Places to donate after what happened in Colorado:
https://www.coloradogives.org/organization/COHealingFund
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-the-club-q-families-and-survivors
https://www.gofundme.com/f/victims-of-club-q-colorado-springs-mass-shooting
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35 Comments
First coment 😀
I love you drawings heheeheheh
Early crew 👋
woah im early 🎉 love the vids they make me wanna draw and paint everytime you upload❤
Thank you for this!
hey! I'm super early!
I'm more on the intermediate level, but I really apprechiate this guide. I will share this with my beginner artists friends so they have a good reference
Also to note on watercolor, the crayola ones are super vibrant, but you can’t add pen/pencil/ink over it because they’re too waxy.
Saving this for later
This video is going to be so helpful for so many people! Art supplies can be so overwhelming, and there’s so much variance in price. I would also def recommend starting with fewer colors when it comes to paint- learning to mix colors is how I learned color theory & my preferences with color
here are my personal suggestions!
eraser: I usually use a kneaded eraser or a "4B eraser". however, I can't find the 4B eraser anywhere online, it's my absolute favourite, but it is from Korea, so rip.
generally any eraser will work that's not stone hard and won't eat up your paper. thicker drawing paper can usually take a slight beating, but papers like watercolor paper have a very delicate texture that you don't want to scrub dead.
pencil erasers are great, in Germany they are available in most stationary stores, but generally you can order them online. They will last a while
pencil: I have a "high-end" mechanical pencil out of metal, so I can say with confidence that it does not matter what pencil you use lol
I use whatever mechanical pencil is closest to me, which is either that one or a 1€ one from a dollar store, both work perfectly fine.
If you want to go with a true pencil though (not mechanical) brands like Staedler of Faber Castell are truly your best bet. 2H, HB, 2B and maybe a 5 or 6B is all you could need, but if you want to limit that even more get a 2H and a 2B and you're good
if you want to blend them, do not use your finger. your fingers have oils on them, and sweat, and you rubbing that on the paper can cause weird blotches, it will be unpredictable and impact the way the drawing looks a while later. Many professionals do it anyway, but just avoid it if you can.
Tissue works a lot better.
gouache: I do not recomment Arteeza. I have it and they are my low low grade paints. himi is a lot better, and you can get a good holbein primary set for like 13€ on amazon (that was at least what I paid when I got it)
watercolor: my pro category, I have an excessive collection of easily over 150 paints as tubes/pans and probably 450-500 available to me generally (dot cards)
I recommend starting with a small collection of middle to higher quality paints. All I really use for even my most intricate pieces are 3 colors, a warm yellow, a warm red and a cooler blue.
If you have access to an art store with individual tubes from different brands, I highly recommend Van Gogh as an entry brand. One tube of 10ml/0.3 fl. oz. (which will last you a long time) ranges between 1.50€-3€ where I live, which is super cheap for a product that good. so starting out should definitely not cost you more than 9€, more like 5€ if you're lucky.
I recommend getting Van Goghs "gamboge" as a warm yellow, "permanent red light" as a warm red and "phthalo blue" as a cooler blue. if you want true purples change the red out with a magenta.
bonus, if you buy one of their white plastic 12 color sets they include a size 6 travel brush, I love that brush so much, it's great for fine details and I love it for ink.
if your store does not carry that brand, you're welcome to ask me about the brand they do carry at your local store so I can give you advice.
acrylic: I have barely any expertise in this section, but I use Schminckes academy line, 60ml, 5€ per tube. I prefer to use acrylic gouache, so.. yeah.
but do not go for dirt cheap acrylics, those are awful. Thin and blotchy, just ew. get a mid-grade, like a student line from a trusted professional brand.
oil paints: I have never used oil paints, but I soaked up every oil painting video I saw. Winsor & Newton is a trusted brand that many artists I've seen enjoy and recommend, so here you go
paint brushes: it really depends on what you are painting with.
Watercolors do best with a blend of real hair and synthetic, but I find myself loving the synthetic ones from da Vinci, ranging at between 1€-4€ per brush. don't go for real hair entirely, good brushes of that kind are crazy expensive. Real hair means soft brush, and if you buy a cheap real hair one it will just bend when you try to paint and not cooperate at all.
With gouache or acrylics you do not want to go for real hair blends as they carry way too much water than you could need. Synthetic is your best bet.
