Keep your pigments consistent with each medium you choose to use. Whether your preference is acrylics, oils, pastel, watercolor and/or colored pencils, your knowledge of color mixing will greatly increase if you keep the palettes the same. In other words, don’t buy the sets, buy individually. This will cost more, but will greatly benefit your learning to mix colors and your art.
Each brand and medium have many different names for the same pigment. A great idea is to learn your pigment numbers. The four mediums shown above are Golden Acrylics, Van Gogh Oils, Faber-Castell Colored Pencils* and Winsor & Newton Watercolors.
You can find the pigment name and number on good paints. The number can be located in the back or the front of the tube and looks like this: Ultramarine Blue, PB29. Poor quality paints usually come with a tell-tale sign such as a cute name like Pumpkin Orange or Frog Green. Others have normal pigment names, but do not have the pigment number. Aside from Old Holland, which I think doesn’t provide a number, stay clear from the number-lacking paints.
Some pigments like PY3 have many names. PY3 is basically a light yellow-green. The names could be Hansa Yellow Light, Hansa Yellow Pale, Lemon Yellow or Brilliant Yellow, depending on the manufacturer. To find out the pigments of each paint, visit the manufacturer’s Web site. Here are some of the most popular brands of acrylics (at least in my area):
Links will open new a window.
Golden Acrylics
Liquitex
Utrecht
Daniel Smith
Winsor & Newton
* Colored pencils users: you’ll have to compare the approx. color and the name and color with your paints. They don’t always have the pigment numbers.

Palette Test Colors:
Pthalo Blue Red Shade*
Pthalo Green
Cadmium Yellow Light
Pyrrole Red
Quinacridone Red Violet
Tinting Pearl White *
Burnt Sienna
(* The store didn’t keep up on its stock, these colors were the closest colors.)
Chroma Atelier Interactive Artist’s Acrylics will be great for some artists. They give you a generous supply of paint in their 80 ml plastic tubes. Those artists whom are experimental with mediums will love this paint. All of their claims are true, however, be sure to read the labels closely. Chroma does use high quality pigments and has excellent support.
Out of the tube, this paint felt like normal acrylics and dried to a satiny matte finish. The paints passed the allergy test, I used my own skin, it did not itch or show any sign of irritation (used violet, blue and white for this test, no cadmium on the skin for obvious reasons. I was testing the binder). They passed the odor test. The paints did not have a strong odor. You have to get your nose up to it to smell anything. They blend well, and can be resurrected with water from a dry state. Do not use a cloth to do this, use a brush. I found that using a cloth, like a paper towel creates crumbs, lumps and beads (see that previous post). You’ll need to learn how to use the mediums if you want to use this paint for your art. Creating pictures straight from the tubes, the paints are a bit moody for my liking, you have to find its correct thickness when painting this way. Air holes develop if you use too much paint, and bubbles if you use too much water. Thinning it down and plumping it up with the proper medium will help in this department.
All in all, when you learn how to use Atelier Interactive Acrylics and its mediums, you might find it is the right medium for you.
Chroma Atelier Acrylics