Art Supply Guide

Acrylic

My preferred brand for acrylic is Golden Heavy Body Artist Acrylics and Liquitex Professional Heavy Body Acrylic Paint. Both of these paints are professional grade, which means they’re a bit thicker than student or academic grade paints and contain more pigment. Professional paint can be expensive but is absolutely worth the extra money once you reach a certain skill level.

If you’re just starting out, I recommend starting with student grade paints and then upgrading your colors as you run out once you’re more experienced. Golden does offer a pretty good Classic Theory Color Mixing paint set that comes with eight small 2 oz tubes of paint and a color mixing guide if you think you’re ready to take the leap right out of the gate.

I have a much smaller selection of acrylic paints than gouache, but here are my most used acrylic paint colors. Most tubes I buy are the 2 oz version, but if it’s a color I use a lot of I get the 5 oz which saves money in the long run.

• Alizarin Crimson Historic Hue, 2 oz Tube

• Burnt Sienna, 2 oz Tube

• Light Phthalo Blue, 2 oz - A mixture of Phthalo Blue and Titanium White. I use it as a starting point for water and skies and it helps cut back on my Titanium White usage

• Paynes Gray, 5 oz Tube - A mixture of Ultramarine Blue and Ivory Black that is great cool gray for darkening or tinting colors. I use this instead of black and go through a decent amount of it.

• Phthalo Blue (Green Shade), 2 oz Tube

• Phthalo Green (Blue Shade), 2 oz Tube

• Prussian Blue Historic Hue, 2 oz Tube - I love Prussian Blue and use a lot both in acrylic and in gouache. I usually get the 5 oz tube, but that’s just my own personal style preference.

• Quinacridone Magenta, 2 oz Tube - A nice shade of red that works great as a glaze or for tinting. I also use a tiny bit in my blue Phthalo skies sometimes.

• Titanium White, 16 oz Jar - I use a whole lot of white; this is the only color I upgrade to the 16 oz jar for.

• Yellow Ochre, 2 oz Tube

  Liquitex

• Cadmium-Free Yellow Deep, 2 oz

• Cadmium-Free Yellow Medium, 2 oz

• Cadmium-Free Red Light, 2 oz

   

Beginner’s Acrylic Paint:

If you’re just starting out or if you’re reintroducing yourself to acrylic paint, I recommend starting with student level paints so you’re not afraid of wasting paint or money while you learn.

I’ve had good luck with both Blick Studio and Liquitex Basics paint, I still have and use tubes from both. They’re more affordable than professional level paints, but the quality is still great and they both offer a wide variety of colors. Below is a list of colors I’ve used and would recommend getting as a starter set:

• Alizarin Crimson, 4 oz tube

• Burnt Umber, 4 oz tube

• Cadmium Red Light Hue, 4 oz tube

• Cadmium Yellow Light Hue, 4 oz tube

• Phthalo Blue, 4 oz tube

• Titanium White, 8 oz tube - I always recommend getting a larger size of white, because it goes faster than you’d think!

• Ultramarine Blue, 4 oz tube

• Yellow Oxide, 4 oz tube

Here are some additional colors that I’ve enjoyed but are less necessary than the colors above:

• Payne's Gray, 4 oz tube - A mixture of Ultramarine Blue and Ivory Black that is great cool gray for darkening or tinting colors

• Phthalo Green, 4 oz tube

• Mars Black, 4 oz tube - You probably won’t need much black if you’re landscape painting, but it’s still good to have on hand

• Quinacridone Magenta, 4 oz tube

• Liquitex Basics - Light Pink, 4 oz tube - A nice premixed shade of pink. I use it as a sunset color and it helps cut down on what my titanium white usage would be if I were to mix this shade myself.

• Liquitex Basics - Light Blue Permanent, 4 oz tube  - A good starting base for blue skies; it also cuts down on titanium white usage

Acrylic Painting Surfaces:

Paper:

I like painting with acrylic on watercolor paper because the texture is nice and it allows me to water down the acrylic paint without worrying about the paper buckling. It also doesn’t need to be gessoed or primed before using, which makes it more convenient for me than canvases or panels.

These are the watercolor blocks I use:

• Arches Cold Pressed 7.9x7.9 140lb

• Arches Cold Pressed 12x12 140lb

• Arches Cold Pressed 9x12 140lb

• Arches Cold Pressed 12x16 140lb 

Canvas:

I use the back-stapled Blick Premier Cotton Canvas either in gallery or museum profile. It comes stretched and pre-gessoed and is pretty reasonably priced (it’s even more reasonably priced if you wait for sales or buy in bulk!) They come in a good variety of sizes and I’ve never had any issues with quality. I’m not going to link to every size I use because it would be way too many, but here are some of my go-to favorites:

Blick Premier Back-Stapled Gallery 1-1/2'' Profile Cotton Canvas

• 6'' x 6''  - My absolute favorite square painting size. It’s small enough to finish in a sitting but large enough to display well. They also display well in groups of 3 or 4. All of this is also true for the 8x8 canvas.

