10 Best Oil Paints in 2022 (Artist-Reviewed)
Starting out with oil painting can be frustrating. You can watch tutorials and take classes, but the best way to learn is to get painting! So, how do you choose oil paints that will be a joy to work with? Are expensive paints really that much better? Are there any less-toxic options that still offer the same feel as traditional oils?
We tried our best to answer these important questions. We've searched online for the best oil paints for students, hobbyists, and professional artists, and also compiled a buying guide to help you get the most out of this enjoyable tradition. Check out all of our choices from our favorite Martin & F. Weber Permalba to other full sets!
Quick List - Top Oil Paints
Royal Talens
Best to Get the Feel of Oils With the Ease and Safety of Acrylics
Susan has a Master of Fine Arts in Oil Painting, has been a glassblower since 1998, and is a former drawing professor. Her "painted drawings" are oil on paper and employ cartoon imagery to explore issues, ironies, and paradoxes in modern societies, often inspired by urban life in Tokyo. She has participated in juried exhibitions in the US and Japan.
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How to Choose Oil Paints
Choosing oil paints can be daunting, especially when you're first starting out. And artists' materials all tend to be expensive, so it's tempting to just go with the special sale products online. But we want to help you make a more informed choice so you don't waste your money.
Choose Single-Pigment Paints, With No Binders or Fillers
Even professional artists throw the word color around, but it's actually too general a term. What oils paint really is is a pigment, binder, and in cheap paints, fillers.
Pigment is what provides the color of the paint. There are countless sources - some natural and some manmade. Some are toxic and some not. And most importantly, some are more fugitive than others, meaning they lose or change their color more quickly.
Traditional pigments have stood the test of time and are archival. There's a huge difference in the way pigments are prepared and mixed. In general, good oils will have only one pigment per color; having more leads to unpredictable blending.
Binders are the oils that suspend the pigment. The most common are walnut, linseed, and safflower. Cheaper ones may yellow over time, but other than that, it's really personal preference. Fillers are used in cheap paints to extend the paint or intensify the color, so we recommend avoiding them if you're a serious artist.
Colors can change when exposed to light and air, and over time some colors can fade badly. Those colors are called fugitive, and colors that change less are lightfast.
You can look for an ASTM rating on the paint, with I being the most lightfast and III being fugitive. Some manufacturers use a different ranking system, but it's important to look into lightfastness if you want your work to look the same in a decade as it does when it leaves your studio.
Start With a Few Main Colors, Not a Full Set
A full set of oil paints can seem like a great deal, but it's really only good if you're starting from zero. Once you have some experience, you'll quickly learn which colors you use a lot and which you never need to buy again. Don't be tempted to buy a lower-priced set with dozens of colors.
Why not? Well, they're not good quality, for starters. Chances are many will dry and harden before you use them up. And mixing your own hues, tints and shades is better for two reasons: you'll get more luminous results, and your painting will look more unified.
All you really need to start out is red, yellow, and blue (one cool and one warm of each) and a tube of white.
Remember, if you have the right primary colors and white, you can pretty much make any secondary and tertiary color you need, so don't go nuts on a set. It's better to get some basic colors and add to your palette one at a time as you decide what you want.
Some artists never use black, landscape artists may want more greens and browns, and abstract styles may call for brighter, more vibrant colors than most sets have.
Find the Best Quality Paints That Last a Long Time
You may have wondered why some paints seem to be great deals and others are really expensive. Well, the expression "You get what you pay for" is 100 percent true when it comes to oil paint. While it's ideal to get the best you can afford, there may be reasons you can get away with the cheap stuff.
There are usually three grades of paint. Manufacturers use different terms, but the idea is always the same. It's fine to mix them, but the quality of the worst one is what you'll end up with.
Student Quality Can Be a Waste of Money, Even for Students
Student or study paints are the cheapest. They contain a high percentage of fillers and often use less expensive modern alternatives to traditional pigments. The colors may be more fugitive and not as intense. They're also difficult to mix because they're unpredictable.
