Basics
Acrylic
The everyday acrylic made
with fine art pigments


Basics is for all creatives. For all budgets. It's perfect for all painting techniques including underpainting and sketching. This medium viscosity paint is made with lightfast, artist-quality pigments in an expanded choice of 72 colors.
See all colors below
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72
COLORS
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Anything but Basic
Basics Acrylics are formatted with the same lightfast, fine art pigments we use in our professional range, but just a lighter load.
24 new Basics Colors
Quality lightfast pigments. Great if you’re on a budget - the everyday acrylic.
Mix Up Your Color
What can you do with Basics acrylics? The answer: pretty much everything.
MORE INFO
QUALITY
Basics gives you the perfect balance of quality and economy. Made for all artists, Basics acrylics are formulated with the exacting Liquitex standard. Which means they're made with the same lightfast, fine art pigments we use in our professional range, but just a lighter load. Choose from a range of sizes:
4oz (118ml) in 72 colors
8.45oz (250ml) in 36 colors
14oz (400ml) in 30 colors
32oz (946ml) in 22 colors
0.34oz & 2.54oz in sets only

FINE ART PIGMENTS
All Liquitex paints use the highest quality pigments and go through the same rigorous manufacturing process. The only difference is that with Basics we use a lower concentration of pigment than our professional paints. For Basics, fine art pigments are selected and milled using the latest basket bead-mill technology, in the same way as Soft and Heavy Body Acrylics. Pigments are ground with tiny reinforced ceramic beads to give fine dispersion, great color development, strength and brightness, before being added to the acrylic emulsion.

ECONOMICAL
Push your budget harder with Basics. Use on their own or combine together with professional materials – if they’re made by Liquitex, they’re all intermixable. Perfect for everyday use, for sketching out preliminary ideas, for underpainting before laying down your final paint application and for covering large areas.

SAFETY
Basics acrylics are safe for you to use. All colors are independently tested by the Art and Creative Materials Institute at Duke University, and hold the Approved Product (AP) safety seal. This means they are certified to contain no materials in sufficient quantities to be toxic or harmful to humans or to cause health problems, making them ideal for studio and educational use.

SURFACES
If your paint sticks to it, you can use it. Use Basics on:
- canvas
- paper & board
- wood & masonry
- metal
- styrofoam
- stone & ceramics
- textiles

ARCHIVAL
Your work has a life beyond you. As with all Liquitex paints, the pigments in Basics acrylic have passed extensive tests for lightfastness. The advanced acrylic formula is highly flexible, durable, non-yellowing and UV-resistant. Your work will have the greatest archival permanence possible, withstanding color shifting or fading to stay vibrant and true.

Basics to professional
Progressing
As your budget expands, or your practice evolves, you may want to start exploring new techniques. Experiment with your materials or pick up one of our ready-made Basics techniques kits, which gives you all the tools you need, plus a step-by-step guide. And as your budget expands, or you get more serious, you may want to start exploring the more specialist lines of Liquitex Professional. Higher pigment loads give stronger colors, a wider range of mediums let you create new effects. And you can try different acrylic paint textures and formats – from inks to fine art spray paint.
Basics | Professional |
Good pigment load | High pigment load |
Good range of colors | Wide range of colors |
One consistancy of paint (medium viscosity) | Choice of paint viscosities and formats |
Same pricing for all colors of the same size | Different series pricing depending on pigments |
GET STARTED WITH
Useful guides for working with acrylics
Tips & Techniques
Useful guides for working with acrylics
Basics FAQs
Other artists have asked us...
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Basics paints are cheaper due to the amount of pigment used in their formulations. As less is used than in our Professional range, the cost price is cheaper, thus giving you the perfect balance of economy and performance. -
No. Our Basics paints come in a single consistency across all colors - a medium viscosity that is highly versatile and easy to work with. -
Yes, as Basics are made from the same fine art pigments as our Professional line (just less of them), each color is dictated by its natural pigment character. If you look at the packaging labels, you will see that some are opaque, others are semi-opaque and others are transparent.