Jack Richeson 120533 37-Ml Artist Casein Colors, Set of 6

These paints are fun to work with and have a beautiful color palette. You can create a lot of colors with these six paints. Although, I liked them so much I got the underpainting series. It feels like I’m working with oils without the mess of oils. They dry a lot faster than oils, but are more workable than acrylics. Just be careful not to use too much water if you’re adding layers because it will pick up the paint like with watercolor and gouache (but I think the color payoff is better than those mediums, again similar to oils.)

love the product, always consistent

It's really really fun to use, it seems like gouache but feels like oil. It can be diluted with water for transparent layers or used thickly for impasto. It also retains brushstrokes pretty well. The colors are vibrant and lightfast. This set may have limited colors but the possibilities are endless.I just had a few concerns with the packaging, Amazon could have used a thicker box for delicate items like this. Good thing it was not damaged in any way.

Package got lost multiple times on route and came battered with the tubes falling out of the original packaging. BUT it’s def worth the money with a generous amount of paint and a good selection of starter colors to try out. Very opaque and vibrant colors that dry lighter and to a matte, slightly chalky finish. Similar to working with gouache but the paint is much thicker out of the tube.The smell everyone was mentioning was a concern before I bought it but it’s actually very pleasant (sweet…a bit like citrus candy). If you don’t mind the smell of acrylic paint you won’t mind the smell of casein.Paints dry pretty quickly out of the tube, helps to squeeze them out on a wet paper towel or spritz them with water every now and then. They’re not as easy to rewet as watercolor/gouache - preferable to only squeeze out what you’ll use.If working with casein thinly like watercolor they have casein emulsion medium “to add to your water to ensure color brilliance and to maintain adhesion and integrity of the paint film.” I haven’t tried working thickly/impasto with casein since I’ve read it tends to crack esp on surfaces that aren’t rigid (like sketchbook paper).Be cautious about the brushes you use with the casein as the ammonia in the paints will break down natural hair brushes (could prob also eat away at your synthetic brushes so don’t use your super expensive brushes with them) I set aside a few brushes for casein only and will not be using those brushes with my watercolors or gouache.Got these paints to use for plein air but after James Gurney showed that the milk protein attracted animals to him (a donkey came up to him while painting) I’m a little apprehensive to try outdoors (haven’t seen if they attract bugs).All in all a very fun medium to try and worth it! Casein has its quirks but that’s part of its charm.

Really, the only quality casein paint on the market. Price was better than on other art supply sites.

Test of the medium on some canvas panel I had lying around. Using the casein emulsion able to get a wash similar to gouache or watercolors. Much slower drying time than those paints. Paint is a weird medium ground between gouache and oil paint in handling. Holds brush marks if used with less water like oil but dries in a reasonable time to allow working a day or two later without disturbing the underpainting if not saturating. Workable for about a half hour.

Overall I'm pleased I got this paint set for the price but I'll probably be more selective in future. These paints work and deliver what casein paints promise with some caveats.First of all I'll mention the color selection. On first inspections it's a standard mixing set plus green (all 37ml which is great). This works as you'd expect with the red actually being a magenta. They all have very intense, opaque colour as advertised but the problem is that they are a mixed bag in terms of pigments. Here is a list of colours and pigments:1. Rose red - PV19 & PR1222. Naples yellow - PY3, PY42 & PW63. Shiva green (phthalo) - PG74. Ultramarine deep blue - PB295. Ivory black - PBK96. Titanium white - PW6So 4/6 are single pigment and all but the yellow are rated as excellent light fastness (yellow is rated good).The Naples yellow is the first problem holding my rating back. As another reviewer mentioned, as you work the paint and water it down it "seperates" yielding a greenish greasy material which floats on your water and coats your brush. The colour is also less opaque than the others.The second problem is consistency. The yellow, red and white are all have excellent straight from the tube. The other 3 have various problems which no amount of kneading the tubes (as recommended by richeson) seems to resolve. The green is thinner and the rest with a light textured paint body plus some liquid (these mix on the palette yielding a light bodied paint). The blue is slightly stiff from the tube and requires a little water be added before you can get it to paint smoothly. The black is the biggest problem. It is stiff and rubbery at takes a lot of working and water to get to a smooth consistency.On the subject of working the paints, the smell. As you work then and especially as you add water you get a distinctly chemical smell. A combination of ammonia and something I can't identify. I don't find it especially offensive but it is there, especially when you are watering them down.Onto the more positive aspects. Once I have them on the palette and at the correct consistency they are very pleasant to handle. Heavy bodied but smooth to handle. They remind me of gouache but with more body.In terms of mixing, barring the caveat for the yellow, they work as you'd expect. You can achieve a fairly broad gamut with this set, having said that I might have preferred a similar set with all single pigment colours.On paper they feel like a heavy body acrylic when applied with no water (especially with a bristle brush) on a textured support. When applied watered down a little water its more like a gouache, more water and it's like a watercolour. This ability to adjust the handling with only water is their strongest suit. I like them with a little water over a textured acrylic gessod canvas board.In terms of coverage they are well pigmented and fairly opaque, even when thinned a little. They have a little colour shift, especially the yellow which contains titanium dioxide for opacity. They are all fully opaque over any background in 2 coats and mostly opaque in one. They dry to a nice matte texture similar to gouache slightly less rough.In terms of picking up paint when working in layers, in typical use my experience is like that of gouache. Working quickly over a recently dried layer is fine but too much brushing with too much water will lift the layers up. After apparently dry the layers toughen up with much less pick up happening as little as 15 minutes after it dried. It apparently doesn't reach full strength for about 2 weeks but I suspect you could readily work over the entire surface of a painting you left overnight.Overall I'm enjoying using casein but with the consistency issues and poor quality yellow this set holds my fun back. I may pick up a cad yellow, Phthalo blue and a new black to see if that improves my experience. A nice set to see how casein feels but not quite there for serious art purposes.

Shiva Green is completely a liquid. Flowed out of tube staining everything ! Unlike the other colors that have the correct consistency. I plan to use the Casein Paints with Watercolors. I want opacity. Also, Packaging is horrible