Some think that they're fine to use until you learn to handle oils, but there's an argument to be made that there's little point in learning with something that's so different than the real thing. If you're only taking one painting class, or you use a ton of paint and don't care about the quality, they can work. But honestly, it might be better to consider high-quality acrylics instead!
Fillers can make results vary, so you may have some colors that dry to a flat, dull finish or others that have very little pigment load and look washed out. You'll also experience unpredictable mixing results because most student-grade paints don't use pure, reliable pigments.
That means you may end up wasting paint as you try to tweak it to get the color you want! Some student-grade paints are fine for beginners, and others can be incredibly frustrating to work with. Read reviews and stick with reputable brands. But if your syllabus says to get a certain set, well, just do what the professor says!
Most Beginners Should Buy Mid-grade Paints
Paints labeled professional or fine quality are a big step up from student grade, even though they still can contain some fillers. Many experienced artists use these for their underpainting and then finish with high-quality oils on top. Everyone but the most casual painters should buy at least this level, including beginners and new students.
One thing to be aware of when choosing colors: if the name has the word hue in it, then it's not made with the traditional pigment, even though it may borrow that ingredient's name. For example, cadmium yellow hue is meant to imitate cadmium yellow but comes from a pigment other than cadmium.
Mid-grade paints are perfect for studies, the paintings you do as sketches before a final work. Why? Because your study could end up being incredible in its own right, and if you've done it in decent paints, you'll be able to sell it with no worry as to its quality!
Buying this grade is also great if you want to try out some new colors but aren't sure you'll like them. Look for small tubes; some even come in as little as five milliliters.
Consider Artist-Quality Paints for Exceptional Performance
The best oil paints will bear a name like artist-quality, finest, or extra-fine, and some manufacturers only produce this grade. They contain no fillers, use high-quality ingredients, and usually use time-tested pigments that are more lightfast.
The tubes are usually single pigments, which make for consistent, predictable blending. They're also more concentrated, so they will go farther when making tints and shades or thinning them with solvents or medium. These are suitable for beginners and experts alike as long as you know what colors you want!
If you buy artist-grade paints, you'll get to know which paints- not which colors- predictably give you the results you want, and you'll save money in the long run since you won't waste paint mixing up mistakes. I recommend getting artist quality for everything, but especially at least for colors you use the most.
Choose Special Paints for Special Results
For the most part, the kind or brand of paint you choose doesn't affect what techniques you can employ. If you plan to do glazing, which is applying thin washes of pigment and medium over semi-dry paint, you need to use colors that are concentrated. Use artist-quality paints for this technique or you'll be disappointed with the results.
Impasto techniques (using very thick layers) require thick paint, but you can always add medium to get the right consistency. Or, if you've bought some paint you don't like, this could also be a good way to use it up fast!
Unique modern colors, like metallics, fluorescents, or interference colors that change depending on the underpainting, are a lot of fun. However, since most haven't been around too long, there's no way to guarantee their archival quality.
Oils paints used to be seen as having a more limited range than acrylics, which come in neons and more. But recently oils are catching up, and you can find all kinds of fun effects.
It's always a good idea to limit crazy colors if you want a realistic look, though. For example, using a metallic color to replicate a silver cup in a still life won't look natural.
There Are Ways to Make Oil Painting Safer for You and the Environment
Oil paints by themselves aren't harmful to your health if used as intended. Don't eat while painting, and wash your hands before your snack break. If you sand down dried paint layers, be careful not to breathe in any dust.
Solvents used with paints are a bigger problem. If you have allergies to solvents, you'll be able to find products that will help. If your concern is the environment, you will likely have to make some compromises.
Water-Soluble Oils Mean No Toxic Solvent Fumes
These paints are a modern invention based on old ideas. Some alter the molecular structure of the oil and others use emulsifiers, but the result is that you'll be able to achieve results close to using regular oils with the easy cleanup of acrylics.
They can be combined with regular oil paints up to about a 20 percent ratio before you'd need to use solvents to clean your brushes. People can develop reactions to solvents at any time, and they're just nasty anyway, so if you want to avoid them, give these paints a try.