Oil paints require a brush that's more sturdy, and many oil painters recommend getting cheap ones as the paint will eat away at the brush and destroy it quickly anyways, so you're better off with frequently buying cheap sets.
paper: tricky topic. for sketching anything works, really, but as soon as you use anything else than just a bit of graphite cheap paper will let you down.
sketching: get a thicker paper. depending on if you're planning on using alcohol markers or colored pencils, get either smoother (marker) or rougher (pencils) paper. (rough can take more layers of colored pencil)
watercolor: do not cheap out. Canson is a good bet for cheaper watercolor paper that still does its job and has a nice texture (because for some reason cheap watercolor paper usually has that horrible jarring texture to it. Big bad)
if you really can not afford it, go with rougher sketching paper. I've found that it takes watercolor pretty well, definitely not like proper watercolor paper, but it's more than good enough to achieve that messy sketchbook style look and it's definitely better than cheap watercolor paper to be honest. a comparison is cheap watercolor paper will kick you while you try to paint and sketching paper will tolerate you and let you work in peace. It will buckle though
markers: I have some niche ones and some copics, but I don't really use markers, so I'm useless here.
brush nibs are great tho, so if they are available to you, go for them nice nibs.
Ohuhu seems to be great tho, I've heard them be recommended a lot.
colored pencils: I love cheap ones for sketching, but for more elaborate pieces prismacolor are super great. They are creamy and rich in color, highly recommend.
it does however depend on what kind fo art you want to do with them. I have a set of 60 that costed me around 25€, and I love them for more textured pieces.
summing everything up: remember supplies are free if you have nice pockets
Wow! Great video! It also feels weird to be this early 😅
You’ve made some really excellent points here 👏🏻 I would say though sharpener wise, if you’re okay splashing out a bit, get the derwent super point sharpener, its a real game changer! I agree with what you said about generally anything from an art store being decent. It’s also good to note that prices vary by country so whilst one artist could really recommend a particular brand, they are factoring in the price they paid. I had this with Daniel smith, it is extortionate in the uk and really was not worth it, whilst Windsor and newton cotman is sold everywhere for peanuts 😂
Thanks for this video! I want to try gouache and was wondering what brand to try!
So I am the person buying the brush/bullet nib alcohol markers and I love them. I am heavy handed, I can cover large areas with my brush nib, but straigh fine lines are really hard for me a brush nib. I find I can blend with a bullet nib though with quck feather strokes, very similar to the way I blend with a brush nib just is smaller areas. Menawhile I find the chisel nib almost useless, anytime I try to lay down a large swath of color it looks blotchy no matter how many layers I put down. Otherwise I love all your advice. 🙂
For your international peeps, I recommend Roman Szmal as a great quality but more affordable option! They sell them on Jackson's. And saying that….Jackson's own brand of watercolours are actually REALLY GOOD too! Like professional quality but so much more affordable.
Does the ArtKey jelly gouache have a better seal on the lid? I have two HIMI palettes and I run into the issue of the paints drying out because the seal isn't the greatest on the lid. I'm considering buying ArtKey's palette if the lid seal is better.
I used your link in the description to look up the Himi gelly gouache! I also found some Arteza books that I liked..I have washi tape to make the clean edges and stuff to sketch..Is it normal to be terrified and excited about starting a new medium? Is it also normal to go watch and rewatch vids on YouTube on that medium until the supplies arrive?!
I Personal love the läufer erasers they even erase colored pencil and the Faber-Castell watercolour because it's the best cheap one nor like a dollar but good price vs quality
I like sakura koi watercolors. I have two of the travel watercolor sets, one of them I've had since middle school (I'm in my 20s now), and it's still going strong.
Hi!! This was so helpful for a growing artist like mee! ✨My thoughts while watching this video:
– omg yes art supplies are so spendy
– so glad to see someone else using mechanical pencils & someone promoting cheap sketching supplies!
– looove the koi watercolor mini pan
– mee with my cheap plastic paintbrushes LOL I destroy like all my brushes so I have to go super cheap
– YAAAAS canson mixed media paper is chef's kiss
– why don't I own any colored pencils, am I really even an artist???
– you are so pretty! & i love your hair!
questions for you:
– have you ever thrifted art supplies?
– I am so scared to start using marker in my sketchbook for some reason, any tips?
– how do you decide on what color palettes you are using?
kk thanks for coming to my ted talk comment LOL! <3 thanks for the video!
For heavy body acrylics if you're getting started, I recommend getting Arteza acrylics specifically the set of mini tubes or mini tubes of the primarys and black they work well and work better than liquidex in my opinion
However also buy a big tube of Golden white fluid acrylic to make it easier to work with the heavy body while still having white
If you want a decently priced erasable colored pencil for sketchbook work, Crayola has a surprisingly nice set.
I’m going to have to disagree on the eraser comment though. Once I found erasers for colored pencils my mind was 🤯 you have to know where to shop to get specific supplies though and skip over big box stores like Walmart. If you don’t have one near you, split an online order with a friend for an art supply store to get free shipping.
Some of the art subscription box companies hold annual sales (if you get on their email list you can find out when) they will sell past boxes for dirt cheap which have a variety of items to try out ❤
@algorithm this video is very useful!!
tbh best choice I ever made was getting an insanely sharp knife so I can sharpen my pencils by hand to get that super long and sharp end. I always hated how prismacolor leads break constantly with normal sharpeners 😭 amazing video as always friend!
