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List of best art brands & supplies | What I recommend

I love almost any art medium: Gouache, pastels, watercolors, colored pencils, you name it and I’ve used it. Over the course of the years, I’ve found supplies that work for me and I want to share them with you.

In this article:

  • I’ll show you a list of art supplies (brands) I personally use, love, and recommend
  • I’ll also give you a list of alternative art brands that are very popular as well. These I haven’t used myself but I know they are of excellent quality and are used by many (professional) artists
    • Just so you have an idea of which brands are safe for you to explore and worth your money!

This article may contain affiliate links at no extra cost to you. AF links help support this blog so that it can exist and expand for years to come!

Here are my personal art supply recommendations for each art medium:

Art canvas I recommend

Art paper I recommend

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

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 for procreate
iPad Pro + Apple Pencil 2nd Gen

Colored Pencils I recommend

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’d like to explore art supplies yourself I’ll recommend some other brands. Over the years I’ve followed many (professional) artists, attended several art events and followed many courses and workshops.

I’ll list the brands that I’ve heard and seen recommended most often :)

Best art supply brands

The following brands are used by many other (professional) artists.

Trustworthy art supply brands are:

  • Paper brands:
    • Strathmore
    • Arches Paper
    • Canson
    • Hahnemuhle
  • Paints:
    • Winsor & Newton
    • Arteza
    • Daniel Smith
    • Royal Talens
    • Paul Rubens
    • Kuretake
    • Sennelier
  • Graphite and Colored pencils:
    • Prismacolor premier
      • Colored pencils
    • Faber-Castell’s Polychromos
      • Colored pencils
    • Luminance by Caran d’Ache
      • Colored pencils
    • Derwent
    • Bruynzeel
    • Faber-Castell
  • Markers:
    • Copic

*A lot of the previously mentioned brands offer different kinds of art mediums. Arteza for example also offers paper and pencils.

prisma color pencil drawing
Colored pencil drawing I did with Prisma Color Premier pencils

Which brand is best for art supplies?

Brands best for art supplies are brands like Winsor & Newton, Faber-castell, Derwent, and many more. It depends on which art medium you use, but a lot of these brands offer their products in more than one medium.

There is no brand that is the best brand for art supplies. After the quality of the product, it all comes down to personal preference.

Best art supplies for beginners

The best art supplies for beginners are typically starter sets which are different for every medium. This may be a primary paint set for acrylics, so you’ll know how to mix colors. For other mediums like pencils, it’s best to buy a limited set so you can test it out before committing to a more expensive set.

Here are the kind of supplies I recommend for beginner artists per medium:

  • Paint
    • If you buy a paint set of any brand always go for a primary set. This way you’ll learn how to mix colors and you learn much faster
  • Colored pencils
    • Prismacolor Premier pencils are cheaper than Luminance and Polychromo pencils.
    • Start with a smaller set so you can test them out before buying a more expensive set
  • Graphite pencil
    • Start with a full range set. They are inexpensive and give you the opportunity to try them all

Best art supplies for young artists

For young artists, I recommend the following: the key is to go for a brand or line that is of better quality than children’s art supplies but not as expensive as professional supplies.

An alternative would be looking at social media apps that young people use like Tiktok or Youtube and see what’s currently trending.

The following art supplies are great for young artists.

  • Jelly Gouache
  • Ohuhu Markers
    • These are the best (and cheap!) alternative to the expensive Copic markers
  • A small set of Prismacolor premier colored pencils
    • A small set of these professional colored pencils are great for young artists who want to explore their artistic side
  • A watercolor set
  • Watercolor pencils

Best art supplies for adults

Paints are typically great for adults. But the following art supplies/artistic activiies are also great for adults:

  • Oil painting
  • Diamond painting
  • Stone painting
  • Beading
  • Embroidery
  • Knitting
  • Adult coloring book
  • Paint by number
  • Watercoloring

I hope this list with many links helped you. If you want to explore art supplies on your own you can use the list of brands that are used and recommended by others.

Feel free to sign up for my monthly art letter if you’d like to receive blog posts like these in your digital mailbox :)

♡ Laura

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