Oil paints themselves are far less dangerous to your health than the solvents used to work with them. So, water-soluble paints take away the most hazardous part of oil painting. They have the same feel and quality as regular oils, but some may be more transparent and they will dry faster. They're not to be confused (or mixed with) acrylics.
100% Eco-Friendly Means a Limited Palette
Many of the most-loved paint pigments come from toxic materials, such as cadmium, lead, or cobalt. These aren't dangerous to use unless you eat them, but when you wash brushes, tiny amounts of these heavy metals get into the environment.
You can avoid these colors, but finding substitutes is hard, as they just don't reproduce the originals. Synthetic substitutes also often still contain petrochemicals. You can choose to buy only earth colors, but you'll be missing the brightest hues from your palette.
If you're going to go the earth-friendly route, why not try making your own paints? It's a fun way to really get in touch with your art.
If you plan to use it up right away, you just need pigment, linseed oil, and a palette knife, but to make paint to store you'll need a muller and some time to grind everything together. This process will fully incorporate your mixture so the particles don't separate.
10 Best Oil Paints Ranking
Products | Image | Click to purchase | Key features | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | M. Graham & Co. Permalba White | | Best Versatile White All Painters Should Have | |
2 | Gamblin Artist's Oil Colors Introductory Set | | Best for Those Starting From Scratch | |
3 | Williamsburg Oil Landscape Colors Set | | Best Set to Take Painting Outdoors | |
4 | Royal Talens Cobra Artists' Water Mixable Oil Color | | Best to Get the Feel of Oils With the Ease and Safety of Acrylics | |
5 | Winsor & Newton Winton Oil Colour Basic Set | | Best Student Set That Will Get You Through Painting 101 | |
6 | Winsor & Newton Fastmatte Alkyd Oil Colors Set | | Best for Fast-Drying Results With the Properties of Traditional Oils | |
7 | Bob Ross 3-Piece Liquid Basecoat Set | | Best for Bob Ross's Wet-on-Wet Technique | |
8 | Daniel Smith Original Oil Color Pearlescent Shimmer｜284340033 | | Best to Add Some Shimmer and Sparkle to Any Color | |
9 | Natural Earth Paint The Earth Oil Paint Kit | | Best Kit to Experience Making Your Own Paints | |
10 | Jack Richeson Begin Set Pigment Sticks｜Iridescent Set | | Best Oil Sticks to Expand Your Range of Techniques |
Best Versatile White All Painters Should Have
- Blend of titanium and zinc
- Walnut oil gives the paint a creamy consistency that's excellent to work with
- Highly pigmented and non-yellowing
Cons:
- Drying time is longer than linseed-oil based paints
You can make your own secondary and tertiary colors, but there's no replacement for a tube of white paint when it comes to oils. This one is a blend of titanium and zinc, so you get the best of both. Titanium is very opaque and has high tinting strength - meaning you need less of it when mixing - while zinc is a colder white and more transparent.
Reviewers love this paint. They say the spreadable consistency in particular is the reason they always have it on their palettes.
Best for Those Starting From Scratch
Pros:
- Includes nine common colors useful to almost any painter
- Mid-grade paints that are much better than cheap sets
- Comes with a pre-primed birch panel
Cons:
- The tubes are all the same size, so you might consider buying an extra white to supplement the set
- Includes black, which some may not need
This set has nine tubes of paint, and the box has a pre-primed birch panel you can use as your first painting and to get to know the colors. If you don't know where to start, this set of colors is perfect, as it allows you to mix almost any tint or shade.
Reviewers say the Gamblin colors are smooth, creamy, and highly pigmented. They love how this set has a good balance of cool and warm colors for versatile mixing.
Best Set to Take Painting Outdoors
Pros:
- All the colors to get you started in landscape painting
- Large tube of white
- Small-sized tubes of other colors, for portability
Cons:
- Some reviewers were caught off guard by the small amount of paint in each tube
Williamsburg paints are handmade and have a great reputation for quality. If you're interested in plein air painting, which is painting outdoors, you'll want a nice complete set like this that isn't too heavy to carry around.
