Everyone is an artist in some way, and we all express ourselves and our art through a wide variety of mediums. In order to create art in any form, you’ll need some supples. There are many different brands of art supplies to try from, and they will often vary in quality.
For some, quality is more important for they want to create the best art possible with the best supplies they have. Meanwhile for others, the price of art supplies can be an unfortunate barrier that might cause them hesitation before investing a ton of money in top-quality products.
Regardless of what quality supplies you have, your art will be wonderful no matter what brands you use. Utilize your resources and produce the best you can with what you have. Experiment to find the strengths and weaknesses of the product and see what you can do to still make it work.
The most important thing to remember as an artist is that you do not need top-notch art supplies to be an artist. Nor should you feel ashamed if you can’t afford the more expensive brands. Your art is still art and is something to always be proud of.
After all of that, enjoy this list of essential art supplies that every artist should have.
Sketching pencils are a key component for artists who still work with paper. There are a variety of different pencils you can use for your sketching purposes. Typically, you want to have pencils that will show up lightly on paper so you will be able to go over it with either darker lines or even a black fine-liner.
Popular sketching pencils are usually graphite pencils, light colored pencils like a light blue or soft red that can be easily worked over, or possibly even charcoal pencils if you have a soft enough grip. The key to having a good sketch is to either be light enough to work over if you decide to tidy up your work; or durable and present enough if you want to keep your sketch just as a rough outline in your sketchbook or scrap piece of paper.
It is very important to try to sketch out your drawings so you get a feel for what you want the general look of the sketch to be and then you can go in and add fine details later. Especially if you plan to draw characters to get the right proportions, or even if you are playing around with depth in your piece.
Click the image below to shop for some graphite pencils
Paint is another essential art supply to have in your collection if you work with a paper medium. There are all types of gorgeous paints to choose from while you strengthen your talents and have fun with your canvas or paper.
Acrylic paint is quite popular because it produces a quality painting and it won’t be too expensive to get yourself a set of acrylic paints. Oil paints are very expensive but they are almost incomparable in terms of quality and the final product of your painting. Oil paint is notorious for lasting centuries, hence why we still have oil painting dating as far back as 7th century AD.
There’s also watercolors, which is typically the paint you used to use when you were a kid. You mix colors with water to create a looser style of paintings, and watercolors produce some of the most gorgeous images. Gouache is another type of watercolor paint that is considered to be a higher quality and it has been quite a popular paint type for artists to try in recent years.
There is obviously a hierarchy of differing qualities for every type of paint you experiment with. You can sometimes find yourself spending upwards of $100+ just on paint alone if you’re shopping for professional grade materials. Just remember, always work within your budget because you don’t need top notch paints to create beautiful art.
Click the image below to shop for some paint
Along with paint, you will need some paint brushes! Again, depending on what brand and style of brushes you get, they are relatively cheap to get either individually or in sets. Different brush types will work better or worse with different types of paint
The choice is yours if you would rather use real hair brushes or synthetic bristles, with real hair brushes obviously in a higher priced (and less friendly) option. The most popular type of brush to use with watercolors are made with Kolinsky Sable hair (or synthetic Sable), acrylic paint brushes are made with hog or badger hair (nylon for synthetic), and oil paint brushes are made from sable or bristle.
Click the image below to shop for some paint brushes
Now that you have paint and brushes, you will also need paint pallets. Pallets are an amazing tool to use when you are building your color schemes for your painting. They allow you to separate your colors but also provide you enough space to freely mix all shades and hues of the main colors you have chosen to create an even wider spectrum of colors.
Pallets are pretty cheap if you get simple plastic ones, but as they get larger and with better quality materials they will ring in at a hefty price. Again, don’t feel compelled to buy the most expensive paint pallet. Get yourself a few cheap ones when you’re first starting out and use them to create colorful pieces of art.
Click the image below to shop for some paint pallets
Colored pencils are important art supplies to have because they can be used in any piece of artwork to add different hues or textures to the piece. There are also different types of colored pencils that range in density which provide vastly different strokes and lines on the page.
Wax-based colored pencils are probably what you have been most exposed to. They’re the type you used in elementary school for your coloring activities in class. While they are still a great pencil to use, they are known for debris, can break easily, and leave behind a powdery substance called “boom” that coats the color after it’s been set on the paper.
Oil-based colored pencils are a bit more expensive, but just like oil paints, they produce high-quality pieces depending on the brand. Some are just as expensive as wax pencils, while other sets can upwards of $600; for some people that amounts to three utility bills.
There are also watercolor pencils that can be either wax-based or oil-based. These work just like any other colored pencil, but when combine with water, they become loose and spreadable like a regular watercolor paint. You can achieve beautiful textures using just watercolor pencils and some water.
Click the image below to shop for some colored pencils
Alcohol-based markers are a largely popular art medium to work with. These markers provide vibrant pieces and truly bring your characters and works to live. Alcohol markers blend together beautifully and can be combined to make a large hue of colors with just two markers.
The most popular brand of alcohol markers is Copic for they are known for their beautiful colors, and amazing dual applicators each marker has. One side is a chisel tip for larger, thicker lines if you want to color in background or larger surface areas, while the other side is a brush tip that is bendable and works wonderfully to blend colors together. However, each Copic marker individually sells for $10 and an 80-piece set can be upwards of $300.
Don’t sweat because there are other more affordable brands like Ohuhu, Arteza, and Artify that you can get large sets of markers ranging from $30-$60 for a 50+ marker set. They can also produce high quality art, without breaking the bank, but most of these brants feature a chisel and pointed dual rather than a brush tip which makes blending just a bit harder to achieve smooth gradients of color.
Click the image below to shop for some alcohol-based markers
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