• 9'' x 12'' - This is a good size if you’re used to A4 sized painting. It’s slightly larger, but a familiar scale. This size also looks good displayed in a pair or trio.

• 12'' x 16'' - Medium-small size

• 24'' x 30'' - A good medium size. I find that in portrait orientation, the 24” is easy to find good display walls (I’m always thinking of where I would hang my paintings for some reason!)

Beginner’s Canvas:

Canvas can be expensive, especially once you start looking at the larger sizes. If you’re just starting out, it’s probably not worth spending the money on gallery wrapped canvas just yet. You want to be creating as many paintings as possible to help improve your skill, which means you should prioritize the amount of painting surfaces you can get over the quality.

Canvas panels are a great alternative to stretched canvas. Not only are they more affordable, but they’re much easier to store and the rigid back prevents them from warping. Some artists even prefer painting on canvas panels! They often come in value packs, which means you can stock up on supplies while paying less per item.

I like Blick’s own canvas panels; below are a couple of sizes I recommend. (I wouldn’t recommend going too large if you’re a true beginner. It’s better to get the experience of finishing three small paintings rather than finishing one large painting. Your skills will improve a lot faster this way!)

Blick Studio Canvas Panels

• 5'' x 7'', Pkg of 5

• 6'' x 6'' Pkg of 5 - My favorite square painting size

• 8'' x 10'', Pkg of 5

• 9'' x 12'', Pkg of 5

• 16'' x 20'' Pkg of 5

They also make Canvas Pads that can be great for practicing new techniques. Some manufacturers use canvas paper instead of genuine loose canvas, so be careful with what you purchase if that’s not what you want. I like Fredrix Canvas Pads because they use actual primed canvas.

• 8'' x 10'', 10 Sheets

• 10'' x 14'', 10 Sheets

• 16'' x 20'', 10 Sheets

Gesso

Even though the canvas I buy comes pre-gessoed, I usually do and extra coat or two of my own to really smooth the surface out. This is also a good way to make cheaper canvas smoother - use a super fine sheet of sandpaper and very gently sand the canvas surface down before adding a thin, even layer of gesso. You can repeat this as many times as you need until you’re happy with the canvas. I either use Golden Acrylic White Gesso or Liquitex Acrylic Gesso.

I’m still painting relatively small canvases so I get the 8 oz or 16 oz bottles as needed for now, but if you work exclusively with acrylic or work on larger canvases frequently it make sense to start buying the larger sizes to save money . Liquitex offer a 64 oz size and a 128 oz size, both of which are more than half the cost per oz than the 8 oz version.

Varnish

I do varnish my acrylic paintings when I’m finished, to help prevent the painting from being damaged by UV rays, dust, or other elements over time. I currently use Golden Gloss-Soft Gel mixed with water to create an isolation coat before varnishing. (Golden does now make a specific Isolation Coat product - but I’m finishing up my current jar of soft gel before I try it out!) The isolation coat will help protect the painting if the varnish ever has to be removed.

I currently use Liquitex Acrylic Varnish in Gloss and in Matte finish. A gloss varnish will really bring out the colors of the painting and enrichen them, but it will also create a sheen on the surface that will glare when light hits it. Matte varnish doesn’t have the same glare issues, but it does soften the colors and make them appear duller.

My personal preference depends on the specific painting I’m varnishing, so I like to keep both on hand. If you are using glossy varnish - make sure you photograph and document your finished painting before you varnish since the glare will make it hard to get a good photo.

Acrylic Brushes

I’m not super picky with my acrylic brushes either and I don’t splurge for the expensive ones. Like my gouache brushes, I’d rather upgrade my paint and painting surfaces before I upgrade the brushes themselves. As long as the brush doesn’t shed like crazy and can hold it’s form for a while, it can get the job done.

I use medium to firm synthetic brushes for acrylic painting - here are my most used brush manufacturers and a few of my favorite brushes from each.

• Princeton Velvetouch are my go-to brushes for gouache right now, and I’ve found they work great with acrylic too.

  • Princton Velvetouch 4 Pack (Round 4, Long Round 8, Angle Shader 3/8", and a Wash 3/4") A good starter set

  • Wash, Size 1" - I work on medium to small surfaces most of the time, so 1” is a good size for blocking in large parts of the painting for me

  • Angular Shader 1/2” - I love angular shaders. I use them for trees, waves, rocks, distant mountains - it such a versatile brush shape!

