Announcing Jacksons Professional Oil Paints

Following the incredible popularity of our Jackson’s Artist Oil Colour, we were keen to answer the requests of some professional artist customers to develop a range that possessed an even greater pigment loading, to rival brands such as Michael Harding, Old Holland and Vasari. The result is our new Jackson’s Professional Oil Colour. Now with a 20% off introductory offer until February 16th 2014.

The differences in oil colour qualities
Professional
Professional Oil Colours are the top-of-the-range paints with the highest pigment load and no additives to homogenise the range. This means that the individual character of each pigment is preserved and so some colours will be a thicker consistency than others and some colours will dry slower than others. Professional colours are most often single pigment, which allows the cleanest colour mixing and allows the artist to predict how colours will mix.

Brands at this level include:
Jackson’s Professional, Michael Harding, Old Holland, Williamsburg, Blockx, Mussini and Vasari.

Artist
The artist quality oils have similar qualities to the professional but the pigment load is not as high. They may have added driers.

Brands at this level include:
Jackson’s Artist, Winsor & Newton Artist, Daler-Rowney Artist, Rembrandt, Shin Han, and Sennelier Artist.
The popularity of the Jackson’s Artist-quality Oils has been because of their high-quality and low price. The customer reviews often mention how much they appreciate getting such good quality in a 60ml tube for the price of another brand’s 37ml size.

Student
Because painting is a skill that takes practice to learn many people do not wish to spend much money on the materials used for artwork at the beginning stage, as the artwork may not be kept. Student oils are designed to be of good enough quality for art painting as they will not fade or flake but they do not have as much pigment in them compared to artist-quality colours, so they don’t go as far. The pigments used are often cheaper ‘hue’ versions of the expensive genuine pigments and these may not be as luminous. Student ranges have more ‘mixed colours’ (instead of ‘single pigments’) which can cause difficulties in mixing on the palette as mixing two tubes of mixed colour is the same as mixing four or more colours, which can begin to get muddy and is unpredictable. Because any expensive pigments have been replaced by cheaper alternatives the prices have all been evened out and therefore student ranges are not priced by series, which reflects prices of the pigments, but rather have one price per size of tube.
They also have additives to create a consistency across the range which makes it easier for a beginner: all the colours will be the same thickness of paint and they will all dry at the same rate (usually quite quickly).

Brands at this level include:
Daler-Rowney Georgian, Schmincke Akademie, Winsor & Newton Winton, Van Gogh, Pebeo XL, Lukas Studio, MaiMeri Classico and Sennelier Etude. There is also Daler-Rowney Graduate which is an economy student paint.

“The paints are really luminous.” – Peter Graham
Read the article about Jackson’s Professional Oils – Painting en-plein-air on the Western Isles of Scotland by Peter Graham in the Artist magazine. You can read it on Painters Online.

About Jackson’s Professional Oil Colours
Jackson’s Professional Oil paints are made by skilled artisans in the UK using the finest grade pigments and the purest refined oils we can source. You will find our paints are luminous, vibrant, and full of character.

Lower quality oil paints tend to be formulated and manufactured to ensure all colours have a uniform consistency and drying time. Our range of Professional colours is made with a ‘lighter touch’ so the natural beauty and character of the each pigment is preserved and revealed.

We never use extenders or fillers so that we can maintain optimum colour strength and lightfastness. We do make room for a very small proportion of metallic stearate in some colours which allows us to condition our paints for longevity without compromising performance or masking the inherent individuality of the pigments.

After mixing, the pigments and oils are passed through water-cooled mills – made of stone or steel, according to pigment type. We grind our colours as many times as needed to release the full ‘colour value’ and ensure a smooth, homogonous oil paint. Some, like Ultramarine need only gentle milling whereas coarser, earth pigments can require more lengthy processing on the mill with several passes to achieve optimum dispersion. Some colours benefit from a period of further standing to promote the development of the product. Quality checks are carried out at each stage of production.

Drying Times
We don’t use drying modifiers to even out drying times and so you will find some variation across the range reflecting the natural drying characteristics of each pigment.

For your reference, the drying times of thinner layers and glazes will be touch dry in most cases in a few days and colours will take up to 2 weeks for the slower drying colours. Thicker layers will take longer.

Slower Drying – Yellow Lakes (Azo Yellow), Violet Dioxazine, Cerulean Blue, Quinacridone Magenta, Alizarin Cimson, Napthol Vermillion, Indian Yellow Hue, Titanium and Zinc Whites
Medium Drying – Phthalo Green, Blue Oxide of Chrome, Terre Verte, Ultramarine Blue, Ivory Black, Cadmiums (Genuine)
Faster Drying – Prussian Blue, Raw Umber, Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna Cobalt Blue, Yellow Ochre

Range of Whites
We currently offer three whites Titanium White (Linseed), Titanium White (Safflower), and Zinc White.

Titanium White (Linseed) and Titanium White (Safflower).
These are the most opaque of our whites and offer the most covering power. Our Linseed Oil version is suitable for underpainting as well as for mixing and general use. Safflower Oil can reduce the tendency of linseed oils to yellow but it dries more slowly and shrinks a little. Titanium White Safflower oil is not formulated for under painting but is good for general mixing.

Our Zinc White has a colder hue with less covering power and more transparency than the Titanium white. It is particularly suited for mixing with cooler colours and works well in glazes and scumbling. It’s more subtle nature lends itself well for general mixing without over-powering other colours.

Look out for our unbleached Titanium White and our ‘non toxic’ alternative to Lead Based White as we continue to develop our pallet of colours.

The intense colour saturation and colour purity is achieved by high pigment loading coupled with our traditional and bespoke production process. Our work to reach optimum dispersion on our specialist traditional triple-roll mills ensures our colours achieve the maximum resistance to light and the elements that are possible for each colour and the majority are rated ASTM 1 (Excellent).

Click on the underlined links to go to the paints on the Jackson’s Art Supplies website.
Postage on orders shipped standard to mainland UK addresses is free for orders of £39.