October 25, 2022

Artist’s Loft Acrylic Paint Level 1, 2, 3 Comparison – What’s The Difference?

Have you seen Artist’s Loft acrylic paint at your local Michael’s store and wondered what the difference between them all was? Look no further! In this article and in the video above, I will compare all three types of acrylic paint in both titanium white and pthalo blue. I will go through a series of three different tests to get various results that we can look at.

Here are some timestamps for this video:

0:06 – Showing the Bottles
1:14 – Consistency, Viscosity, Spread
7:13 – Tinting Power Test
11:37 – The difference in hues with the same colours 16:35 – Transparency/Opaqueness Comparison

Price Comparison of Artist’s Loft Acrylic Paint

Here are the price comparisons for the three of them from the Michael’s Canada website. They might be different on the U.S. website:

Overall Thoughts

I will discuss the following for each of the paints:

Consistency, Viscosity, Spread
Tinting Power
Transparency / Opaqueness
Overall Review Compared To Each Other And To Other Brands

Level 1 Artist’s Loft Acrylic Paint

Consistency

The consistency of the Artist’s Loft Level 1 Acrylic Paint is on the thicker side. However, I wouldn’t say it is quite the same as heavy-body acrylic paint. If you watch the video, you will see that the paint does slide a little bit down the canvas when turned vertically. On the brush, it feels pretty good but again, doesn’t seem as thick as other paints. I’m not saying this is a bad thing unless you want a heavy-body look and feel.

Tinting Power

The tinting power of the Artist’s Loft Level 1 Acrylic Paint was actually pretty comparable to both Level 2 and Level 3. I would even say that it looked better on my test. It is hard to know if my proportions were the same (definitely was not perfect) so I concluded that each of the three levels actually has very comparable tinting powers. I wouldn’t say one is a stand-out compared to the others.

Transparency / Opaqueness

This is where Level 1 did not hold its own. It was very evident in the test that the white was semi-transparent as it says on the bottle. If you are hoping for something more opaque, you will need to go with Level 2 or Level 3. With multiple layers, you could achieve something more opaque but nobody wants to have to do that.

Overall Review Compared To Each Other And To Other Brands

Here are my thoughts when comparing just the Artist’s Loft Levels 1-3 Acrylic Paint. I would recommend Artist’s Loft Level 1 if you wanted a little thicker paint but didn’t want to spend the money on Level 3 heavy-body paint. It is also important to note that this white is semi-transparent. If you don’t care as much about texture, Level 2 isn’t that much more but offers much better coverage and is much more opaque. If money isn’t a question, I would go with Level 2 or 3 before choosing Level 1.

In comparison to other brands, I would not choose Artist’s Loft Level 1 over some other student-grade acrylic paints. For the exact same price, I would recommend Liquitex Basics. Their texture is similar, if not thicker, and the vibrancy of the colours is much better than the Artist’s Loft Level 1. If you are using white, black, gray, etc. then vibrancy isn’t as important. Artist’s Loft Level 1 acrylic paint is a decent quality paint for the price point but isn’t my first choice.

Level 2 Artist’s Loft Acrylic Paint

Consistency

The consistency of Artist’s Loft Level 2 Acrylic Paint is much thinner than that of both Level 1 and Level 3. It still isn’t as thin as craft paint, but when placing the paint on the canvas and turning it vertically, the paint did start to run down the canvas. It does say on the bottle that it is “medium viscosity” so this makes sense. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you are looking for a heavy-body paint then it is, otherwise, I know a lot of artists that prefer a more fluid paint to work with. As I spread it with the brush, again, I could really feel the thinner texture. Don’t be fooled that the thinner consistency affects the tinting power or the transparency as you will read in the next sections.

Tinting Power

As you may have read in the Level 1 section. I found that all three levels had very similar tinting power. Even though the consistency of Level 2 is much thinner, its tinting power was comparable to the others.

Transparency / Opaqueness

I really had my doubts about the Artist’s Loft Level 2 Acrylic Paint when it comes to transparency because of how thin it was. I was pleasantly surprised when it was much more opaque than the Level 1 paint. It still wasn’t as good as Level 3 but was still good.

Overall Review Compared To Each Other And To Other Brands

In comparing Level 2 to both Level 1 and Level 3, it does have a different consistency which makes it unique compared to the others. It has better opaqueness than Level 1 but not as good as Level 3. And its tinting power is comparable between them. With the larger tubes, it is just slightly more expensive than Level 1 which makes the improvement in opaqueness a big plus unless you want a more heavy-body feel.

Comparing it to other brands, Artist’s Loft Level 2 holds its own with other medium-viscosity paints. Liquitex Soft Body is still thinner in terms of viscosity but something comparable. The opaqueness and tinting power are both better with the Liquitex Soft Body, but the price is over double for it. So in terms of price, Level 2 is actually a pretty good deal. Again, the colours of Artist’s Loft Level 2 I don’t find to be as vibrant as others but you do get what you pay for.

Level 3 Artist’s Loft Acrylic Paint

Consistency

The consistency of Artist’s Loft Level 3 acrylic paint is comparable to Golden acrylic paints. It is thick and didn’t move on the canvas even when held at 90 degrees. This does make sense because on the tube it does say “high viscosity”. I could really notice the thickness of the paint when it was on the brush. There was a noticeable difference here compared to the other two levels. Again, I would compare it to the consistency of Golden. It isn’t quite as thick as Liquitex Heavy Body in my opinion.

Tinting Power

I thought the tinting power of Artist’s Loft Level 3 acrylic would be stronger than it was. As you may have seen in the video, it was actually very similar to that over both Level 1 and Level 2.

Transparency / Opaqueness

Artist’s Loft Level 3 acrylic paint was by far the most opaque of the three levels of Artist’s Loft. With just one coat, the majority of the piece of canvas painted was well covered. This was especially tested because I used a black canvas. If you need an opaque white, this is the one to go within the Artist’s Loft series.

Overall Review Compared To Each Other And To Other Brands

When comparing the three Artist’s Loft acrylic paints, choosing one will mostly depend on what you are looking for. Level 3 is the thickest and most opaque, but also the most expensive. Level 2 is thinner, still decently opaque, and much cheaper than Level 3. Level 1 is not quite as thick as Level 3, is semi-transparent, and is the cheapest.

Let’s compare Artist’s Loft Level 3 acrylic paint to other similar “professional” brands. It has a similar thickness to Golden acrylic paint. Overall, it is very similar to other professional brands at a slightly cheaper price point. Unless you want more texture like Liquitex Heavy Body, or want a more opaque paint like Stevenson’s, Artist’s Loft Level 3 is a good quality paint.

Thank you for reading this article. If you would like to leave a donation to help me continue to create quality content, please do so on PayPal by clicking on the button below: