Where to Get Quality Art Supplies at the Best Cost
Best sketchbook
Strathmore makes excellent sketchbooks with all kinds of paper, including drawing, watercolor, pastel, charcoal, and more.
Pros: Sturdy sketchbooks, bully newspaper quality, paper types for different media, affordable
Cons: Larger sizes price more, specialty papers take fewer pages
I've used Strathmore sketchbooks for years. I typically buy the ones with recycled paper, just I've also used the pastel, charcoal, and watercolor pads for when I need a different texture. No matter which media you choose, these sketchbooks can handle information technology.
The standard paper volition warp if you utilize watercolors on information technology, but for whatever kind of pen, pencil, marker, or another drawing implement, it will do the job — information technology's a good thickness and weight.
When it comes to Strathmore'southward watercolor paper, it's sturdy and stiff plenty to stand up to lots of water. The charcoal and pastel paper notebooks both have a wonderful texture to them that really works for the softer media and good blending. Strathmore'south prices are fairly reasonable, also, so you can sketch away.
Here are other Strathmore products we recommend:
This versatile felt-finished paper is ideal for mastering watercolor techniques or finished pieces.
The Strathmore charcoal pad is the ideal foundation for charcoal and pastel, and it's costless of acrid.
For graphite pencil, colored pencil, charcoal, sketching stick, marker, soft pastel, mixed media, oil pastel.
All-time graphite pencils
The Staedtler Pencil Mars Lumograph 12-Piece Set comes with all the graphite pencils yous need to draw like a pro.
Pros: Assuming graphite pencils, 8B to 6H range, affordable, long-lasting
Cons: None
If yous depict with graphite pencils, you know that not all graphite is the same. This Staedtler set comes with 12 pencils in different hardnesses from 8B to 6H. For the uninitiated, the higher the number in front of the B, the softer the lead. Conversely, the higher the number in front of the H, the harder the lead.
Most people will use 2B, HB, and B the most, but if you need deep dark blacks that alloy well, yous'll demand 4B and upwardly. For difficult, light lines, H pencils are perfect.
The pencils come in a tin can for safekeeping, and they're piece of cake to acuminate and comfortable to hold — fifty-fifty when yous draw for hours on finish. I've used dozens of graphite pencils, but Staedtler's are the all-time for the toll.
All-time charcoal drawing set
The Cretacolor Charcoal Drawing Fix has every kind of charcoal you lot demand to create beautiful work.
Pros: Big set with many pieces, includes charcoal pencils and compressed charcoal; comes with an eraser, charcoal sticks, and a charcoal cake; affordable
Cons: None
If you lot're just getting started with charcoal or you want to try a new medium, this charcoal fix has everything y'all demand, including pencils and compressed charcoal.
Each pencil is labeled with its hardness level, and the kneaded eraser is a great blending tool, only information technology can also erase whatever mistakes fairly well.
Best colored pencils
The Prismacolor Quality Art Prepare includes 48 colored pencils that are rich in color.
Pros: Bold colors, lots of variety, long-lasting, eraser and sharpener included, affordable
Cons: None
The Prismacolor Quality Fine art Set comes with 48 colored pencils in cute, bright shades. You'll also become a sharpener and a Latex-Free Scholar Eraser in the ready.
These colored pencils aren't like the bones Crayola ones you used in elementary school. — they're high-quality, soft lead pencils with rich colors. You tin can create extraordinary drawings with these Prismacolor pencils or color in an developed coloring book to brand a black and white design come to life.
Best erasers
The Prismacolor Premier Kneaded, ArtGum, and Plastic Erasers will erase any mistake y'all make.
Pros: 3 types of erasers, affordable
Cons: None
To err is human, and here to set up your mistakes are Prismacolor's erasers. This three-pack gives you a kneaded rubber eraser, an creative person glue eraser, and a latex-free plastic eraser.
I personally just apply kneaded erasers, because they work with all media and don't shed eraser bits everywhere, but the ArtGum eraser is bully for stubborn graphite and the plastic eraser doesn't shed, either.