The tubes in this set are small, but the range of colors is sure to please any landscape painter. Reviewers love their smoothness and dense pigmentation, and say they blend easily with painting mediums, liquids that can be used to change the consistency of any paint to your liking.
Best to Get the Feel of Oils With the Ease and Safety of Acrylics
Pros:
- Oils you can clean up with water have many health and environmental advantages
- Can still be used in conjunction with regular oil paints
- Colors sold individually, so you won't have to spend for ones you don't need
Cons:
- If you want a set, choose carefully; the ones labeled "Study" are less pigmented and thus lower quality
We chose the Royal Talens Cobra line of water-mixable oils because users repeatedly say they have a nice, buttery consistency. Even though these are true oil paints, since they can be cleaned and mixed with water, you'll avoid the dangerous fumes from turpentine and other solvents.
Reviewers love that they're rich, highly-pigmented colors, and say they only smell faintly of oil. Most of all, they love the easy clean-up.
Best Student Set That Will Get You Through Painting 101
Pros:
- Good range of useful colors
- Budget line from a reliable company
Cons:
- Some reviewers wanted more white
- Black is not always useful (you get a richer color by mixing your own)
This is similar in the range of colors to Gamblin's set, but the difference in price and quality is noticeable. That being said, Winsor & Newton is a renowned company, and their Winton line is consistent and reliable.
Unless you're an art major, these will serve you just fine for the one painting class you signed up for on a whim. It should contain all the hues the professor asks for. They're also good enough that you might feel inspired to take Painting II next semester!
Best for Fast-Drying Results With the Properties of Traditional Oils
Pros:
- Remains workable longer than acrylics
- Dries to the touch in 24 hours
- Colors sold individually, so you can choose only the colors you want
Cons:
- They will dry fairly matte unless you add gloss medium
Oils can take days to dry to the touch and years to totally cure, but fast-dry oils give you a slightly longer workable window. That means you can manipulate paint longer, compared to acrylics, but they will dry overnight, unlike regular oils.
These alkyd paints remain workable for four to eight hours, and they're dry to the touch in 18 to 24. It's perfect if you need to finish quickly or move your canvasses frequently. Many artists also use them for underpaintings.
Best for Bob Ross's Wet-on-Wet Technique
- Specially formulated to Bob's standards
- Smooth and slow-drying, allowing you to blend paint easily
Cons:
- Buyers said that this was a good starter pack, but they had one preferred color and bought single jars after they ran out
There's no denying the results of Bob Ross' legacy; thousands of satisfied painters still use his methods to create works they can be proud of. If you want to try his wet-on-wet technique, you'll need to cover the canvas with a ground of oil paint, and these are the preferred choice.
One complaint from reviewers is that the company has an unethical history relating to Mr. Ross and his family, so you may want to look into that and decide for yourself before buying.
Daniel SmithOriginal Oil Color Pearlescent Shimmer ｜ 284340033
Best to Add Some Shimmer and Sparkle to Any Color
- Provides a fine, smooth shimmer when applied over dry darker colors
- can be mixed directly with other paints to add a sheen
Cons:
- If you're looking for super sparkly, this isn't it
Daniel Smith is well-known for quality watercolors and oils, and they also offer many unusual, innovative pigments. This pearlescent shimmer isn't really a color so much as artist-grade glitter, minus the gaudiness! The subtle effect can give your work intrigue without looking unnatural.
If you like it, they also offer pearlescent black and white. Reviewers love the effects they can get, from painting water shimmers to snow to hummingbird wings!
Natural Earth PaintThe Earth Oil Paint Kit
Best Kit to Experience Making Your Own Paints
Pros:
- Really get into the process by making your own paint
- Non-toxic, sustainably harvested pigments
- Includes eco-friendly solvent
- Comes with instructions
Cons:
- Mixing tools not included (need glass muller or palette knife)
- Avoiding heavy metals means a limited color range
It's only been since the days of the Impressionists that paint in tubes has been around. Before that, artists (rather, their assistants) had to make their own paints. If you want to give it a try, this kit can get you started.
