Golden Paint Co
Golden Paint Co was started in 1933 with Sam Golden and his uncle. They created Bocour Artist Colors – a line of artist oil paints. Sam Golden did research and produced the first acrylic paints in 1949. Golden has been fine tuning their lines of acrylic paints ever since. Golden Paints became Golden Paints in 1980 in New York state. Since then it has become an employee owned company. Golden produces several lines of acrylic paints for different purposes.
HEAVY BODY ACRYLIC PAINTS
Heavy Body is the thickest paint Golden makes. It comes in 113 colors and has a smooth, buttery consistency. Heavy Body is unique in that there are no fillers, extenders, opacifiers, toners or dyes – just pigment and 100% acrylic emulsion. Because pigments have different loading capacities, the matt or glossies is different with each pigment. The pigments that have a hight loading capacity will be more of a matte finish, while the lower load capacity will have a glossier finish. The paints have a high permanency and lightfastness. Heavy Body is sold singly or in sets of 6 or 8 colors.
FLUID ACRYLIC PAINTS
Golden Fluid Acrylic has the consistency of honey and is pourable and excellent for smooth surface applications. The colors have the same pigment load as the Heavy Body, so the colors was every bit as intense. There are no fillers or extenders in these paints either. Fluid comes in 66 colors. It is great to be used for dry brush application, details and pouring. Fluid readily tints gels, mediums and gessoes. Fluid is sold singly and in sets of 8 or 10 colors.
OPEN ACRYLIC PAINTS
Open series of acrylic paints are designed to stay wet and workable much longer. One can use oil painting techniques with this paint. The consistency of OPEN is slightly softer than the Heavy Body paints. If one wanted to speed up drying time, mix OPEN paints with any of the other Golden paints. It stays wet long enough to be used on some printmaking techniques. Open comes in 73 colors and is sold both singly and in sets of 6 colors.
HIGH FLOW ACRYLIC PAINTS
High Flow has the consistency of inks and can be used in a wide range of applications. High Flow can go from a brush to marker or from dry pen to airbrush. It can even be used in calligraphy and mixed media. High Flow comes in 40 colors and is sold singly or in sets of 8 or 10 colors.
SO FLAT MATTE ACRYLIC PAINTS
This is the newest addition to the Golden Acrylic line of paints. The paint has a flowing consistency without the distraction of texture or sheen. It imitates gouache paints with the advantages of acrylic paint. SoFlat Matte has a smooth matte finish and greater opacity. It has a natural leveling quality while the paint dries, so the finish is very smooth without brushstrokes. it is also compatible with all of the Golden paints and mediums. So Flat Matte comes in 40 colors and is sold singly or in sets of 6.
MEDIUMS, GELS, GESSOES AND GROUNDS
GELS
Gels are clear products that are used to change the consistency and extend the colors of the paint. Gels come in 5 consistencies and three finishes.
SOFT GEL is mixed with paint to produce a glaze. Soft Gel can also be used as an adhesive in collages. From left to right: Gloss, Semi gloss, and matte.
REGULAR GEL –has the same viscosity as Heavy Body paint. It is ideal to use to extend the paint, regulate transparency without changing the viscosity of the paint. From left to right: gloss, semi gloss, matte.
HEAVY GEL is thicker than Heavy Body paint and can be added to increase the body of the paint. It is excellent to hold peaks. From the left: gloss, semi gloss and matte.
EXTRA HEAVY GEL is the thickest consistency of all of the gels. It is great to use for making with tools and making high peaks. From left: matte, semi gloss and gloss.
HIGH SOLID GEL is similar to Heavy Gel but it contains more acrylic solids and will shrink less when dried. It is great to retain brush strokes. The left is gloss and the right is matte.
MOLDING PASTES
Molding pastes can be used to achieve a variety of effects and expressions and can broaden the working qualities of the paints. Pastes are opaque and can create foundations for painting. There are 5 pastes in Golden’s collection.
MOLDING PASTE dries to a hard, but flexible surface. It blends with colors to extend the paint.
EXTRA HEAVY MOLDING PASTE is a blend of Extra Heavy Gel Gloss and Molding Paste. It dries to a satin/ semi opaque finish.
HARD MOLDING PASTE dries extremely hard and opaque. It can create tough, durable finishes that can be carved when dry.
LIGHT MOLDING PASTE is over 50% lighter than regular molding paste. It is great to use on very large artworks with thick layers. This paste will hold stiff peaks.
COARSE MOLDING PASTE is translucent to about 1/8″ thickness. It dries hard with a tooth like sandpaper.
GELS with AGGREGATES
CLEAR GRANULATED GEL is made with acrylic solids that dry translucent. This gel can extend paint without affecting the color.
GLASS BEAD GEL is really made with glass beads. It’s unique quality is that it can imitate condensation of glass. It is best used in thin films over a light color.
PUMICE GEL comes in 3 textures – fine, coarse and coarse. This gel dries to a hard film and mixes well with paint. The Fine texture is good to use as a drawing ground. It also can create a concrete like texture.
CLEAR LEVELING GEL is an even film with excellent clarity with unique resinous, stringy consistency. It dries to a high gloss with a leveling quality.
