Studio 71

A few weeks ago I had an Instagram follower wanting to know how good Darice acrylic paints were. Darice is a craft supply company that started in 1954. No, I'm not named after them. I've used some of the products Darice sells at Michael's and Ben Franklin's craft stores, but never heard of their paints. I told my follower I didn't know they made acrylic paints. I looked up on  Darice.com but didn't have much luck finding the paints. So I went to Darice Instagram page to see if they had info on it. Not seeing any, I then messaged them. While waiting for a response I did a search on Amazon. Sure enough they had them. The name of their paint is Studio 71 acrylics. I bought the set of 24 so I could to try them out and do a review on them. I wanted to know if these paints were good enough to bear my name.

When the package arrived I was excited to see all the beautiful colors sitting side by side. The tubes are made of clear plastic so you actually see the color before squeezing it out. Most acrylic paint brands have non transparent tubes or bottles with the label telling you what color it is. Normally with those brands I have to take the top off to see the color before buying a new color. With Studio 71 there is no guessing, the color of the tube is the color of the paint, I like that. Like a kid in a candy store, I couldn't decide what color to try first.

I grabbed a 5x7 canvas and began painting a Maui beach scene. I wanted to get the feel of the paint fast and there is no better way to do that then to just paint. The colors I used for this demo were Titanium white, cerulean blue, primary blue, dioxazine purple, pthalo green, cad yellow med, yellow ochre, burnt sienna and burnt umber.

I found the colors to be very similar to the brands I normally use. The color labels varied just slightly from what I'm use to. Instead of "Lemon Yellow" or "Pthalo Blue", Studio 71 calls these "Primary Yellow" and "Primary Blue", that's not to big of an issue for me.

The paints are medium bodied, not to thin and not to thick. Very similar to Winsor & Newton Galeria acrylic, the brand I use most often. In the following photos I show you what they look like when you squeeze them from the tube, how well they blend together and how well they cover the canvas. Click on each photo and read the captions.

Studio 71 preformed well for me. I found it to be very comparable to the brands I use most often. I'm happy to say this paint passes my Darice test. I can recommend this paint with confidence.

Happy painting!