Since this ready gives you all three, you tin can pick and choose which one you need based on the medium you're working with.
Best pastels
Sennelier makes the accented best oil and soft pastels, but Van Gogh, Koh-i-noor, and Prismacolor are fine alternatives.
Pros: Beautiful oil and soft pastels, practiced variety of colors, stiff pigments
Cons: Sennelier'southward pastels are expensive
Ane of my favorite mediums is pastel. The rich, assuming colors and piece of cake blending brand for the perfect drawing experience. Of all the pastels I've used, Sennelier'southward are the best. Its oil pastels, in detail, are stunning. The richness of the colors is unparalleled and you tin can feel the oiliness of the pastel. I lust over them every time I got to the art store.
However, Sennelier pastels are very expensive, because they are amid the highest quality ones y'all can buy. Since non everyone can spend hundreds on them — myself included, alas — Van Gogh makes great oil pastels for much less, Koh-i-noor sells wonderful soft pastel pencils, and Prismacolor makes neat soft pastels for an affordable price.
I mostly apply soft pastel pencils, because the fine tip gives you more command over your cartoon and fine item. Still, when you're working big and you need to alloy, Prismacolor'southward pastels are perfect. Van Gogh's oil pastels are well-nigh equally pigmented and rich as Sennelier'due south and they blend very well. You tin even thin them with linseed oil, just like you would for oil paint if you want a painterly look.
Here are the all-time pastels we recommend:
Employ on a variety of surfaces including canvas, paper, metal, wood, rock, even glass.
Sennelier Soft Pastels are actress soft pastels made with pigments chosen for colorfastness and luminescence mixed only with natural binders.
Made with pure pigments, mineral oils, and wax binders for a remarkably soft and smooth laydown with no dust.
Made from high-quality, pure, micro-pulverized pastel pigments, encased in California cedar, thus creating less mess and dust particles than traditional soft pastels.
Equanimous of rich, creamy paint that'due south the artist's option for blending and shading.
Best watercolors
Winsor & Newton makes wonderful watercolor paints and sets, while Derwent makes fantabulous watercolor pencils.
Pros: Bright colors, good variety in the sets, sturdy pencils
Cons: High-end tubes are pricey
While you may retrieve about those plastic sets from elementary schoolhouse, the all-time watercolors come in tubes like acrylic and oil pigment. You can get good sets in plastic, of form, and there are wonderful watercolor pencils, also. We've got picks for all 3.
The Winsor & Newton Cotman H2o Color 12-Tube Set is best for the serious watercolor artist who wants a dainty fix of colors, while the Sketcher'due south Pocket Box is great for anyone on the get who want a travel-friendly plastic set. Both provide rich, lovely colour.
My favorite watercolor pencils are Derwent'due south because y'all can get a nice diverseness of colors without paying too much. The watercolor pencils give you more control over fine details in your paintings, so they may be a fun addition to your supplies.
Here are the all-time watercolor art supplies we recommend:
Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colours are a range of water colours that are fabricated to our loftier quality standards just costs are kept to an economic level past replacing some of the more costly pigments with less expensive alternatives.
Cotman H2o Colours possess good transparency, excellent tinting strength, and good working properties.
Derwent Watercolour Pencils can be mixed with water to create unique colour flows and stunning watercolour furnishings.
All-time acrylic paints
Liquitex BASICS Acrylic Pigment Tube 12-Piece Gear up and the Winsor & Newton 2190517 Galeria Acrylic Paint 10 Tube Set are great starter kits for painting.
Pros: Strong colors, affordable options, loftier-quality options, sets offer good value
Cons: Small tubes, tin get expensive
My first fix of acrylic paints was the Nuts ready by Liquitex. The ready comes with 12 colors that you can mix to your heart'southward content to create more shades. Yous really simply demand these basic colors to create every shade of the rainbow.
