Are you ready to paint amazing artwork but you don’t know which paints to use? We understand. Navigating the world of acrylic paints can be confusing and overwhelming.
All acrylic paints, whether basic or premium, are made of pigments suspended in an acrylic polymer suspension, which prevents the pigments from clumping together. The suspension also gives acrylic paints their consistency. Plus, acrylic paints contain additives like preservatives, thickeners, defoamers, surfactants, buffers, stabilizers, and initiators. With all that said, choosing the right paint set can feel like reading a scientific textbook.
With our handy buying guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about these versatile, vibrant, and convenient paints. They’re suitable for almost any size of artwork and can be used in a variety of ways on several different surfaces. To help you choose the right set for your next artistic adventure, we’ve compiled a list of the top acrylic paint sets for 2025. Let’s take a look!
This acrylic paint set by Arteza is the most high-quality set of paints for its price. The masterpieces you’ll create from these supplies will hold their brightness and vividness for years after you’ve prepared them.
The design of this set is super sleek and well-organized, with the 24 tubes of paint neatly packed into four separate plastic racks. Each tube has a screw top, which keeps the paint inside safe from drying out for a longer period. Plus, the tubes are each marked with lightfastness and pigmentation ratings to give you an idea of how long your painting will look the way it looked when you first created it. This set is a cut above the rest and well worth the investment.
The Crafts 4 All Acrylic Paint Set is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a versatile and high-quality set of art supplies. With 24 vibrant colors, the range of options is truly remarkable; this set has everything an individual could need for painting on canvas, wood, or ceramics. Not only does this paint set provide an eye-catching spectrum of colors, but it also offers superior consistency. With a premium viscosity, users can easily blend and layer their paints to create unique textures and effects.
In addition to being visually pleasing and easy to use, this set of paints is also safe for the whole family. Non-toxic composition makes it ideal for adults and children alike to use without any health concerns. As a bonus, three professional brushes are included to help create beautiful masterpieces. These tools make it easy to work with small details in the painting process.
This acrylic paint set by Caliart includes 24 classic colors that are ideal for artists of all levels, whether you’re a beginner or a professional. These paints are equally great for adults, kids and students who are keen on getting into painting. Coming with 12 paint brushes, a ceramic piece, a canvas and a wood panel, you can test your skills out on different media and with different brushes. Plus, the paints can also be used on other surfaces, including fabric and stone.
These acrylic paints are high-quality and certified safe, and non-toxic. Offering a thick and creamy consistency that glides smoothly onto almost any surface, they’re incredibly easy to blend. If you’re in the market for a great quality, affordable set, this acrylic paint set is for you, which is why we’ve chosen it as our best overall pick.
The Liquitex Acrylic Paint Set is a go-to, water-based acrylic set for beginners and experienced painters alike. This set consists of 24 colors, is budget-friendly and readily available in most stores and online.
This student-grade set of acrylics makes painting super easy thanks to the excellent consistency and finish of the paint. It dries pretty quickly, and while wet, it can easily be cleaned up with water. This acrylic paint adheres to almost any surface, including paper, canvas, wood, metal, stone, ceramic and styrofoam. Easily blendable, you can adjust the tone and opacity of these paints with ease to paint that perfect painting.
When you’re starting off with acrylic painting for the first time, you’ll quickly learn that there’s a steep learning curve. This paint set by BENICCI is the perfect starter kit, thanks to its all-inclusive nature. Containing a set of 12 paintbrushes, a sponge and a palette knife, along with a set of 24 starter acrylic paint tubes, you’ll have everything you need to tackle your first painting.
The sponge and palette knife are perfect for mixing different colors and employing various techniques that you would be less likely to attempt without these tools. The brushes that come with this set are versatile and can be used for acrylics, watercolor paints, face and body paints, gouache paints and oil paints. The paint itself is high-quality, quick-drying, easy to blend, long-lasting and super vibrant.
