The decision to buy art supplies is often a personal choice, technical requirements, creative goals and cash. In most cases, enough money is needed. Art supplies are usually pricey, and like you know, good things don’t come cheap.
You won’t want to buy material and not use it, that may be a waste. However, no matter the materials you want to use in painting, either oils or watercolours, you’ll need certain art supplies to give you the best results, irrespective of your professional status. Some of these essential artist supplies include:
1. Graphite pencils
When painting, you often sketch your image or the trickier parts before you pull out the paint. This, therefore, stresses the importance of having a good set of graphite pencils. You don’t need a hundred to work with: with just three or four, and you’re good to go. Ensure you get a 2B pencil for sketching and shading, 6B for dark shadows and a 4H pencil to create lighter shades.
2. Kneaded eraser
A white eraser is indeed needed while painting to erase mistakes and runoff errors, most notably when you want to do the sketch all over. However, you’ll need a kneaded eraser. These erasers are soft and pliable, having different shapes. They can be used to erase tiny details and create smooth shading. They don’t leave little crumbs that may stain your work after use, which makes them a must-have art supply.
3. Drawing paper
Drawing paper is another essential tool for every artist. You don’t have to get fancy sketching paper to create beautiful sketches or draw like a professional. An affordable sketch pad is what you need. It’ll satisfy your drawing needs.
4. Painting paper pads
When you’ve created your sketches, you’ll want to paint on heavier paper. This decision is dependent on the kind of paint you intend using. To address this, you should go for the paper pad suitable for your desired colour. If you have a flair for watercolours, pre-stretched pads are recommended for you.
If not, you may need to do the paper stretching yourself, and this involves soaking the sheets individually in water and taping to the drawing board until it dries. Don’t stress yourself stretching paper as it keeps the paper flattened when wet, and it prevents paint pooling.
For acrylics, you can make two choices, either heavyweight acrylic paper or canvas. Paper pads don’t consume space. They’re cheaper than canvas and allow you to try out new techniques while painting. Canvas, on the other hand, is stiffer than paper, and will always lie flat, even while painting outdoors. You can try both options and choose which suits you.
5. Palette
Palettes are essential art supplies that don’t require going above your budget. You can choose an affordable plastic paint palette, great for acrylics or watercolours. They can be gotten at retail stores or your local art supply store. Washing plastic palettes is quite easy, no hassle.
6. Brushes
If you love painting in acrylics, a powerful trio you need is:
- A filbert: This is used in painting generally and smooth details. A size 6 is best for medium size painting
- A flat wash brush: mostly used for painting backgrounds. One inch is the best.
- A small liner brush used to create fine details.
7. Paint
You don’t need many paint tubes to create beautiful art, especially if you are a beginner. The primary item you need is a tube of red, blue, yellow and brown colour which you mix.