CLEAR TAR GEL has a tar like feel but is clear and colorless. It is useful to produce fine detailed lines by dripping onto the surface.
EFFECTS PASTES
FIBER PASTE when dry, looks like handmade paper. This paste can be skimmed with a wet palette knife to smooth the surface off when dry. This surface is great to use for washes of color.
CRACKLE PASTE is a thick opaque paste that crackles when dry. Extent of crackling depends on the thickness of the layer, and the environmental conditions . This pastels opaque and has a matte finish.
SLOW DRYING MEDIUMS
GLOSS GLAZING LIQUID This liquid can be mixed with any of the paints to create glazes.
OPEN ACRYLIC GELS are used to extend OPEN slow drying colors while maintaining working properties. Can be used to slow down any of the paints.
OPEN MEDIUMS help maximize time of OPEN paints and can be used to adjust color strengths and translucency. It can also increase viscosity to make the paints be more fluid.
SPECIAL PURPOSE MEDIUMS – GAC SERIES
This series of mediums are created with 100% acrylic polymer emulsions. They are used as mediums or modifiers for any Golden Paints. they can extend the paints, regulate their transparency, create glazes, increase gloss, or reduce viscosity . This series has a minimum of thickeners, levelers to ensure a good film formation. These mediums are more fluid than other mediums so will reduce the thickness of most of the paints. Each medium in the GAC series his created from a unique polymer with unique benefits and applications.
GAC 100 is a thin, translucent gloss medium. It is good for extending colors and increasing flexibility. Wets out more readily than other mediums. This is a good medium is creating ones own acrylic paints.
GAC 200 is a hard acrylic extender fore non porous surfaces. It is good to increase the film’s hardness and helps to adhere to the non porous surface. It dries to a clear, high gloss finish.
GAC400 stiffens natural fibers and fabrics. It is good for stiffening unprimed canvas or sculpting or shaping fabric. If the fabric is saturated, it will dry to a hard, stiff film.
GAC500 is a gloss extender for Fluid Acrylic Colors. It creates a balance of film’s hardness and the film’s flexibility. It is used for extending Fluid colors with a minimal change of paint’s properties.
GAC800 is a low crazing extender for pouring colors. “Crazing” is the formation on crevices in surfaces that develop as paint dries. This medium promotes drying with a smooth, glossy, and even film.
GAC 900 Is a heatset fabric painting medium. It offers a soft hand and laundering stability. Mix with High Flow or produce “tie dye” effects or mix with other paints for brush or screen application.
FLUID MEDIUMS
Mediums are used to control transparency, viscosity and surface sheen or matte finish.
GLOSS MEDIUM creates glazes, extends color, enhances gloss and translucency. It has an oil like feel that promotes flow and leveling.
FLUID MATTE This is the medium to use with FLUID to decrease the gloss. It is also use to extend FLUID colors.
MATTE MEDIUM is a pourable medium used to extend colors and decrease gloss of the other Golden paints. It can also be used as a clear ground in place of gesso.
SUPER MATTE MEDIUM reduces gloss well. It will lower gloss of other products as well.
COLOR POURING MEDIUM is a leveling, low crazing extender for pouring paint. The gloss version is smooth and glossy and the matter version is velvety and matte.
AIRBRUSH MEDIUM is used with FLUID paints for spray applications. It works great with Interference colors! DO NOT MIX WITH HIGH FLOW!
HI FLOW MEDIUM is for HI Flow paints and it increases the transparency and hardness. Can be mixed in any ratio.
SILKSCREEN MEDIUM is a waterborne system to be used with Golden paints. It increases working time and retards drying on the screen. NOT for clothing applications.
COLOR POURING MEDIUM is to be mixed with paint for an almost opaque, level appearance. The medium helps the colors hold their edge when poured wet into wet. It comes in matte and gloss. Mix 10 parts pouring medium with 1 part acrylic paint. Allow the mixture to sit covered ( ideally overnight) to eliminate air bubbles. When pouring, pour close to the surface to avoid bubbles. The cured painting needs several days to dry. Do not pour the paint thicker than 1/8″.
ADDITIVES
Additives do not contain and binding agents.
RETARDER is used to increase drying time. It is useful for wet in wet techniques and reduces skinning on the palette. Use less than 15% in a mix.
OPEN Thinner is a water based additive for thinning OPEN paints without altering the drying time. It does not form a film and should be used 25% or less with OPEN paints.
WETTING AGENT is a concentrated additive to reduce surface tension of the water in the acrylic emulsion. It will increase the slickness and flow of the paint. It is good for rich stains on porous surfaces.
GESSO AND GROUNDS
GESSO is the bridge between the canvas and the paint. It is a support for the paint to adhere to. 3 coats of gesso are needed for oil painting.
ABSORBANT GROUNDS is a fluid acrylic medium that dries to a porous paper like surface. It is to be applied over gesso.
PASTEL GROUND is an acrylic preparation for pastels on canvas. It creates a toothy surface similar to papers normally used. To make it more textural, add pumice gel to the ground. This can also be tinted with paint to create a background color.
SILVERPOINT DRAWING GROUND is an opaque white acrylic liquid. When dry, it is great to use with graphite and drawing tools.