Palettes, Papers, and Substrates
Glass Palette – You can also get these made from local glass companies if you want a custom size. Make sure you tell them what you’re using it for, this glass needs to be pretty thick and sturdy. Some artists put a sheet of glass on their whole desk or work surface.
Folding Palette – Great for traveling with watercolor
Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook – This is the one I use for paint color recipes
Arches paper – Hot press is smooth, Cold press is textured like a classic watercolor paper. I typically use hot press for watercolor illustrations and cold press for acrylic paintings.
Primed Wood Panels – Cradled wood panels are my favorite substrate to work on. I used to get unprimed panels, but recently I’ve enjoyed not having to do all of the prep work.
Gallery Wrapped Canvas – If I’m going to use a canvas, this is the one. They are sturdy, have a nice gallery wrap, and about twice a year they go on mega sale.
Raw Canvas – I usually get 10oz
Brushes and such
Princeton blue brushes (least expensive)
Princeton red brushes (medium expensive) I use these round brushes mostly for watercolor illustration
Princeton green brushes (most expensive) I use these for everything! I particularly like how stiff they are
Winsor and Newton Synthetic Hog brush – I love the way this brush feels in hand. I also love how scraggly my brush has gotten and how stiff and wiry the bristles are. It’s nice for abstract work.
Yasutomo Brush – Soft, moppy type brush
Chip Brush – Cheap, bristly brush
Palette Knife – Old faithful
Pens and Pencils
Sharpie Pens – My all-time most favorite pen to write with
Sharpie Markers – The best place to find these is office supply stores like Staples or Office Depot, and drug stores like CVS or Walgreens. I use these for drawing, but mostly I use them for labeling and when I’m packing orders. I don’t think sharpies are archival or acid free, so keep that in mind when using them for art. I think yellowing would be the potential?
Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens – My favorite brush pens! I love the loose line variance.
Faber Castell 9000 Pencils – I use an HB for basic sketching, and a 2B and 4B for darker finishing lines. HB is the lightest, 2B is medium, and 4B is quite soft and dark.
Red Ticonderoga Pencils – My favorite pencil for design work. I used these for years when I first started tattooing and I still love using them. They are waxy and soft, giving you a nice range of mark making, and they erase! You can usually find them at Staples and Office Depot.
Pentel Graph Gear 500 Pencil – I use the .9mm and I love it.
Carpenter’s Pencil – The standard for these is a medium hardness. I’ve been able to find soft ones at my local hardware store.
Box cutter – I forgot to mention it in my video, but you’ll need a box cutter, Xacto blade, or a really sharp knife to sharpen your carpenter’s pencil. I like the ones with the snap off blades.
Prismacolor Colored Pencils – My go-to for ages.
Winsor and Newton Pens – Better than Micron in my opinion.
Kneaded Eraser – Great for traveling, pull and squish to incorporate the graphite back into the eraser. Mold it into any shape you need.
Pink eraser – Great for regular erasing
Pencil Sharpener – I look for a sharpener that has 2 sharpener options, a reservoir, and is cute.
Painting and Mixed Media
R&F Oil bars – Love these for texture
Posca – My favorite paint markers
Liquitex Basic Acrylic Paint – Great for underpainting and sketch-booking
Cadmium-Free Pro Heavy Body Acrylic – As I was making this list I discovered that Liquitex has a Cadmium-Free line of colors. Wow! I’m always looking for cad-free and heavy metal free alternatives for painting. It’s not a big deal as a hobby-ist, but as someone who paints several times a week for decades, it can cause issues. Even though I often use gloves, it’s nice to see an option!
Golden Heavy Body Acrylic Paint – My typical go-to for acrylic paint.
Winsor & Newton Watercolors – My favorite watercolor paints, they last forever.
Spray bottle – To keep acrylic paint wet and to re-wet watercolors. Any spray bottle works and you can find these at any box store or drug store.
*You can look for ACMI AP, and ASTM labels on paints for toxicity, heavy metals, etc. Wearing gloves is always advisable either way.
*I don’t have fluid acrylics or gouache listed here. I’d like to try fluid acrylics but since I haven’t used them, I can’t speak for them. I wasn’t a big fan of the winsor and newton gouache I tried simply because it does not re-constitute well and ends up crusty and chunky on my palette, so I wonder if I’d like it fresh out of the tube each time. I’d also like to try Holbein acryla-gouache.
Paint mediums and Varnishes
*Mediums help stretch your paint and can give you different textures. Varnish protects your finished work from sun damage and dust.
Matte Medium – Pretty thin and liquidy.
