White Paint Comparison

I had a really fun day today, hosting a 7 hour jam at my house!! I don't care how long you've been in this business, you can ALWAYS learn something from your fellow artists, no matter how new or veteran they are.  I host a lot of jams and always learn something new!  This time I took advantage of the fact that we had 9 painters in the house with diverse kits, by sampling everyone's brands of white...

 I painted a quick rainbow strip with my Tag Rainbow Four cake, and then did a line of Wolfe black along the side.  After allowing my base colors to thoroughly dry, I loaded up my brush with various brands of white and painted a stroke of white across everything.

The "1st Coat" picture shows my first pass at the white...these I actually swiped across one way, then back again to get consistent ends.

In the "2nd Coat" picture, I went back over the white with another coat after it had dried.  (Note that after making the graphic, I realized I did NOT actually second-coat the Mehron liquid in the photo.)

I was surprised how most of them became more transparent as soon as they dried.

These sample strokes may not match up to your own work, so keep in mind that there are many factors that affect white's opacity.  There really is a big difference between taking your first load of white on a new or dry cake, vs a cake that is already moist and has been worked up during a gig.  Also, how dry the paint underneath is plays a huge role.  (or if there's any paint underneath at all, of course!)  How long it STAYS nice and bright depends on how concentrated the paint was when you put it on, as well as the person wearing it and how much or little they are moving around and stretching their skin.  So, while this is not meant to point to one surefire winner, hopefully it will help to get an idea of where to start in your own search.

I had tried Tag before and wasn't all that impressed with it, but it seemed to do pretty well here over the other colors.  Global and Cameleon are both pretty good whites as well.  We all know how great Wolfe is...if you can find it anywhere.  I've been waiting probably more than 6 months to get more Wolfe white in stock, with no sign of getting any more any time soon. So, we're all really looking for alternatives! I'd recommend Cameleon, Global or Tag, depending how you work, for linework in white.  (base coats I prefer a glycerine based makeup like Paradise or Kryolan) On another note, if you're looking for an alternative to Wolfe black, I highly recommend Global's strong black!!

One artist had found that she got the best opaque white coverage by adding Mehron's liquid white makeup to any other brand of white.  (no water, just the liquid makeup mixed with your other whites) This you can see as the final stripe on the bottom of each photo, where I mixed it with Wolfe.  I do like the idea of someone being able to purchase a favorite base white, and then have the option of turning it into an opaque linework white by adding the liquid...

Thanks for stopping by, and happy painting!! :-)