Painting Supplies: the complete guide

Start by choosing one medium

The most expensive painting supplies are the ones bought for a medium you abandon. Before spending anything, decide between the big four: acrylic (fast-drying, forgiving, water cleanup), oil (slow-drying, blendable, solvent cleanup), watercolor (transparent, portable, unforgiving of hesitation), and gouache (opaque watercolor, beloved by illustrators).

If you have no preference, start with acrylic — it is the most forgiving and the cheapest to equip. If portability calls to you, watercolor. If you dream of the Old Masters, oil. Our watercolor and acrylic guides go deep on each; the principles below apply to all.

Brushes: shape, fiber, and ferrule

Brush shapes do different jobs. Rounds come to a point for lines and detail. Flats make bold strokes and sharp edges. Filberts — a flat with a rounded tip — are the generalists. Brights (short flats) push heavy paint. You need three or four brushes, not thirty: a medium round, a medium flat, a small round, and a large flat for coverage.

Fiber choice follows the medium. Stiff hog bristle suits oil and heavy acrylic. Soft synthetics suit acrylic and watercolor. Natural sable remains the watercolor gold standard, though modern synthetics (Princeton Neptune, for example) close most of the gap at a fraction of the price. Whatever the fiber, check the ferrule — the metal collar. A seamless, crimped ferrule that does not wobble is the single best predictor of brush longevity.

Paint: student grade versus artist grade

Student-grade paint uses less pigment and more filler, which shows up as weaker tinting strength and muddier mixes. Artist-grade paint is more concentrated — you use less per painting, and colors stay clean when mixed. The honest advice: buy student grade for your first six months while you learn handling, then upgrade your most-used colors to artist grade one tube at a time.

Within any grade, check the pigment index on the tube (PB29, PY42, and so on). Single-pigment paints mix more predictably than convenience blends. A "hue" on the label — cadmium red hue — means a cheaper pigment imitating the real one, which is fine for learning and worth knowing.

The core palette that mixes everything

You do not need forty tubes. A warm and cool version of each primary, plus white and a dark neutral, mixes nearly any color you can see: cadmium yellow light and yellow ochre, cadmium red and alizarin crimson, ultramarine and phthalo blue, titanium white, and burnt umber. Eight tubes.

Learning to mix from a limited palette is faster training than owning every color, and it produces paintings with built-in harmony. Add convenience colors later, when you know which mixtures you reach for constantly.

Palettes, mediums, and solvents

A palette is a surface, not a product category — a sheet of glass, a disposable pad, or a stay-wet palette all work. Stay-wet palettes are genuinely useful for acrylic, extending open time from minutes to days. For oil, a simple wooden or glass palette is traditional for good reason.

Mediums modify paint behavior: gesso primes surfaces, gel mediums extend acrylic, linseed oil and odorless mineral spirits thin oil paint. Beginners need exactly one medium — gesso if you paint on raw surfaces, nothing otherwise. Solvent safety matters with oils: choose odorless mineral spirits, keep ventilation, and never pour waste down a drain.

Easels: buy for your space, not your aspirations

A tabletop easel or a simple A-frame handles canvases up to about 24 inches and stores in a closet — the right choice for most home painters. H-frame easels are studio furniture: stable, heavy, and permanent. Field easels sacrifice stability for portability.

Plenty of professionals tape paper to a board and paint at a desk. An easel is a comfort and posture tool, not a requirement. Spend on paint and brushes first; let the easel follow the habit, not precede it.

Surfaces: what to paint on

Canvas panels are the best beginner surface: rigid, cheap, archival enough, and easy to store. Stretched canvas feels better under the brush and is worth it for work you intend to keep. Paper made for your medium (acrylic paper, watercolor paper, oil paper) is the cheapest practice surface of all.

Whatever you choose, it must be primed. Pre-primed ("gessoed") surfaces are the default and fine for years of painting. Our canvas and paper guide covers weights, weaves, and grounds in detail.

A realistic first-year budget

A capable acrylic setup — eight tubes of student-grade paint, four brushes, a pad of canvas panels, and a stay-wet palette — runs $70–90. Oil adds solvent and runs $100–130. Watercolor is cheapest at $50–70 because the paint goes so far.

Plan to replace brushes before paint. A brush that splayed after three sessions was not a bargain. Mid-range synthetics from Princeton or Royal & Langnickel survive beginner technique; bargain-bin brush sets rarely do.

Painting Supplies compared

The short version, side by side. Every row links to a fuller discussion in the guide above — and every product here earned its place in hands-on testing.

Starter paint sets compared across mediums

Set	Medium	Grade	Best for	Typical price
Liquitex Basics 12-color set	Acrylic	Student	First acrylic kit	$25–35
Winsor & Newton Winton 10-tube set	Oil	Student	First oil kit	$35–45
Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketchers' Pocket Box	Watercolor	Student	Portable watercolor	$20–28
Golden Heavy Body Introductory set	Acrylic	Artist	First serious upgrade	$45–60
M. Graham gouache 5-color set	Gouache	Artist	Illustration and design	$40–50

Painting Supplies FAQs