What Supplies Do I Need To Paint

Paint, medium, solvents and a canvas will get you started painting.

If you want to get into painting, the first decision you have to make is whether to go with acrylic or oil painting. Acrylic is easier to begin with because the paint is water soluble and clean up is simpler. Oil paints, however, because they dry slower, have more open time, that is, time to work on the paint while it can still be manipulated. If you don't have good ventilation, acrylic is a better choice as there are fewer fumes.

Paints

Both acrylic and oil paints come in almost identical color lines, and the same pigments are used for both. You will want a range of colors to start, but not too many. Part of the fun of painting is learning to mix paint, so stay with the basic 12 to 14 colors and add more as you learn. A red, orange, yellow, blue, green and purple are essential. From there, pick up a white and a black and some earth colors, which are very versatile. Burnt sienna, raw sienna, burnt umber and raw umber are good earth color choices.

Brushes

Pick up a variety of brushes to get the best control of your paint application. Flat brushes are chisel-shaped and good for painting larger areas of a painting. They come in numbered sizes, and a 2, a 6 and a 10 are a good place to start. Round brushes in the same numbers (2, 6 and 10) will be adequate and are good for details and lines. Stay away from fancy brushes like fan brushes at the beginning; these brushes look fun but have limited uses. With artist's brushes, as with most artist's supplies, you pretty much get what you pay for. More expensive brushes will work better and cause you less frustration as you are learning, but you don't need to get the best if you are a beginning artist. Brushes for acrylics are synthetic bristle; those for oil are natural (usually hog) bristle.

Support

The surface you paint on is called the support. You can get a stretched canvas at the art supply store, canvas board is a cheaper alternative and you can even paint on paper. If the surface is not yet primed with gesso to protect it (as with paper or raw canvas) you will need to prepare the surface with three layers of acrylic gesso. All the above mentioned primed supports are fine for oil or acrylic.

Other supplies

Mediums are used to mix paints and make them more liquid. Pre-mixed alkyd resin mediums are good for oil as they speed drying. You need mineral spirits to clean up oil paint. Water is fine for acrylic paint both as a solvent and for clean up. Rags are helpful for clean up and pushing paint around on the canvas or removing it. Some cans are useful to hold solvent and for mixing large amounts of paint. A palette is vital. Paper palettes are fine and easier to clean that traditional wooden palettes. A palette knife will help you mix paints.

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