5 Art Supplies Every Beginner Artist Needs for Drawing & Painting

Are you an aspiring artist who really wants to polish their skills? Well, you’re in luck today, dear friend!

To improve your skills as an artist, you need to put in time and effort. But you also need the right art supplies to facilitate this process of skill-improvement.

In this article, we’ve compiled a list to help you identify which art supplies you need at this beginner level. Let’s see what the list has for you:

Sketch Pens and Pencils

You can’t draw or sketch without any pens or pencils. So yes, an artist needs their sketch pens and pencils. We suggest you get yourself a set of at least 4. And if you can get a bigger set, then that’s even better.

A set of sketch pens (or pencils) means that you’ll get a variety of thickness that you can work with. This gives you greater room to create those perfect strokes varying thickness.

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Art Pad

Where are you going to do your sketching? On an art pad, of course! So it goes without saying that you need to get one for yourself.

There are certain factors you want to consider when getting your art pad. Most importantly is the paper quality – you want the paper to be soft and thick, so that it doesn’t make your sketch pen’s ink bleed.

You want to make sure that the paper quality is good for pens, pencils, charcoal and water colors. This is irrespective of the fact that you only intend to start with basic sketching and painting, Otherwise you’ll have to get a separate art pad for every medium.

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Color Pens and Pencils

This may sound very kindergarten-ish but, hey! if you want to add color to your pieces, you’ll need some color pencils and pens, won’t you?

Just make sure that whatever set you choose for color pens or markers has bright and vivid ink and the nib doesn’t bleed any ink!

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Paint Set and Palette

What medium do you want to start painting in? Oil, acrylic or water? These are the three basic medium that you should choose from. And each one has its own pros and cons.

For example, acrylic dries quickly but oil doesn’t. So with acrylic, your painting will be ready sooner, but you’ve a very small window to make adjustments and edits.

Once you’ve that figured out, get yourself a paint set for the respective medium. And don’t forget to get an appropriate solvent, depending on your choice of medium. For example, you’ll need some kind of oil for oil painting – turpentine, linseed, etc.

Also buy a palette that you can use to mix and blend the colors.

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Paint Brushes

Good quality paint brushes can make all the difference in your final outcome. You want brushes with fine bristles that don’t shed, because that could mess your painting.

Also make sure you get a few couple of brushes with different thickness, thus allowing you to create those pro strokes. There are two types of brushes, round and flat – get more of the flat ones and some round ones. That’s because flat brushes are always more useful and effective in painting.

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Canvas

You’ve got the paints, you’ve got the solvent, you’ve got your palette, you’ve got your paint brushes but you still need a surface to paint on! Buy a few canvases for this purpose. You can find a framed canvas in all sorts of sizes too.

But, if you feel like a framed canvas might be too bold a step for a beginner painter like yourself, then you could also get a canvas pad. These pads have several canvas sheets, much like your regular drawing book except with canvas sheets instead of drawing papers.