I love any form of art: Gouache, pastels, watercolors, colored pencils, you name it and I’ve done it. Over the course of the years I’ve found supplies that work for me and I want to share them with you:
Art canvas I recommend
- Arteza paint canvases
- You can buy them in any size, shape, and even in bulk
Art paper I recommend
- Oil paint paper: Arches Fine grain oil paint paper
- Gouache/watercolor paper: Arches watercolor paper hot pressed
- Watercolor paper comes in cold- and hot-pressed. Cold-pressed paper is texturized and hot-pressed paper is smooth
- (Colored) pencil and graphite pencil paper: Strathmore 300 series paper and Canson
- Sketchbooks: Strathmore Sketch pad
Tip for buying art paper: buying larger sheets of paper is cheaper than buying smaller sheets. You can cut them yourself and get more value for your money!
Paints I recommend
- Oil paint: Winsor & Newton oil colors
- Watercolor: Van Gogh watercolor set
- I’ve had this one for years and it’s still excellent
- Gouache: Arteza Gouache 60 tubes
- Acrylics: Amsterdam acrylic paint
- This brand is what a lot of art schools recommend
Paint brushes I recommend
- Princeton Velvet touch mixed media brushes
- The entire range of Princeton brushes is great
- These are synthetic (I only use synthetic brushes which in my opinion are as good as animal-hair brushes)
- Arteza watercolor brush pens
- These synthetic pens have a reservoir that you fill with water
- Tip: I fill these with rubbing alcohol which I use to smooth out my Prismacolor colored pencil drawings!
Digital Art supplies I recommend
- iPad Pro 12.9 inch
- I chose the biggest screen so I have more freedom when drawing
- Apple Pencil 2nd generation
- Procreate
- Only available on iOs
- One-time purchase with free updates
- Wacom Cintiq 16
- Wacom Intuos
- Cheaper alternative to a Cintiq
- You can read here which Wacom drawing tablet to choose
Colored Pencils I recommend
- Prisma Color Premier Pencils
- Electric Sharpener
- Trust me, when you use colored pencils an electric sharpener is a must
- Faber-Castell Polychromos
- Faber Castell erasable colored pencils
Graphite pencils I recommend
- Blackwing Palomino graphite pencils
- These are the Rolls Royce of graphite pencils
- Many famous illustrators/animators use these pencils including Disney legends
- Derwent Graphipc 24 pencils set
- I always recommend getting a set of a full hardness range. This set goes from 9H-9B this way you can build up layers for highly realistic drawings
If you are looking for other art brands that are worth your money you can see list of them here: which art brands are best. (This article also includes my personal recommendations which I listed above :) )