Your Favorite PYO Paints (non-airbrush)

The old threads tend to get buried, so starting a new one is fine! I did find this topic from about a year ago. It has some helpful tips, and I’m sure the PYO artists will add more. 🙂

Gonna try to paint my own first timer!!!

Glad to see someone new taking on the PYO’s! I’m interested in seeing what you come up with!

For paints, here are ones I regularly use and recommend:
– Golden. This is my default and favorite to use. Except for the white. I use Folkart or Americana brand white paint.

– Decoart
– Folkart
– Americana
(I think the above three are made by the same company. There are a lot of interesting specialty paints between them like Enchanted, Color Shift, Dragonfly, Brushed Metal, Glow in the dark, and a slew of different varnishes)

– Martha Stewart. You’re paying a bit more for the brand but the paint is very good quality. I’ve gotten quite a few when they were on sale or clearance at Michaels.

– Craftsmart Premium. Very good quality, great price, and lots of variety.

– Crayola signature. It’s in metal tins. I especially love the white pearl paint from this series.

A lot of people like using Liquitex as well. I don’t use it as much compared to Golden because I’ve had some duds with the brand.

People have used watercolors on their PYO’s, so there’s another option for you. Oil-based paints are not recommended for PYO’s since they don’t allow the piece to breathe.

Hope this helps!

I haven’t painted a pyo in a long while, but I use hard pastels. When I first started painting them way too long ago, I used the liquitex brand acrylics. Any brand will work really. Just no oil paints.

Decoart and Americana are the same manufacturer. Folkart and Martha Stewart (and Apple Barrel) are the same manufacturer. I swear some of the Martha paints are exactly the same as the Folkart, which was a disappointment, because I was expecting better from Martha’s paint. However, both of the Martha pearl white paints are my favorite of that color, even better than Golden’s.