Supply List Information for Beginning/Intermediate Painting Students

For painting you will need to purchase paints, brushes, and a canvas pad or watercolor sketchpad and block. Your personal budget, your skill level, and your interest should dictate how much you choose to spend on these supplies. It can be done very economically or expensively.

Paints, brushes, canvas board/pads and watercolor paper can be purchased at United Art and Education (online or at the store on route 42), Michaels, and Hobby Lobby. Online painting supply purchases can be made at Utrecht, Dick Blick, Sax Arts and Crafts, Cheap Joe’s, etc.

Paints:

Acrylic tube paints, 2 ½ oz. or 4 oz., in red, yellow, blue, white, and black. (For the cheapest version, use student grade tubes in 2-4 ozs.)

Watercolor tube paints in red, yellow, blue, white, and black. Some artists will purchase the secondary colors, orange, green, and violet, as well. Some names you will see are Thalo red, alizarin crimson, red madder alizarin, Naples yellow, cadmium yellow, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, hooker’s green dark/light, sap green, etc. You will notice that some colors are bright and some are dull. Try to stick with bright colors for your initial purchases.

In acrylic paint, it is nice to also buy orange, green, and violet but only necessary if your primary colors are too warm to mix (a red or yellow that is too “orangey”). Red oxide and yellow oxide are nice to have but not a must. Red oxide and black mix to make a nice brown but brown can be mixed from your primaries as well.

The brands of acrylic and watercolor paint range from Liquitex, Crayola, Basics, Cromacryl, Sax, Cotman, Van Gogh, and Prang. For beginners, student-grade paint works fine. It is thinner than a high-quality tube paint which can be listed as “professional, heavy body” acrylic paint. If you have been painting for a while, Liquitex and Utrecht are good brands to use. Winsor & Newton is the high end for both watercolor and acrylic paint and not necessary, unless you are going to make a living at painting. If you want to purchase these paints, there is a WinsorNewton.com site.

Watercolor paints are a bit more tricky. While you look for a thicker viscosity with acrylic paint, you will want to have a more transparent quality to your watercolor paint. Synthetic pigments in watercolor can be more apt to stain and often include more “chalk” as a filler which results in more opacity.

Paint surfaces:

Projects will be done on student-purchased canvas/watercolor paper pads like Frederix or Canson, 10 pages, 9 x 12. (Usually costs around $7.00).

OR--canvas boards/panels which costs $1-$2.00 each depending on size. (No smaller than 9 x 12 and no bigger than 10 x 14). Do not purchase these initially as I have some things that will work for our first paintings.

Watercolor paper can be cold press which is smoother and hot press which has more texture. I suggest having a watercolor sketch pad that includes somewhat cheap paper and a watercolor block on which to create your final paintings. Do not purchase anything bigger than 12 x 16 or smaller than 9 x 12. Arches is a high end watercolor paper block while Strathmore and Canson are cheaper. The better paper is a bit thicker and absorbs water faster. Thinner paper will create pools of water that dry in globs—not ideal for final paintings but works for watercolor exercises.

Brushes:

Acrylic and Oil painting require a stiff bristle brush. A natural, china bristle brush is best. It is made out of hog’s hair because the hair is porous on the ends and holds the paint nicely. However, there are nice quality synthetic brushes that work for acrylic paint too.

Watercolor brushes are “sable” brushes made out of soft, horse hair. Again, there are synthetic versions that are very nice to use. I suggest three sizes: #2, #7, and #12.

The quality of your brush (watercolor or acrylic) will differ by the amount of bristles in the brush and the quality of the Ferrell, the metal piece holding the bristles to the brush. Again, there are economy brushes or student-grade brushes that you can buy. Richeson, Utrecht, Winsor & Newton, Sax, United, etcetera are brands you will see.

Long handled brushes are nicest to use when painting with acrylic or oils. For acrylics or oils, I would purchase a minimum of two flat and two round brushes: flats in #10 and #6 and rounds in #4 and #1. You can change these sizes depending on your interests but these are good basics with which to begin.

Thinner and Mediums:

We will use water to thin our paint so a good, recycled yogurt or gelato container works great! Liquitex carries some different thickening mediums and varnishes that you do no need to worry about for this class. You will see them at the store, though.

Palette:

I like to use a plastic, disposable plate for my acrylic palette. It usually has sections to it so I can mix warm colors in one section and cool colors in another. I can cover my palette with saran wrap and foil when I am done and usually the colors stay wet until I can work again. If I fill up a palette, I like to throw it in the recycling bin and start again. Very economical!

However, some people might like to use a piece of acrylic plexiglass instead. You can have an associate cut a 10 x 14 or 12 x 18 piece for you at the hardware store. I suggest taping the sides so they are smooth.

Watercolor palettes are a bit different. I like to use a large, plastic palette that has a place in the middle to mix, compartments around the edge to squeeze watercolor paint into, and a lid to cover when you are done. Again, I do not was off my palette so that I can always use the paint that I squirted into the palette.

Glass palettes are most often used for oil painting and not necessary for our class.

Apron:

I am a messy painter so I always wear an apron or old paint clothes when painting. For this class, an apron would be the easiest to cart back and forth between classes. If it is plain on the front, we can paint a design on it to best represent you!

See you in class!

Katherine Smith