Le Stig Product-Test-Drives & Reviews FAS Art & Poster Paint

Our Technical Support Champion (TSC) has chosen to use only the primary colours plus black and white in all paint product tests. Le Stig will do this in every test. The only support our TSC chose for the test was paper since it's the primary support for poster paints.

First, le Stig made puddles of primaries (yellow, magenta and "ultra" blue) and brought them together wet into wet creating secondaries. Though, impressed with the viscosity of the paint our TSC's only one negative comment: "Ultra bleu is too warm and makes an ugly secondary green when mixed with the yellow that looks like goose merde." "The bleu when mixed with the magenta is okay, but not vibrant." "However, the yellow mixed into the magenta created a very nice orange and the orange responded well with the somewhat inadequate bleu mixtures to create some adequate tertiaries."

Next, our TSC painted four head sketches that tested the versatility of the product. For the first sketch le Stig painted in the water colour style, light to dark in an overlapping fashion trying to use a damp or wet brush to blend colour. This was a revelation: "Unlike most poster paints the FAS paint dries quickly into the support and cannot be reactivated and carefully blended like other aquarelle, traditional poster or gouache paints." "This paint dries rapide de la acrylic and remains impermeable to overlapping coats."

The second sketch was painted opaquely. Adding white to each colour mixture our TSC painted thickly in high key values. "The paint responded beautifully. It made creamy mixtures that were easy to blend. The paint remained moist just long enough for successful feathering of edges when needed."

The third sketch was also painted opaquely. Modeling the head in various values of warms and cools le Stig then completed the painting by adding a transparent warm yellow orange wash over the entire sketch. "The yellow orange wash brought the whole temperature of sketch together. Again, the paint did exactly what I asked it to do. The wash went down remarkablely well with no unpleasant streaking or staining."

The final sketch was an experiment to see if white could be applied over transparently painted areas without creating a chalky film. Again le Stig was satisfied. "The white handled particularly well in both wet and dry applications. A very impressive paint for what it is."

FAS Art & Poster Paint

The Good:

The paint texture is good and thick and when thinned with water the pigment remains reasonably intense and even. The paint is not troublesome to mix and the fast drying time is retarded just enough to enable blending for an experienced painter. The pigments are lightfast and when applied to the proper support will create a painting that is archival.

The Bad:

The colour range is very limited and with the exception of the yellow the true primary colours are not in the range as we had to substitute the fluorescent magenta and settle for the ultramarine bleu. But, the paint is what it is, an unpretentious made in New Zealand, hobby and sign paint.

The Ugly:

Ugly is a pejorative that we feel should be reserved for the pretentious. This product does not meet that criteria.