Painting has a lot of start-up costs. After I met with my painting instructor for the first time earlier this summer, I headed to a local craft store to buy supplies. As I read through my instructor’s list, I felt like I was about to open a small business–or at least embark on a backpacking trip. There were some items I recognized (“canvases”) and some I didn’t (“gloss medium”).
Back in high school and college, shopping for art supplies was easy: I bought the cheapest items I could find. This time, with a larger budget, the number of choices bewildered me. I scanned the list. Paintbrushes seemed like a good place to start. Turns out, there’s an incredible variety of paintbrushes–long- or short-handled, round or flat or angled or filbert, sable, taklon, bristle. There were forests of brushes, straight as birches, running the length of one aisle. I selected a few–after 15 minutes of flicking them back and forth like sparklers–then turned to the paints. At least my instructor’s list was more detailed here. She had told me to buy a small selection of heavy-body acrylics. Again, the available colors and brands ran the length of a whole aisle. My instructor had warned against student-grade paint (the cheaper the paint, the less pigment it has), so I went with a middle-of-the-road brand.
In the end, it was a longer trip than I had anticipated but I walked out of the store ready to face my easel. Thanks to that trip, here are my supplies so far:
Easel: This was a Christmas gift a few years ago.
Sketchbook: I got this free at a craft fair. I’ve started to fill it with painting inspiration–color palettes, paintings by my favorite artists, my own photos, etc. It’s been a good reference and helps answer the question: What should I paint?
Canvases: I bought a 3-pack of 20×20.
Palette: This was an upgrade for me. Previously I had always used Tupperware lids (probably not a good idea) or disposable plastic plates. My new palette is basically a fancy plastic plate. It’s shaped like a tray and has a cover. If a damp sponge is placed inside the closed palette, the paint won’t dry out between painting sessions.
Palette paper: This goes inside the palette for easier clean-up. It looks and feels a lot like wax paper.
Brushes: I had some brushes already but bought a few more in varying sizes and shapes to see what I like using.
Palette knives: I bought two metal palette knives (each is a different size and shape). These are a great alternative to brushes if you’d like to create a thicker texture.
Paint: I like acrylic paint because it’s easy to work with and has a quick drying time. “Heavy body” acrylics are pretty much the standard these days. They’re supposed to mimic the texture of oil paints. The colors that my instructor recommended are: Sap Green, Brilliant Yellow Green, Hooker’s Green, Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Grumbacher Red, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, and Titanium White. I also bought Cobalt Teal because I’m going to be using it a lot in a painting. Once you have an assortment of basic colors, you can mix them to make any color you want. Sometimes though, it will take a lot of paint to achieve a particular color. In those cases, it’s more cost-effective to buy the color itself.
Gloss medium: This is a synthetic resin you add to paint. At this point, all I can tell you about it is that it makes a little paint go a long way.
And then there are the things I still need to add to my collection:
Spray bottle: This is to keep the acrylic paint on the palette from drying out while you work.
Color mixing guide: This one’s probably self-explanatory.
The Masters brush cleaner: Currently I’m using soap but this comes highly recommended.
The only thing I’m missing now is a studio (or even an empty medium-sized closet). Unfortunately, I have neither. Instead, I set up everything in the corner of my room, balancing jars of water and tubes of paint on any free shelf space I can find. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than not painting.