You're so wonderful! Thanks for all the advice!
as somebody that works at an art store (starts with m) there are always coupons and deals out, if you don't have a coupon on you, ask the cashier and they can pull it up for you
this is great thank you! Arteza are not cheap outside of the US I dont think. I am in Canada and they are so expensive
To all my art lovers Micheals always have coupons and you can earn money back . Micheals also do price matches. Amazon also has sales and deals on a lot of art supplies. I would suggest you heart the product and wait to see if it go on sale after awhile. And if you lucky Facebook market place have art supplies . Also Walmart has a lot student grade faber castell for cheap.
Gesso the back of the paper when the marker bleeds though and then you can work on it without shadows from the other side. (Also gesso on paper first helps poscas from tearing up the page if you use them.)
I hope it's okay, if I add some of my own notes on art supplies:)
For pencils: I usually buy soft pencils [H means hard, F is an in-between, B is soft. The more numbers next to the letter the more hard or soft they are ] for sketching. I find that very soft pencils like 4B, 6B are very good or sketching since you can get a wide range of line variations and shades with them. My personal fave brands are Koh-i-nor and Faber Castell, and usually they don't cost more than a euro [a bit less than a dollar]. Or pretty much anything else I find at home:)
For sharpeners: if you are a bit more experienced or what to get more out of your pencils one way to do so is by using an exacto(?) knife. Obviously be very careful and if you're a beginner you most likely won't require it, but for more advanced artists a knife and sand paper is a way to get more out of your pencils. For school I personally use a Staedler metal sharpener and it works like a charm.
For erasers: two of the most important things to me are 1. not hard [insert wee wee joke] 2. and no staining. Personally I buy three types of erasers: kneaded, but only because its required for my academic drawing classes, a big chonky square boy with an elephant, and a Faber Castell with a thin tip for detail work. You can also cut off parts of your eraser to make it more precise or use the tiny cut off part as a detail eraser.
For paints: as someone from Eastern Europe, I favor paints from this region. Obviously taking into account the current situation, I won't be suggesting certain brands, but Ukrainians also make high quality paints like gouache, oils, acrylics and watercolour. I tend to buy from Eastern European brands since the size of the bottles are crazy big comparing to the price. For example, a brand that I only buy, because the local store needs to sell them out and it's cheap, for a pack of 12 colours that are 40ml is around 21euros. Same goes for every other type of paint. And the performance of these paints is just as good as Western brand paints. So I defo suggest looking into eastern paint brands from ukraine, poland, etc.
A tip for white paints there are two types of white, titanium and zinc. There was a YouTube video that said this tip, but I don't remember which one, but basically imagine titanium as the titans from greek mythos that overtake your colour, meanwhile the zinc is mostly meant for making more bulk.
Also a tip for watercolour, pan watercolour lasts for about 10 years, while tubed ones for around 5. If you really want to get the most time out of them, or maybe you've bought some that you're not going to use for a long time, store them in the fridge. A local art store shopkeeper let me in on this secret:D
Now when it comes to oil: i suggest if you are a beginner don't start out with these, there is a lot that can go wrong, you need to learn how to dispose of the solution correctly, how to wash and care for your brushes correctly. If you really wish to do so, its best to do a lot of research beforehand, and if a possibility arises go to a class specifically meant for oils with an experienced teachers supervision.
For acrylics – NEVER WASH OUT YOUR BRUSHES WITH HOT WATER. Cannot stress this enough, because the acrylic will dry out and your brush won't last as long. A general rule of thumb is that a brush, if taken care of properly, can last your whole life time. If your brush is very stiff and difficult to work with you may want to try fabric softener.
Eating a gay candy cane while watching 🌈
Cansons The Wall paper is bleed proof on both sides so if you don't mind working in a spiral bound pad it's pretty great. I did end up tearing it all out and making a sketchbook out of it which is also working very well.
I love the white faber castell “dust free” eraser! It is pretty cheap. It is NOT “dust free” lol but it is an AMAZING eraser
The paper tip is sooooo true. You can make a great piece even with cheap paint and a good paper, but the opposite is pretty much impossible.
Also, here in Brazil, Copics are costing 40R$ each 🥲. Its not even an option anymore. I wish we had access to cheap good makers but is really hard to find them
This is great advice! It's fun to have the full hard-to-soft assortment of graphite, but we agree, it's absolutely possible to get great results with a minimal assortment. Really, most of the time, artists end up settling on a go-to selection, whether it's paint, markers, pencils, or other media. You have to admit, though, it's pretty nice to have that big boxed set of every color, even if you don't use every one all the time!
cant wait to add these to my christmas list!!