Cube Art

The paint we actually use (and the paint we don’t)

Cheap acrylics on cardboard, every time. Here is the shelf test behind that boring answer.

admin June 3, 2026 5 min read

The paint we actually use (and the paint we don’t)

We painted forty cardboard panels with every paint in the shop: student acrylics, artist acrylics, poster paint, leftover wall emulsion, and one regrettable experiment with nail polish.

The five-dollar student acrylics won on cardboard, and it was not close. Two coats cover, they dry in twenty minutes, and they do not warp the panel the way water-heavy poster paint does.

Artist-grade paint looked identical on camera and cost six times more. Wall emulsion covered beautifully but never fully cures on cardboard, so stacked pieces glue themselves together in storage.

The full test grid is in this month's video, but the shopping advice fits in a sentence: buy the cheap set, spend the savings on brushes.

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