Best paint and technique for painting symbols?

[ponyqueen]

Hey everypony!

Just want to paint a simple symbol- good colors, good quality, minimum brush strokes. What should I do?

[Colorscapesart]

Very thin layers of almost any acrylic paint.  I prefer Createx airbrush paints myself, they have such a lovely fluidity to them.  But any acrylic can work just fine with patience.  It's important to let each thin coat dry completely before adding the next coat.

[Moonflower473]

I always use acrylic but I wonder about oil.  Has anyone tried that?  I might do it on my next custom just to see how it goes.

[Prideth]

I'll put my two cents in here. 

I would really recommend using acrylics for a few reasons.  Acrylics tend to dry faster, which makes it easy to do lots of thin layers and get a nice, smooth finish.  Oils stay wet for longer, so you may have to keep coming back to paint your pony over a few days.  Acrylics are also good for fine detail and crisp lines, which is good when you get on to small scale painting (eyes, symbols).

My personal advice is to go with acrylics because they tend to be cheap and easy to find at a variety of stores.  Colorscapr mentioned Createx, which is a super fine airbrush quality acrylic.  Their opaque colors are a good choice for a base.  I use a lot of Vallejo colors, which you can find at Hobby Lobby or (if you have one) Hobby Town or a Games Workshop type of store.  They're cheap at ~$3 a bottle and it comes with a convenient dropper, which is nice when you mix with water.

Edited to remove double post. Thanks! ~ CSA

[ponyqueen]

Thanks, everypony! I will look into these paints! 

[brighteyes]

I like Golden Fluid Acrylics a lot.  They are very high in pigment but the viscosity is low right out of the bottle and they can be diluted even further without reducing the pigmentation too much.