Of course, this budget gear up isn't that loftier-cease, so if yous're looking for something a fleck meliorate, the Winsor & Newton 10-tube fix is a great option. You lot'll pay more than for higher-quality paint and strong pigments. You can't go wrong with either i, really.
Here are the best acrylic paint sets we recommend:
Each color is uniquely formulated to bring out the maximum brilliance and clarity of the private pigment.
Galleria acrylic color is a high quality acrylic which delivers professional person results and is platonic for artists who want good quality color at an affordable price.
Best oil paints
Winsor & Newton, Gamblin, and Williamsburg Handmade oil paints represent very different price points to satisfy any budget.
Pros: Potent colors, affordable options, loftier-quality options, sets offering good value
Cons: Small-scale tubes, can get expensive if you become with the high-end pigment
The almost expensive art form y'all tin get into is oil painting, but it'south also 1 of the about flexible. Oil pigment is richer than acrylic and it stays wet longer for better mixing, blending, and use over the course of long-term projects.
Winsor & Newton brand a good oil paint that'south suitable for beginners or artists on a budget. Gamblin falls in the middle, while Williamsburg's handmade oils are considered amid the best. They're sold by tubes and not past sets, and so yous can pick the colors you need.
The differences are in the richness of the pigments, the oils used to make the paints, and the procedure past which the paint is made. You can spend hundreds on small tubes of the best oils, but these three options will serve you well until you lot become as famous as Picasso.
Here are the best oil paints we recommend:
The Winton range has a uniform consistency offering first-class retention of brush and palette pocketknife strokes.
The Gamblin oil color set up creates colors that are luscious, intense, and paint-rich.
These concentrated oils are handmade in small batches with each color treated differently to bring out its unique holding.
Best brushes
Da Vinci makes not bad brushes for watercolor, acrylic, and oil painting.
Pros: Brushes for all media, relatively affordable, no shedding, sets offer adept value
Cons: Existent hair and bristle cost more than
The primary advice we have on brushes is don't get inexpensive terrible ones that shed all over your canvas.
No matter what medium yous paint in, da Vinci Brushes has the brush you demand. In that location are more brushes out at that place than tin can be put in a simple guide like this, but da Vinci'southward wares are relatively affordable and long-lasting, then nosotros've included them here.
Some of the brushes are synthetic, but others are made from real brute pilus and bristle. There's a lot of argument over what materials are best, just we've included a mix at dissimilar price points.
Here are the best da Vinci brushes nosotros recommend:
Universal brushes are a great starter fix for beginners, young artists or teachers.
Excellent for watercolor, gouache, illustration, animation, restoration and rendering.
Maestro 2 interlocked hog bristle shapes are deeply set in their ferrules and concur their shape after vigorous utilize.
Best sail
Fredrix makes skilful canvas, and information technology'southward almost always cheaper to stretch your own canvass than to purchase pre-made ones.
Pros: Canvas is cheaper when yous make your own; practiced quality canvas fabric, available in primed or unprimed
Cons: Sail is expensive and time-consuming to make
If yous're working in oil or acrylic, it'due south tempting to purchase pre-stretched canvases and have information technology washed. However, you tin save loads of money — especially if y'all paint on huge canvases — if yous make your own canvases.
To practise it yourself, you'll need forest for the frame, sail, a staple gun, and canvass pliers to stretch information technology properly. I've made canvases before, and it may be difficult work, just it'south worth it.
Fredrix sells canvas in many forms and sizes. Y'all can go it primed or unprimed if you lot prefer to do it yourself with a giant bucket of gesso or if you lot just want a raw sail.
Here are the canvases and accessories we recommend:
A medium weight all Polyflax with essentially greater strength than cotton fibers. Medium texture with near perfect uniformity.
Unprimed cotton canvas dandy for all artists. Includes 6-yards unprimed cotton canvas.
The Fredrix Canvas Pliers made from heavy-duty chromium plated metal with a leap render handle.
This framing kit allows you to create your own solid forest frame for your canvas from scratch, even if you lot have zip feel!
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