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  1. K Grace-Lily 3000 Community Answer

    There are a lot of art supplies and companies out there which makes purchasing art supplies quite a challenge for someone new. And your needs will vary depending on what type of art class/workshop you are taking, so the lists are going to vary considerably depending on whether it's a drawing class, painting class and what type of painting, or collage and other techniques. The list becomes quite extensive the more classes you take. 


    What I will suggest is going to an online site that sells art supplies, and you can read some reviews there of products. Cheap Joe's, Jerry's Artarama, Dick Blick are my choices for supplies. Michaels is a good choice for beginner art and craft supplies, and they have coupons. 


    But for example, and just to start, I'll list a few basic supplies for each type of class:


    Drawing -


    1. A good quality acid-free paper is important - drawing paper is  for final works, and is heavier weight than sketching paper which is more for casual/practice, so a pad of each would be a good idea. Strathmore and Canson are brands you'd find in most art/craft supply stores and I recommend them. A basic white paper is all you need. And size, don't use small paper, go bigger, it give you more space to work and allow a lot more ability for expression - small can hamper style. So, 11 x 14 would be a decent size for most projects, but for a class, get what the instructor suggest. And if you do want to work smaller, 8 x 10, or 9 x 12 is good.
    2. Pencils - a variety of pencil leads, from soft to hard would be a good choice - the harder the lead, the lighter and sharper the line: the softer the lead, the darker and blendable (easy-to-smudge) the line. Hard is good for crisp drawing, soft is good for shading/blending. The ratings are H for hard, B for soft. For comparison, the #2 pencil is in the middle, it's an HB, middle, a bit soft and hard enough. It's a good pencil to have. A good assortment to have would be 2H HB 2B 4B - that would get you through most work, just 4 pencils, and you can use those #2 pencils you have lying around for the HB, so you only have to buy 3.
    3. Erasers - oh, there are several kinds, we all know the pink pearl eraser, but that's not good enough. I suggest getting a kneaded eraser and a white vinyl eraser, they work the best. The kneaded eraser you can mold like clay to any shape and it holds that shape - and the kneading actually cleans the eraser. Don't know what magic makes that happen but it's marvelous. And the white polymer is an easy eraser to use, doesn't leave a lot of residue and erases pretty clean. And they both erase any medium.
    4. Charcoal - you may use charcoal in a drawing class, and vine charcoal is just that, it's sticks of wood that are fragile but easy to work with. Then there's compressed stick charcoal, harder and sturdier. 
    5. Blending tools - you can use your finger but it will get dirty, so there's these little blending tortillon., a blending stump that can be useful, but not mandatory unless the instructor wants you to use. There's also a little cloth chamois that's useful for blending, again, optional. 
    6. Pastels - there's soft pastels and oil pastels in the optional list. They come in a variety of sets from 6 to usually 36 colors, and of student grade quality in most craft supply stores, and at reasonable cost. The soft pastels are softer and smoother than chalk. They also make a good amount of dust, so having tissues at hand is a good option. And you'd need to clean your fingers - that's why I listed blending tools first, to give you that option. The oil pastels are much more pigment and smoother than crayons - crayons are wax, oil pastels are oil, and they spread well. 
    7.  Glue - get a white acid-free glue, it won't yellow on you. And a stick glue isn't a bad idea.
    8. And a sharpener - a small plastic one is good enough - any kind that works for you. I do kind of like the ones that hold scraps that you can dump in the trash later.

    Painting - the needs really depend on what kind of artwork you're doing, but there are three basic types of paints for most common use for beginners. You can buy most paints in sets rather than individually. And I suggest buying a basic set and if need be you can add to with additional paints. 