Some have noted that to make larger batches, you should grind the paint with a glass muller, but for small amounts, the manufacturer says a palette knife should be sufficient.
Jack RichesonBegin Set Pigment Sticks ｜ Iridescent Set
Best Oil Sticks to Expand Your Range of Techniques
Pros:
- Odorless; contain pigments in linseed oil and a binder
- Can be used with regular oil paints
- Shiny, sparkly colors for special effects and craft projects
Cons:
- They break easily if you're rough with them
Drawing with an oil stick is so tactile, it's almost like when you were a child with your beloved crayons! Unlike crayons, however, these are suited for crafters and artists. They're fully blendable with regular tube oil paints.
Reviewers love them for drawing on fabric like napkins and hard surfaces like wood and gourds. They're also popular for using with stencils. Keep in mind that once you're finished with them, all oil sticks will form a skin to seal the moisture in, so you'll have to waste some of each stick when you peel that off to reuse it.
Get the Most Out of Your Paint With a Tube Wringer
It's almost too easy to waste your money when it comes to oil painting, but this tool will help you save in the long run!
This is a compact but heavy-duty tool that can squeeze paint out of even the stiffest paint tubes. It can be adjusted to fit different paint tube thicknesses and is small enough to fit on most work surfaces.
Susan says, "Sick of struggling and hurting your hand trying to get the last bit of paint out? I highly recommend a tube wringer like this one. They're the easiest way to ensure you get every last drop out of that tube!"
Frequently Asked Questions
Even though you might know what brands of oil paints to get now, you still might not know where to start. Luckily, Susan has answered some commonly asked questions for us!
What oil paints should I start with?
Susan says, "In theory, you need fewer than a dozen colors to get started. Get two reds, yellows, and blues, one warm and one cool of each. It should be noted that whether a color is cool or warm is hotly debated (pun intended) and depends on which brand and grade you buy as well.
For warm colors, I recommend cadmium red, yellow ochre, and cerulean blue; and for cool colors, try alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow light, and ultramarine blue. You'll also need a white, and titanium white is the most versatile. I would add Prussian blue, as I find it indispensable for creating rich blacks."
What should I use to clean oil paint brushes?
This might seem obvious, but water won't be enough to clean off your oil-soaked brushes! Instead, you should use a solvent like turpentine, turpenoid or odorless paint thinner to get rid of excess paint. Dip your paint-soaked brushes until most of the excess paint is gone, then use soap and hot water to condition the bristles and wash off the solvent.
However, you shouldn't do a deep-clean after every use unless you only paint once every few days. Too much cleaning will wear down the brushes. If you paint often, just wipe off excess paint with a towel and only do a deep cleanse when necessary.
If you want to avoid using solvents, some artists only clean their brushes using an oil like safflower oil from the grocery store. Wipe off as much paint as you can, then dip the brush in oil to get it all off. Finally, wash your brush in hot water and soap.
More Painting Supplies to Perfect Your Art
If your heart isn't solely set on oil paints, consider adding acrylics or watercolors to your art supplies as well!
Buying Guide Reviewed by Artist Susan Lucier-Ogawa
This expert reviewed the contents of the buying guide for accuracy and provided factual corrections when necessary. They did not participate in the product selection process, nor are they affiliated with any of our choices unless explicitly stated so.
Top 5 Oil Paints
No. 1: M. Graham & Co.｜Permalba White
No. 2: Gamblin｜Artist's Oil Colors Introductory Set
No. 3: Williamsburg Oil｜Landscape Colors Set
No. 4: Royal Talens｜Cobra Artists' Water Mixable Oil Color
No. 5: Winsor & Newton｜Winton Oil Colour Basic Set
View Full RankingThe descriptions of each product are referenced from content available on manufacturer, brand, and e-commerce sites.
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