The Art Supplies I Can’t Go Without

Art & Design

Jun 19

There are many different art supplies that you can use and, in my opinion, are all for different stages of an art journey. When I first started out, I used watercolor paints that were not the best, a small color selection, and a value set of brushes. I will always give so much credit to these things because even though they were not the best, they allowed me to freely learn and make mistakes without sweating the money spent on them. Now that I have turned my art journey into a profession, there are a few brands and items that I have upgraded to, that I will never regret. These have been my most favorite and highly used supplies in my now career.

Paint

When it comes to watercolor paint, the best thing you want to look for is vibrancy. The first set of watercolors I purchased were a step up from Crayola, but they left a really chalky, muted residue. These were great for starting out, because they allowed to get accustomed to professional colors in tube form, but the results just weren’t cutting it. My all time favorite paint (and I will never turn back) are the Winsor + Newton Professional Watercolors. I know that Winsor + Newton makes another line called “Cotman” and these are a tad cheaper than the professional ones, but I went ahead and pulled the trigger and got the top graded tubes. I have heard that the Cotman line is VERY professional as well, but I just wanted to go ahead and get what I knew would be the best. The tubes are kind of pricey, but there are so many colors you can make when you start out with your primary colors, a white, a black, and then 1-2 colors that you find to be unique. I can’t go without my professional paints from Winsor + Newton.

Paper

The paper that I have found to be the best but most affordable, would be the Canson XL Series Watercolor Paper. I use the 9x12 paper pads for all of my smaller paintings to sell, and then I purchase the 18x24 for the larger ones. Remember, all paper can be cut down into whatever sizes you want to sell as paintings! I love having 5x7, 8x10, 9x12, 11x14, and 18x24 available as paintings for my customers! I feel that this brand of paper is quality paper you can sell as paintings, while also being affordable for your business. I started out practicing with the watercolor paper pads from Walmart, but the paint blended very awkwardly.

My Jumbo Palette

I recently purchased the Masterson AquaPro Watercolor Palette because I have recently expanded my color selections! Let me tell you, this palette is gigantic! Each mixing well is about the size of the entire palette that I used to have, and there are about 32ish pans to put your paint in! The only thing to be mindful of, is the palette itself is very large and takes up a lot of table space. As for me, this hasn’t been a problem and when I paint large paintings in the floor, it has been perfect for that!

My Favorite Brushes

In my opinion, the best brushes you can buy are hands down the SilverBrush Velvet Round Brushes. As a beginner, I used the Hobby Lobby brand round brush value set, and I thought it was a great set to start out with, but I really had to manipulate the brush for better precision. The Silverbrush round brushes have the most precise ends to them and when using the belly of the brush, it snaps back to place so smoothly. I use sizes 2, 6, and 12.