Yaeli's Blog

What Art Supplies Should You Buy?

by Yaeli Vogel on Aug 26, 2019

What Art Supplies Should You Buy?

I am by no means an art teacher or alike but based off of the many questions I’ve gotten over the past few years I’ve decided to help you out and put together an informative guide for the beginner / dabbler or the experimenter. 

 

You’re thinking to yourself, hmm…I’d love to get creative for a couple of hours, but I don’t even know where to begin.  How do I start?  What do I materials do I buy?  There are SO many options!  This is overwhelming…and then you put the idea away until it comes up again. 

 

Yes, I know…I’ve been there too.  But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming.  I’m here to help!

 

I’ve put together a selection of products, for your convince, right here on amazon, so that you can browse and shop from the comfort of your own home and have the supplies by your door step in a flash.  The art store is so much fun and a wonderful experience, but I would save that for the second or third art supply purchase. 

 

The first time I was at the art shop, I was like a little girl in a candy store and couldn’t get enough of it all.  With each product passed, I would rationalize why it was super important to add it to my supply collection and just like that, my cart was overflowing with unnecessary goodness.  By the time I left the store, I had well exceeded my budget.   Art stores are dangerous.  Take it from me and save yourself some cash.  Once you have created and painted and know what you need, then go to the store with a list and try as hard as you can to stick to it.  You must go, its too much fun not to go at least once.  Or go with a partner and one of you will guide the other.  It does make for a great date!

 

For your first painting experience though, you have the leisure of the beautiful web.  It’s amazing, so enjoy!

I like to say less is more and especially when it comes to my supplies.  The more supplies there are, the more potential for mess, clutter, set up and clean up.  When I think about all of that, I already don’t want to begin.  So, I eliminate as much stuff as I could.

 

1. The most important things you will need to have on hand are a cloth to wipe off your brushes and water to clean the brushes or use to thin out some paint as needed. 

2. Then you will need a pallet to paint from.  The larger the pallet, there easier it will be to get creative and have fun.  When the pallet is small there is simply not enough room to mix paints and get messy.  This part of the mess is defiantly encouraged and must happen😉

There are two ways to go about the pallet.  The first way is to simply create your own!  Grab any flat surface that isn’t being used, like the side of a grocery box or alike, and cut it off.  The craft color isn’t ideal for a pallet and so you will have to turn the base part, white.  You can do that by taking a few pieces of white paper and gluing it on.  Then once that’s done, cover the surface with a few plastic Ziploc backs and tape them on.  And WALA! There’s your pallet! With zero dollars spent and one that can be used repeatedly by gently replacing the plastic sheets as needed. 

The second option for a pallet is to purchase it from the store.  How profound!  You can browse through some options right here on amazon. 

Great, you have water, a cloth and a pallet, but you still can’t start.  You need the real goods.  Now you need a canvas or two, some brushes and paints.

3. The beginner dabbler does not need to invest resources into these supplies.  There are many options for canvases but a simple one will do the trick.    It can be stretched or on a board.  A stretched canvas is one that lays onto of wooden bars and a canvas on a board is a canvas pasted onto a cardboard backing.  I personally like to use the stretched canvas more.  I find the strokes to be more enjoyable as I am  painting, but that could be completely physiological, I’m not sure.  The stretched canvas can have the edges painted, which opens the option for the finished masterpiece to be left unframed. 

The canvas board is great for the beginner.  Its very thin and can be stored very easily.  If you’d like to paint more than once and want to practice, I’d recommend buying a pack or two of canvas boards and just knocking it out.  Here is the amazon link to great canvas options:

4. As for brushes, there’s a common myth that the pricer the brush the better it will paint.  False! You’re hand does just that and the brush is simply a tool.  I've used many, many brushes and the ones that I’ve splurged on didn’t do much of a better job then the others.  Regular brushes will do just fine.  But don’t go ahead and use your child’s paintbrush from his/her painting set.  No no no.   Those will not do!  Those are very poor and are great for a young child.  But any brush from a decent art store or brush pack should work just fine. 

The amount of brushes that you can use are practically endless!  I like to keep the brushes per paint session to about three brushes.  A thick one for backgrounds, and medium sized for subjects and a thinner one for details and signing.  There can be another that’s in between the medium and thin.  I like using flat ended brushes.  You can do one flat and one round to experiment and discover what you enjoy more, or which works better for certain strokes that you’re going after.  That’s the fun that you will get to have and enjoy.   There are lots of ways to use brushes.  I don’t like to limit myself to how each one is meant to properly be used.  Just have fun with them and use them how you feel is getting you to your best flow. 

5. Now, for the most exciting part!   PAINT!! The number one question asked.  Which company?  How much? & What colors?

Paints, like everything else artsy, can add up very quickly.  The mature artist pays lots for the pigment and quality of the paint per oz with Companies like Golden, Sennelier, & Arteza.   There is no need for you to do that.   There are acrylic paints that work great that are not an investment.  Getting the proper colors can seem endless since it’s a rainbow of colors at the art store.  They have made it super easy for the beginner by creating paint sets with the perfect colors that you need to start with. 
Acrylic paint is the preferred way to begin since its fast drying and allows for more experimentation and mess ups, because then you can paint right on top of it!

Here are a few paints sets that I’ve selected for you on amazon.

And that’s the rundown!  Enjoy your painting goods.  Paint your heart out and be well.  Ill be waiting for some pics, obviously! Message me on Instagram or send them via email. 

Happy Painting!

Yaeli

http://a.co/eZ4tYoM

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