TIM BAKER

Back at the end of April and early May last year I started the lightfastness tests of various paint stick makes – Little Brian, Kwik Stix and my original brand, KingArt. My laziness is your benefit, because over a year on they’ve been well blasted with UV in the window, and the results are surprising. I noted back in July 2022 that the fluorescent neon colours such as pink, blue and orange were fading, but the surprising thing is that not all of the flouros faded, and that some stopped fading.

And that there was a little variance amongst brands, but as noted back then there was striking similarity between them.

Note: I will be using the terms fluorescent, flouro and neon interchangeably in this post. Same thing. Historically those colours are really not light safe, but it seems that’s maybe changed? Seems not all flouro pigments are the same…

Firstly the Kwik Stix Thins which I used a lot – the neon orange and blue have completely disappeared, but surprisingly the neon pink didn’t fade much from the initial few months. And neon purple and green have hardly faded at all. The rest are fine.

It’s a similar story with the KingArt who advertise their sticks are lightfast but that’s not completely true as you can see. Note the similar colours to the Kwik Stix and the exact same response – all lightfast except some of the neons. This suggests highly that they are the same pigments and are essentially the same product. A bit more fading with the pinks, and not sure if those bright greens are neons or not, but zero fading there.

Ignore the two neon blues, I repeated those because the blue was dirty with another pigment, I didn’t know if that would affect the test, so cleaned it and did it again. Usually I cleaned the stick before drawing. Also the silver was on the crease, that’s not faded, just the scanner not scanning the fold well.

Now UK brand Little Brian – like the others, totally stable in the non-neons, and showing surprisingly stable in the neon green and pink, and extreme fading in the neon orange, neon blue and some fading in the neon yellow but it’s far more lightfast that I thought it would be after 15 months daily UV exposure.

Paint Stick Lightfastness Summary

So there you have it – for sketchbook work, use any of them you want. But if you want to sell your work or preserve it for the the future, definitely avoid the neon orange and the neon blue as they will completely fade to white.

Be aware the pink, purple and yellow might fade a little, probably not if hung in direct sunlight like these tests. But weirdly the neon green does not fade at all, in any range I’ve tried (which is a relief as I do sometimes use the yellow and green neons by accident in landscape work, and the pink sometimes for accents or mixes).

But if you’re not using the neons, or only using it for accent or under painting that you don’t care if it fades (or indeed it’s slightly protected by the covering colours) then fine. This is totally not what I expected, I expected the neons to all completely fade. And also, for what is essentially kids paint, these are amazingly lightfast.

But Can’t You Just Use UV Sprays and Glass?

Also I’ve been asked before about UV sprays. The short summary: they do not work.

UV sprays are unreliable to protect work, as is cheap ‘gallery’ UV protect glass unless it is indeed the proper expensive gallery stuff. In which case…why not just buy the lightsafe pigments and inks in the first place? It’s way cheaper than an expensive spray or glass!

Using non-lightsafe materials like dye inks, biro or neons and then whacking it behind a hyper expensive glass or a dodgy spray is the very definition of ‘false economy’. There are ways to get most if not all of the same effects with lightsafe materials. Or indeed scanning/photographing the work (as you always should, the art student in me says: document your shit!) and then doing a good print. That’s going to last far longer, and can be replaced.

Even when replacing neons, a little secondary/complementary colour theory goes a very long way. Only maybe botanical artists need opera rose for flowers; but in other worlds you can place colours next to the areas to make them ‘pop’ or do overlay/visual mixing as I tend do with my paintstick pieces. it’s basically Seurat on a budget.

I think people rely on neons for things that could easily be done the old fashioned way. I mean no-one says Van Gogh’s work is dreary and dull? And while you’re at it, bone up on mixing primaries or secondaries together; never use black or Payne’s Gray again!

Poncey Gel Sticks Ahoy!

Also this is good timing, because I’ve gotten back into using them via a new purchase of the ‘Studio’ KingArt Gel Stick Artist Mixed Media Watercolor Crayons – pictured in the round-up photograph. Like the original KingArt paintsticks, I found them at TKMaxx for cheap – even though strictly it’s a US brand, they seem to be sometimes available over here.

I don’t know if they are exactly the same, but they feel like their paintsticks and although packaged differently with a nice rubber grip, the contents feel identical to the Thin Stix.

KingArt is quality, but as we’ve seen with these tests, it’s not worth spending the extra for shipping when other brands are more easily available, but if you see them at TK Maxx, grab them. I got two boxes of 24 for £10 each…having learned from last time, I went back and grabbed another one when I’d tested the first the next day!

They are much easier to handle for sketchbook work than the chunky kids versions, but for all this ‘Gel Stick Artist Studio’ spiel, they are totally paint sticks. I’m not going to test these as I’m pretty sure it’s the same thing.