Gel Medium – Different thicknesses, best to keep a heavy body feel.
Gesso - Can be fun to use as a medium. Makes paint glide well, but also dulls the color.
Spray Varnish – I like the Satin.
Isolation Coat – I typically put an isolation coat down before I apply a brush on varnish.
Brush-on Varnish – This is what I typically use.
Workable Fixative – I spray this on top of pencil to keep it from smudging. I also apply this to a piece with paint market or pencil before I apply varnish. I also also use this on top of oil pastels once they’ve dried to keep them from smudging.
Paint Saving
* I had a hard time finding good options for this one. All of the companies that had jar/lid combo packages I liked, are not great companies. The companies that weren’t terrible, didn’t have great options.
The whole point for my doing this is to save paint and reduce waste in my studio. Ideally, I’d be able to have plain, clear, glass jars with white lids so I can paint a little swatch on top of the lid. The closest and best I was able to find was small Ball Jar’s, and purchase white lids on Amazon. I’ve listed several options below for you to peruse.
You can also make your own paint tubes, I’ve linked those below as well. That’s a good option if you have several go-to recipes. For me, I mix things up a lot, and I want to be able to re-use my paint containers over and over again.
Another option is to go to a restaurant that uses clear plastic to-go containers and see if you can purchase a sleeve from them. I’ve looked at Chef stores and you usually have to buy a case, which is an insane amount of containers. I don’t love plastic, but the sturdy restaurant containers last forever and work well, so…
Glass 2oz cosmetic jar, white lid – second favorite option?
Glass 2.7oz salad dressing jar, multi-colored lid
Glass 4oz mason jar, metal lid – probably my favorite option
Plastic 4oz cosmetic jar, white lid
Stainless Steel Mason Jar Lids – Wide mouth and regular mouth. Should fit 4oz and 8oz mason jars
Printmaking
Pink Rubber Carving Blocks – Like butter.
Brayer – For applying ink to the carved block.
Baren – For getting the ink to evenly stick to the paper or substrate.
Cutters – A good start.
UJ Ramelson Cutting Set – A fancy upgrade.
Cranfield Safe-wash inks – Oil based but cleans up with soap and water.
Fabric Ink – For t-shirts and bags and such.
Slip Strop – For sharpening your cutters.
Misc. Studio Tools
Straight Edge – Any straight edge works. I often use paint stirrers.
Metal Ruler – I use this all the time. I like keeping a 12” and 36” in the studio.
Deckle Edge Ruler – Great for a rough, teared edge look
L Square – Great for getting perfect 90 degree angles when cutting paper for a painting.
T Square – I don’t have one of these, but they work similar as an L square and work great too.
PuniLabo Stand-up Pen Case – The cutest pen case you ever met. Scroll down to pick your favorite animal.
Easel – I don’t have an easel right now, but if I did this is an inexpensive one I’d look at. Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are also good places to look.
Drop Cloth – Protects your floors or grass or porch if you’re spraying something.
Canvas Camera Desk Lamp – Great for overhead filming while you work.
Tech
Yeti Mic – Love this puppy.
Sony a7c Camera – I use this camera because it has a full-frame sensor so I can take high quality images of larger paintings to make prints. I also like this one because the screen flips around so I can set up my YouTube shots without guessing how it will look.
Epson Scanner – It appears they don’t make the one I have anymore. But this one looks like a good alternative.
Rollo Label Printer – I like this one because it’s wireless. It’s pricy, so you may be able to find a less expensive option at an office supply store.
Scale – Works great, but you can also find these at office supply store. Also, any scale will work. The main thing is to have a scale that will show you 0.00lb type readings and one that is fairly accurate.
Laser Printer – Monochrome, quick, great for printing packing slips, and for black and white photo transfers. This one is wireless too, really nice when you use a laptop.
Epson Surecolor p5000CE printer – They don’t make my photo printer anymore, looks like this is the new equivalent. This is the printer I use to make my archival fine art prints. It works great. What’s nice about this one is if you have an issue with it, Epson will come to your studio to take care of it, so you don’t have to pack up a monster of a printer and ship it or take it to someone.
Tripod – Great for overhead shots
Phone tripod – I don’t have this one, mine is a crappy one. But this one looks good!
Storage
Photo Box – I use these for so many things. Small items, framing supplies, organizing by type of craft, etc. Thrifting for cool boxes, crates, toolboxes, tackle boxes, etc. is also fun.
Foldable Recycled Plastic Crate (3 sprouts) – The medium size works well for 5x7” prints
Stackable Wood Crate – I use these for storing paint