★ ART SUPPLIES for beginners | tips and tricks ★ 

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.

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!

i know this was three months ago but i just wanted to say fine point sharpies are HELLA underrated

I started and acrylics and I never look back… EVER, I did re-try them and realized I should keep looking back. Also Walmart carries canson paper and it’s pretty cheap!!

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.

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

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!

The reflections in your glasses are mesmerizing

Saving this for later

cant wait to add these to my christmas list!!

You're so wonderful! Thanks for all the advice!

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

Thank you for your information 🙏

you're the sweetest

woah im early 🎉 love the vids they make me wanna draw and paint everytime you upload❤

Thank you for this!

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

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.

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. :)

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.

For those starting with gouache, himi is great with just some canson or strathmore paper. All of those are pretty cheap! Nice mechanical pencils and you’re good to go

For watercolor I would recommend buying some QOR colors, they’re my favorite and not as expensive as some of the others! I’ve had 6 tubes for about 3 years and I’ve barely put a dent in them because they’re so pigmented. Also good paper is a must!

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 😂

For watercolor, I think the supply that you should really invest in is some good quality paper that can handle wet media. Even watercolors such as Crayola or Prang (both excellent for beginners imo) can look amazing or even professional if used on good watercolor paper.

paper is def what matters, always a good thing to focus on when starting ut, crappy paper might just frustrate a beginner

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.)

Thanks for this video! I want to try gouache and was wondering what brand to try!

Wow! Great video! It also feels weird to be this early 😅

Another suggestion: look in thrift and resale stores for art supplies.

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 want 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 compared 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 RU-vid 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.

For bleeding, a "hack" is using gouache or acrylic to cover the back of the paper and makes the paper look like it didn't bleed through 🤣

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.

Also most Blick brand supplies are pretty decent and available online and in store plus they are super affordable

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

Early crew 👋

Note for when you’re buying a pencil sharpener; do research and see if the sharpener you’re wanting can have its blade replaced. Over time that blade will get dull and you will need to replace the blade. It’s not the pencil sharpener as a whole that’s ruining your pencils, it’s the blade on it.

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!

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 RU-vid on that medium until the supplies arrive?!

HI yep i made mistake of buying the 24 packs of watercolour,. Gouache, oil and acrylic packs and had mixed results blamed it on my lack of skill no budget materials. Ive found spectrum noir to be a reasonable priced copic alternative especially in the UK. where prices are exorbitantly high for copics same for Prisma colours, Derwent are a good brand also the promarkers by winsor & newton as a trusted British brand thanks.

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

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 thank you! Arteza are not cheap outside of the US I dont think. I am in Canada and they are so expensive

speaking of ohuhu, i bought the 320 set with the chisel and fine tip earlier this year and i am so upset they didnt release the newest set sooner. i personally hate the fine line tip and prefer the new brush and chisel marker combo. i wish i had been smart and bought the smaller sets at first.

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 ❤

My favourite erasers are the steadler ones you get at Staples. I get them for school, but they erase really well in my experience so they work really great for my art. I think they aren’t the cheapest… not too expensive tho.

I enjoy my markers so much more with their designated paper 🥰 I personally hated using mixed media paper for (alcohol) markers. It just sucks up the ink, making your purchase feel wasteful unless you have that ink refill on hand ($$$) and ruined the experience for me.

@algorithm this video is very useful!!

First coment :D I love you drawings heheeheheh

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.

me, a bullet and chisle lover: 😮

I just asked for a blick gift card so that I can re-up my paints and not cringe about it (I use Holbein gouache for 99% of my work)

While you’re an art supply lmao 😂❤

Eating a gay candy cane while watching 🌈

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