    1. Acrylic paint - you can purchase in tubes or jars, and most student grade paints are good enough for basic needs for classes. Acrylic paints have a quick drying time and dry on the surface quickly, and to a hard plastic finish after a few days. The colors are bright and vivid, and most are very lightfast - meaning they won't fade. And you can paint in layers, adding one color over another after the layer dries. There's a difference between artist's paint and craft paint - the craft paint has chalk added, so they aren't pure colors, so I suggest getting a tube set.
    2. Watercolor - these come in palette sets, and in tube sets. Watercolor has two types - transparent and opaque. The opaque paint is called gouache or designer paint. The watercolor paint is a challenge for some folks with it's transparency, you can't layer much, and any mistakes you make you can't really cover and fix - that's why acrylic is so good, you can cover it up if need be. Gouache paint is thicker, with talc or calcium carbonate (chalk). The transparent watercolor dries quickly, the gouache dries but it can be revitalized by wetting, so it never fully sets, it stays workable no matter ow long it's been.
    3. Oil - Oil paints are much loved and workable but they take a very long time to dry, and they can be layered with success once the surface dries. They are quite beautiful, but they also give off odor that can be an irritant, and considered toxic to breathe the fumes, so they must be used where there's good air circulation. Oils also require a solvent for cleaning (you can get odor-free), and oil for thinning and spreading the paint. Linseed oil is commonly used, but again, it's got an odor, and it can be a risk, so I suggest safflower oil or walnut oil - that a great many artists now use. But note, they are oils that actually dry, oils like olive oil don't dry, so that wouldn't work 
    4. Paintbrush - there's brushes for water media and for oil. They range from hard bristle which is good for oil paints, to soft for watermedia, and they come in a variety of sizes and shapes. They also come in long handle - mostly for oil or acrylic, and short handle for watermedia. The most common sizes are #10 and 12 round, the 1/2 inch flat (square). The sizes go by number, the higher the number the bigger the brush but they may vary by manufacturer. You can become a collector of brushes, there's so many varieties, but start with basic sizes, and any that are suggested by the instructor. I'd get three or four to start. It could take a day to talk about all the options for brushes, but round and flat will be the most useful to start.
    5. For colors of paints, it may be best to get a set that will give you the most options you need, unless you have specific instructions for palette. But most basic 12 color sets include a blue (cool) and yellow (warm) version of colors, 2 reds, 2 yellows, 2 blues, 1 green, 1 brown, 1 orange, 1 purple, and white and black. That's usually enough.  
    6. You'd also need a palette to put colors out on to mix. A plastic palette with wells for paint is nice, but if you buy a small package of white shiny-coated paper plates, that works pretty darn well. A piece of glass (with edges smoothed or taped) works great for oil and acrylic paints, you can even peel off the acrylic after it dries. 
    7. And most important would be what to paint on. You can purchase canvas board, that's a flat board wrapped in canvas, and already primer coated and ready to paint. That I think is the best option and more affordable for beginners.

    There are many other options - colored pencils, markers, ruler, scissors, cutting knife, mediums and more. You'll learn those as you go.


    As far as brands go:

    • Liquitex and Basics (student grade) are the most popular for acrylic painting. Most retail suppliers do have their own brands, which are often pretty good. 
    • Winsor Newton are excellent paints, and make a student grade in all mediums, W-N Cotman Watercolors, Winton Oils, Galeria Acrylics
    • Grumbacher Academy acrylics, watercolors and oil paints
    • Van Gogh watercolor and oil, under the Royal Talens umbrella
    • Gamblin oil
    • Michaels has a brand of Reeves acrylic watercolor, oil and gouache that are just loaded with pigment - they're low-priced student grade and surprising decent.
    • Daler-Rowney is another brand I've liked, comes in nice travel kits. 
    • For brushes, they can get pretty expensive, so I'd just buy a couple to start. You could buy a package meant for craft to have extra and not spend a lot. 

    For both drawing and painting, you may need or want a setup to lean your work on. An easel is a nice thing to have but not always practical when you're starting out. So, I can suggest setting a stack of books, or a heavy box on a table, and getting a piece of foam core board, or cut cardboard to lean up against the books for a working area. (see picture below

    Some things I didn't mention and should are rags and/or paper towels; water containers for water media, as well as for quick cleanup; newspapers or some kind of protection for under the work area in case something spills, and a case/box/tote to carry/store the supplies.


    So, that's a basic primer on supplies. You mostly can't go wrong.  Don't buy the cheapest brands, that's the last advice I would give - they're cheap but don't often satisfy. I look for sales and coupons to purchase a better quality supply that will make the work easier to do. 



    Sample working setup

    Round brush and square brush


    Erasers

    UTC 2020-10-05 06:45 PM 0 Comments

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