These acrylic paints by Apple Barrel are super fast-drying, non-toxic, and glide onto almost any surface, which makes them ideal for doing crafts with kids. These versatile paints can be used in many mediums, including on paper, canvas, styrofoam, metal, and wood.
Coming in convenient-to-use bottles, these acrylic paints offer the perfect matte finish. This set has 18 bright colors that are delightful to use. Whether you’re using a brush, stencil, stamp, or sponge to apply these paints, the hues stay true and vibrant. What makes this set especially great for younger kids is that the paint is very easy to clean up — all you need is a little soap and water.
Oil paints may have been used by artists for hundreds of years, but acrylic paints have quickly become just as popular. Many people believe that since they are easier to work with, they are meant for beginners, but the truth is that their properties make them suitable for artists of almost every level. We’ve put together this useful guide to help you pick out the perfect set for yourself.
Acrylic paints are compatible with most surfaces, including canvas, wood, stone, fabric, and metal. They’re also quick-drying and long-lasting, which means that they allow you to prepare your painting in a short amount of time and allow you to keep it safe for longer.
These paints are mostly non-toxic, water-soluble, easy to clean, and affordable, which makes them safe to use around children and animals. Plus, they’re super versatile and blendable. These paints can easily be applied in different ways.
There are two main types of acrylic paints: student-grade and artist-grade. The former is cheaper because of lower pigmentation and the inclusion of fillers that weaken the strength of the pigments. The latter has higher pigmentation and higher permanence ratings, which is why it tends to be more expensive. If you’re a beginner, we recommend starting off with a cheaper paint set until you get used to using the paints. Even some professionals choose to work with student-grade paints when they don’t want to spend too much money on supplies.
This refers to the ability of the pigment to resist fading over time through exposure to light. Pigments that fade quickly over time are known as fugitive colors. Almost all acrylics have a higher permanence rating than watercolors and oil paints, which is what makes them a great choice for those who want their work to last longer. Unless you’re just practicing, you should pick paints with above-average permanence ratings.
If you’re a beginner, you don’t want to get too overwhelmed with a wide spectrum of colors to pick from. We recommend choosing a set that has 10 colors at most. These colors can be mixed to create new hues if needed. Professional artists require a larger variety of colors, but even they can make do with a smaller variety if they know how to blend colors properly.
This refers to the consistency of the paint. Heavier body acrylic paints have a thicker consistency than fluid acrylics. The former retains brushstrokes and is better for blending and mixing colors, while the latter is better for detailing, staining, and dry-brush work. Heavy body acrylics can be thinned out using water or an acrylic medium, depending on your needs.
Acrylics are preferred by most artists because of their quick-drying abilities. This may not be desirable if the paint dries too quickly before you’re even done with what’s on your brush. Also, a faster drying time may not work for you if you need to mix paint and create blending effects. You can alter the permanence and drying time of acrylic paints by using a retarding medium or simply by turning to open acrylics, which already contain a retardant to slow down the drying time.
Kind of, but only after they’ve dried. Even then, they’re not completely water-resistant unless they’ve been painted over with a sealant.
These paints are usually non-toxic, but some of them may contain heavy metals. Refer to the ingredient list to make sure. Acrylic paints tend to be non-flammable, but you should still be careful and check for warning labels.
Of course! Just keep in mind that mixing paints of different finishes, viscosities, consistencies and additives may affect your final results. Ideally, you shouldn’t mix premium-quality paints with low-quality paints.
Acrylic paint is an extremely versatile form of paint. It is great for bold color scenes, including nature, city scapes, and abstract art too.
There are tons of famous acrylic paintings, each very unique. Some of them are: Keep Moving Forward by Darien Bogart, The Morning After the Snowstorm by Ray Hassard and Butterfly Effect by Yelena York. Check out more here.
At Art Life Today, our passion for arts and crafts is at the heart of everything we do. We understand that the right tools and materials can make all the difference in your creative projects, so we take our responsibility as reviewers seriously. Our goal is to help you discover the best products that will inspire your creativity and bring your artistic visions to life.