Art Supplies

Student Grade vs Artist Grade

There’s no question that art supplies can be very expensive. It can make you want to buy some of the student grade stuff just because it can be significantly cheaper. But are you really getting a good deal? Will the student grade stuff be the best option for the type of artwork that you do in terms of quality and consistency?

Are student grade art supplies really worth the savings? (Photo credit: 123RF.com 911804_1920-pixabay-bodobe)

Student grade supplies are generally considered acceptable for students. Is that bad? Or can professional artists use them too? Honestly? No. Not really. Personally, I really don’t even know why they would torture students this way because the student grade stuff can be more headache than it’s worth.

It’s been my experience that student grade art supplies are often frustratingly difficult to work with. But I get it…when times are lean, it can be tempting to go the cheaper route. But it may be to your disadvantage.

What are the pros and cons of using student grade art supplies vs artist grade?

What I’ve found over the years, is that when I’ve tried to get away with using student grade art supplies for professional artwork, it just doesn’t work. The supplies are cheaper for a reason. Generally, it means that less pigment is used in manufacturing. And when it comes right down to it, they don’t perform the way you need them to. Granted, you should still test out the expensive stuff too. Each of our artworks, techniques, and methods are unique and one brand may not quite do what we want it to, even if it is artist grade. So, always test it out before you buy if possible.

Pencils

Student grade color pencils for example, are constantly breaking, especially when trying to sharpen them. They also don’t cover well enough (because there’s less pigment) or are so high in wax content that you can’t add any more pigment after just a couple layers. They can be dry and crumbly. This may not bother one artist, but may be a huge disadvantage to another. They also won’t be lightfast, meaning they’ll fade over time.

Artist grade pencils on the other hand, will have more lightfast options. In other words, they won’t fade as quickly as the cheaper ones. This is incredibly important if you are selling your work. Nothing would be worse than selling your work and then having it fade on your customer. They’re also smooth and creamy. You can achieve great coverage easily. And they layer and blend well.

When it comes to pastels, it’s very much like color pencils. The cheaper brands will be a lot drier and more crumbly. They won’t adhere to your paper as well. And they are probably not lightfast in the least.

Copic markers – artist grade (Photo credit: 123RF.com Image ID: 52786337 Copyright: kolidzei)

Paints and markers

With paints and markers, blending is more challenging with student grade. Coverage could really be less than ideal. Think of buying house paint. There’s a reason why the one-coat brands cost a little more. But you want to buy the cheaper stuff and because it doesn’t cover as well, you end up buying more to do an extra coat. In the long run, you would have been better off buying the more expensive one-coat brand to begin with. The same is true with artist grade paints and markers. Yes, artist grade art supplies cost more initially, but you end up using much less.

Paper

Paper is also another item that is highly personal. As a graphite artist, I was used to using one particular paper for my portrait commissions. It was a 100% cotton, acid-free/archival, 100lb, smooth surface paper. When they stopped making it, I had to search for another brand. Most of the ones I tried were listed the same way. 100% cotton, 100lb, smooth. Most of them were not smooth at all, which meant my portraits all had a textured pattern that I absolutely hated.

I’m really not sure if paper has a student grade, but there is a huge price range. The temptation would be to buy the cheap stuff. However, for my purposes, the cheap stuff would be a disaster. First of all 100% cotton acid-free/archival means that the paper will not yellow as much over time. Since I’m selling my work, this is imperative. I want my customers to be happy for a long, long time.

When it comes to pastel paper, I know some people who are totally happy with cheaper pads of paper that’s actually listed as pastel paper. Unfortunately, none of them worked for me and I found them totally frustrating. Pastels wouldn’t adhere nearly as well, which meant I lost a lot of pastel to the dust that would fall off the paper. The only paper that I found that works incredibly well is Clarefontaine PastelMat that happens to come from the UK and is rather expensive.

That cotton paper, for example, took me 2-3 times as long to finish my portrait because I had to compete with the texture. It took me so much longer to try to disguise that pattern well enough to make it look like a truly smooth surface. That was not fun at all.

Could I draw my animal portraits on regular copy paper rather than the sheet of paper that costs $5-$8? Absolutely. Would the quality of my work be the same? Absolutely not.

The paper that I pay so much for will not only last longer, it’s also a much thicker paper, giving me the ability to work with it much more and get much more depth and dimension to each portrait. It’s also much more durable. Copy paper is easily damaged, is very thin and has very little tooth to it resulting in very flat looking portraits. It also yellows very quickly over time. None of which will be appreciated by my clients. And beyond the materials in and of themselves, some brands may not work well with some types of paper.

When creating your works of art, you want to focus on creating, not fighting the materials.

Going cheaper can actually waste money rather than save it. It is a highly personal decision. You have to weigh the cost for yourself. Is it an issue for you that you could end up using far more of the material than necessary? Is it a problem for you that you could lose much more of the cheaper pencils due to constant breakage every time you try to sharpen them?

It also depends on the type of art you do. If you sell prints rather than the original, then you might not care about lightfastness. In this case you could get away with using the cheaper stuff.

I also know some people who prefer the texture or consistency of the cheaper art supplies. For their style of artwork, it works better for them. Or, one particular medium works better on the paper you use. Do your research and test things out. You may decide to upgrade your paper because it works better with the medium of your choice.

* A note about buying in sets. The cost of artist grade sets can be really expensive. I have sets of colored pencils and pastels that cost upwards of $300 each. You don’t need to buy huge sets like that. You can buy a handful of basic colors and get really good at blending your own colors. But if you do buy sets, please make sure that you can buy that brand open stock. In other words, you can buy colors individually. You don’t want to run out of a color and have to buy the whole set just to replace that one pencil.

Personally, as much as I’d love to not plunk down as much money for supplies, I truly believe the old adage that says, “You get what you pay for.” But, you and your artwork may actually get by just fine with cheaper art supplies. If that’s the case, count your blessings. If not, do your homework and weigh your options. Test materials out if possible before committing to buying large supplies. You can always offset the cost by raising the prices on your artwork. People don’t mind paying slightly higher rates if the work is quality artwork.

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