• Princeton Select Series 3750 

  • Flat Wash, Short Handle, Size 1/2'' and 3/4” - I have a whole bunch of sizes and brands for flats, but these 2 get more use than most of them combined.

  • Angle Shader, Short Handle, Size 3/4" and 5/8” - Mine are a bit frayed now because I use them so much, but I got a lot of great use out of them with good form

  • Filbert Grainer, Short Handle, Size 1/2''

Beginner’s Brushes

If you’re unfamiliar with different the brush types and what they can be used for, I recommend getting a value set of brushes that has a little bit of everything to help learn first hand rather than guessing at what types you might prefer. Here are a few good options from blick that come with a useful variety of brushes:

• Princeton Select Set of 6 - Includes Round 4, Oval Mop 3/4'', Angle Shader 3/8'', Flat Shader 6, Filbert 4, and Liner 1.

• Princeton Real Value Brush Set - 9151, White Taklon, Short Handle, Set of 5  This set comes with Round 8, Liner 2, Angular Shader 1/2, and Wash 1/2 and 3/4.

• Blick Scholastic Assorted Handle, Set of 6 - This set has 2 long handle brushes along with 4 short handle brushes which could be a good option to test out long handle to see if you prefer them for canvas painting

Acrylic Accessories

Palette

For my acrylic paint I use a sta-wet palette, which has a wet sponge underneath the palette paper to keep the paint wetter for longer. It’s also airtight and can keep paint wet for days if sealed properly. I’m always trying to be conscious about the amount of waste I’m producing while painting, and the palette paper can be reused a few times before being switched out for a new sheet. This has been a huge money saver for me, and keeps me from worrying too much about wasting paint.

This is the exact one that I have which is a great size for indoor or studio painting:

• Masterson Premier Palette - 16'' x 12'' x 1 3/4''

I also got this smaller version for when I’m painting outdoors or working on a 6x6 sized painting. It’s much more portable and can fit in my painting bag:

• Masterson Sta-Wet Handy Palette - 8 1/2'' x 7''

Watercolor

My favorite brands for watercolor are Kuretake Gansai Tambi and Winsor & Newton. I used to really struggle with watercolor back in high school, and I never bothered to pick it back up again until I tried Kuretake Gansai Tambi after reading a review and absolutely loved them. They are Japanese watercolors, and have a beautiful creamy texture to them and are more opaque than traditional western watercolors. I cannot recommend these paints enough, especially if you’re someone who’s struggled with watercolor in the past. They also sell refill pans for pretty cheap if you run out of a specific color.

• Set of 12

• Set of 18

• Set of 24

• Set of 36 - This is the set I have, which includes some metallic colors not in the smaller sets. I do wish I had went for the 48 set in hindsight, but I’m very happy with the color selection.

• Set of 48

I also use Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor tubes - the quality of the pigments are excellent and they rewet really well. If you want to test how these paints behave and see if they’re a good fit for your painting style, they do offer a Watercolor Dot Card that has a sample of every color they offer. There’s enough space on the card to create a good sample of each color and see their characteristics, and it has a little reference chart to tell you the behaviors of each paint (like lightfastness). This is a great affordable way to figure out what the colors look like in real life!

These are my go-to watercolor tubes:

• Cadmium-Free Lemon, 5 ml tube

• Cadmium-Free Yellow Deep, 5 ml tube

• Indigo, 5 ml Tube

• Payne's Gray, 5 ml Tube

• Permanent Alizarin Crimson, 5 ml Tube

• Perylene Green, 5 ml Tube - I normally mix my own greens and don’t buy many green tubes, but this color is absolutely gorgeous and I couldn’t resist. It’s a nice deep transparent green

• Prussian Blue, 5 ml Tube

• Raw Umber, 5 ml Tube

• Scarlet Lake, 5 ml Tube

• Titanium White, 5 ml tube - Much less necessary than with other mediums. To lighten a color with watercolor you just use more water and less paint. But old gouache habits die hard and I like using white straight from the tube or highlights, or add it to other colors for a more pastel shade.

Watercolor Paper

I like painting on watercolor blocks because I paint with a lot of water and don’t need to worry about the paper buckling. My preferred watercolor block at the moment is Arches cold pressed - the paper quality is excellent and handles water very well. I’ve never had any issues lifting paint or scrubbing.

