drying time retarder
– Amsterdam expert Acrylic (570)
– Molotow Acrylic marker Signal white, 1.0 mm – extra fine tip
The painting itself:
I actually always start with an undercoat of acrylic over the gesso so that the chalk contained in the gesso does not affect my colours for the upcoming layers. For this I used 706 Naples yellow. What I immediately noticed was the fluidity of the paint from the tube. It is smooth but not too thin that it rolls off your pallet. What worked very well for the ground was that it goes on to the canvas very smoothly, and the quick drying time is certainly no lie as the ground was completely dry in 3 minutes.
Then I got to work putting the background on. I often want to have more textures or colour gradients so I use extra thick brushes or other materials. It often makes no sense for me to put my background on the canvas after the ‘’main subject ‘’ or adjust it in any way. So, I often settle for needing a bit more white paint in my paintings. I prefer to use Titanium white for everything both mixing and on its own.
However, this time I also tried Blockx’s 011 Blending White in combination with 758 Chinese Orange to get a slightly coarser background and to test the colours for their blending. The conclusion from that was: you have to be very fast. Blending is possible using water or possibly a medium, I used water myself. I ended up going for coarse brush strokes without too much blending. Blending with blending white was doable but I myself found that it brought down the beautiful pigments contained in the colours a bit and I did not experience this with the titanium white, the colours remain very vibrant With the Titanium white. For the metallic colours, I used the colour 042 Champagne by smearing it on bubble wrap and stamping it onto the canvas as it were. Its pigments are gorgeous and super strong! Especially when the sun shines on it!
For the background, I found the consistency of the paint very fine and indeed almost buttery. And the quick drying time was advantageous in working through.
After this, I continued with the main subject for which I used the 010 Titanium White combined with 257 Ultramarine Light Blue. I wanted the Ultramarine Light Blue to be a pastel colour so I mixed it additionally with Titanium White. This ensured that the first layer on the white under drawing immediately covered well and was ready to start working on the details and depth. This was a slightly thicker layer of paint but also dried pretty much within 10 minutes.
Moving on to the details, I tested how the paint reacts to other paints. In this case Amsterdam expert Acrylic (570). Here the difference in paint thickness was very small. The pigments are also very similar. The mixing itself was no problem at all, but I did notice that the Amsterdam expert takes longer to work with than the Blockx, so what annoyed me during this process was the drying time. A tip for the quick drying time is to use Talens Amsterdam Retarder 070 drying time delayer. Make sure you keep the right proportions and do not add more than 5% retarder to the paint. At first it seemed that even this did not affect the drying time and you had to work very quickly. This could certainly also be used in combination with the hot weather of the past few days. I had to be very careful not to apply another brushful when the other layer had been on for just 2 minutes, as it was already drying and will curl as soon as you want to treat it. After another attempt with the retarder, it went a little better after the previous layer was fully cured, but it was definitely a puzzle. Blending was tricky and, on this painting, I didn’t quite get it done the way I would normally like it, for that a cool space is a must and working fast (even when you use retarder!). I also used my standard blend method with the two colours against each other and blending them out with a moist brush. This can also be done with an acrylic medium instead of water.
In my previous painting, I only used the 100 Lamp Black in combination with 010 Titanium White and did not suffer from the discussed problem at all. So I assume that the paint is super sensitive to ambient temperature due to the fast drying time it already has by its nature. Other than that, I have nothing to comment on the colours themselves. The pigments are really nice and cover when it should cover.
To finish, I used 100 Lamp Black. I wanted to see the covering power when you put it on all at once without a white background. Of course, this is easier with black than with any other colour, but when putting something on in one go, it is also true that the paint has to be fluid enough to be able to continue the line nicely. And I can definitely say that this paint does that very well. It is super flexible and goes on the canvas easily. So, drawing straight lines or getting details right the first time is really easy!
Conclusion on the named points:
– Maximum pigmentation, high opacity, 100% lightfast
Definitely! Beautiful colours with high pigmentation, both the neon colours and the pearlescent and metallic. Good coverage when indicated and the semi-opaque colours are fortunately not transparent but really semi-opaque (which unfortunately sometimes happens with brands).
– Buttery, supple consistency,
The paint is supple but fortunately it stays straight when it comes out of the tube. The consistency is pleasant and goes on your canvas very easily.
– Quick drying,
BIG YES! Sometimes even drying too fast. The drying time was my biggest issue in this test but also definitely the most important one to consider. We all know acrylic dries fast but then this one does so really ‘’very ‘’ fast. Can be remedied by not having the ambient temperature above 23 degrees and using a retarder.
So definitely recommended! A nice quality acrylic paint.
Want to see more now? This is my website: https://werberteartworks.nl/ furthermore, I can be found on Instagram as @sinnewerberte. Here you will soon see the result of my wooden chairs that I am painting with Blockx Acrylic Paint Metallic haematite 169!!!
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