These are the watercolor blocks I use:

• Arches Cold Pressed 7.9x7.9 140lb

• Arches Cold Pressed 12x12 140lb

• Arches Cold Pressed 9x12 140lb

• Arches Cold Pressed 12x16 140lb 

When I’m not using watercolor blocks, I like to use heavy 300lb watercolor paper so I don’t need to worry about stretching the paper beforehand. Heavier paper is more expensive, but I save some money by buying them in large sheets and then cut them down to the size I need. I don’t watercolor very often, so for me the convenience of not having to pre-stretch the paper is worth the extra money.

Watercolor paper:

• Arches Natural White 22x30 300lb

• Fabriano Artistico hot pressed 22x30 300lb

Beginner’s Paper:

Paper quality is important when working with watercolor, because it helps prevent issues like the paper buckling or pilling when you use a lot of water. You can absolutely still use student or beginner grade paper, just keep in mind that certain techniques like wet on wet or washes might behave a little differently. I’ve found that dryer techniques and painting styles work fine, so depending on the type of work you’re doing this could be an area to save some money on. If you’re going to be painting landscapes or working with washes, you probably will eventually want to upgrade your paper once you have a handle on the techniques and water control.

I recommend 140lb paper minimum for watercolor. If you’re planning on using a lot of water in your techniques (wet on wet, washes, gradients, etc), I would look specifically for watercolor paper and not mixed media paper. It might take some trial and error to find a paper that works well for you, but here are the beginner level papers I had luck with:

• Strathmore 400 Watercolor Pad

• Canson XL Watercolor Pad - 9'' x 12''

• Fabriano Studio Watercolor Fat Pad - 9'' x 12'', 60 Sheets - 25% cotton, a good stepping stone to 100% cotton paper without the extra cost

Watercolor Brushes

My favorite watercolor brushes are the ones that can hold a lot of water and can retain their brush shape. Unlike acrylic and gouache, I find that spending extra money on quality brushes is sometimes worth the cost for watercolor. The higher quality bristles can make a huge difference with water control and can help make your paints last longer. For me, I find this especially applies to brush types like mops and quills.

Here are a few of my favorite go-to watercolor brushes:

• Isabey Original Siberian Blue Squirrel Brush - Quill Mop, Short Handle, Size 4

• Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor Synthetic Brush - Pointed Round, Size 6, Short Handle

• Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor Synthetic Brush - One Stroke, Size 1/2", Short Handle

Water Brushes:

• Pentel Aquash Water Brush - Set of 4 - Great for plein-air paining or for travel kits

Beginner’s Brushes:

If you’re just getting started with watercolor, I would start out with a good variety of cheaper brushes so you can practice different techniques and figure out what brush types work best for you. I would recommend getting at least one large brush for prewetting the paper and washes, and a couple of different rounds and flats of different sizes. Cheaper brushes tend to have loose bristles that come out while painting occasionally, so I like to gently pull on the bristles before I start to help prevent them from dropping into the painting.

Here are a few inexpensive but good quality beginners sets with a variety of brush types:

• Royal Langnickel Soft Grip Golden Taklon Brush Set - Starter, Short Handle, Set of 5 - Oval Mop (3/4'' width), a Size 20/0 Liner, a Size 5 Round, a Size 8 Filbert, and a Size 8 Shader

• Royal Langnickel Soft Grip Golden Taklon Brush Set - White Taklon, Short Handle, Set of 5 - Bright sizes 1, 6, 8, Filbert 8, and Round 2

• Royal Langnickel Soft Grip Golden Taklon Brush Set - Beginner, Short Handle, Set of 5 - Glaze Wash (3/4'' width), a Size 5/0 Liner, a Size 4 Round, an Angular (3/4'' width), and a Size 8 Shader.

• Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolor Brush Set - Set E, Set of 7, Short Handle

Studio Supplies

I get asked a lot about shipping and studio supplies from other artists, so I thought a reference list of what I’m using might be useful for some:

Paper Cutter: X-ACTO Heavy Duty Wood Base Paper Trimmer, 18 Inch Cut

Mail Scale: ACCUTECK All-in-1 Series W-8250

Printer: Canon PIXMA PRO-200 Wireless Professional Color Photo Printer

Scanner: Epson Perfection V600

Resources

Prints:

I get the majority of my prints made from a variety of online printers. I’m still testing out different options and figuring out what works best for me, but here are some of my current printers:

Fine Art Prints: Giclee Today (Expensive, but very high quality)

Business Cards and Postcards: Moo (Use that link for 25% off your first order!) Great quality, colors are excellent. You can add variety for no extra cost which is great for the postcards.

Art Prints: CatPrint (Use that link for $10 off your order!) More affordable art print option, thinner paper by colors are great and they offer free hard copy proofs.