My Most Used Art Supplies
I use a lot of different, amazing art supplies to make my pieces and sketches, so I figured it would be a great idea to make a master post to reference people back to if they’re curious… Until it inevitably changes, at least. (As usual, nothing here is sponsored or affiliate linked… maybe one day!)
STUDIO SUPPLIES
Most of the work I do is in my studio, so of course I’m going to start here.
PAINTS
First and foremost are my paints. I primarily use watercolors, but I also use gouache from time to time.
For watercolors I use DaVinci, Daniel Smith, Winsor & Newton, Schmincke, Utrecht, Paul Rubens, Holbein, and Van Gogh…But for simplicities sake, its safe to assume a piece is largely DaVinci and Daniel Smith.
I have a collection of handmade paints from various Etsy sellers as well, but I use those sparingly.
For gouache, I largely use the Himi jelly gouache, but I also have tubes of M. Graham and Holbein acryla gouache.
My acrylic paint markers.
PAINT MARKERS
I love using paint markers for sketching, and I definitely have preferences here. I hate anything that isn’t a brush nib, except for outlining. I use GuangNa and Arrtx brush tipped markers, and I use Posca fine nibs for outlines and highlights.
I hunted for years, across many obscure brands, to find the best brush tipped acrylic markers, and I can safely say the GuangNa and Arrtx are tied for best for me.
My alcohol markers.
ALCOHOL MARKERS
These are simple and straightforward- I only use Copics and Ohuhus. Copics were the best id ever used, until Ohuhus came along. I can honestly say that they have surpassed Copics in my eyes. However, they still don’t have refills for the full collection of colors, so I will still recommend Copics for that aspect. If you don’t use alcohol markers often, then the Ohuhus are king!!!
My most used watercolor brushes.
BRUSHES
I use a lot of brushes, but my main slices are Craftamo, Polina Bright, and Princeton Velvetouch brushes in a variety of sizes and shapes. I have one beat up brush I use to grab and mix paint to keep my good brushes at their best for as long as possible. I mostly use smaller round brushes, but on occasion I will use other shapes and sizes, and sometimes even specialty brushes.
Specialty Brushes include brushes I’ve cut up myself to make random effects, weirdly shaped brushes, and scrubbers.
Some of my palettes for mixing and/or paint storage.
PALETTES
I use four palette types- two are holding my paints, and two are for mixing.
The palettes holding my paints are a large shadowbox filled with full pans, and the much smaller Art Toolkit Folio and Pocket palettes.
The shadowbox is my studio palette, which I use for large paintings.
I currently have four Art Toolkit palettes- two Folios and two Pockets. The Folios are a selection of colors I commonly use and a skin tone palette, while the Pocket palettes are for pastels and neons, subsequently. I use these for sketches.
For mixing I use an enamel butcher tray and ceramic palettes.
Some of my ink types.
INKS
I don’t use inks as often as I used to, but when I do, I either use the Speedball Superblack India ink, or Daler Rowney acrylic ink.
Some pens, pencils, and erasers I commonly use.
PENS AND PENCILS
I use a variety of random pens and pencils, most common being the Pentel GraphGear mechanical pencil, Staedtler Mars Lumograph 4H pencil, and Arrtx gel pens.
The three brands of colored pencil I use, with a blending marker.
COLORED PENCILS
I use colored pencils atop my paintings for finishing touches, and I use Holbein, Faber Castell Polychromos, and Cara, D’Ache Luminance pencils. I use a soft and a hard blending marker with alcohol ink/rubbing alcohol inside them to get a smoother look.
My most used masking solutions.
MASKING
For small spaces and fine details, I use Pebeo’s 0.7mm drawing gum pen, and for larger spaces, I use either tape or Pebeo drawing gum liquid, depending heavily on the paper.
My most used watercolor papers.
PAPER
I use a bunch of different papers, most notable being Fuumuui, Baohong, Fluid 100, and Legion Stonehenge. These are all 100% cotton papers. I seldom use hot press paper, but I use coldpress or rough watercolor paper all the time.
My favorite paper is the Legion Stonehenge Aqua Coldpress Heavy, as it is incredibly thick and almost impossible to make warp. It is however a very soft paper, so almost any tape or masking fluid will rip it. The only tape I have found to not rip it is the brand’s official recommendation-Holbein soft tape. I use this paper exclusively for non-practice paintings.
The varnish and fixatives I currently use.
FIXATIVE AND VARNISH
I ALWAYS varnish my paintings, regardless of how lightfast or archival the supplies I use are, just to be extra safe. I currently use Krylon UV Archival spray varnish.
In sketchbooks, if I use gouache or colored pencil, I add a spray fixative, specifically Krylon Workable Fixatif.
TRAVEL
I often paint and draw on the go, and it’s actually where I work in my sketchbooks most often. My setup for travel obviously must be a little different than my at home setup, so I figured a dedicated section to this may be helpful as well!
Most of my travel supplies.
PENS AND PENCILS
I keep a zebra mechanical pencil and random ballpoint and gel pens with me, as well as some watercolor pencils.
My ArtToolkit primary watercolor palette, good for home and travel use.
PAINTS
I use the same Art Toolkit Folio palettes that I use in my studio for travel. I highly recommend these palettes- they’re lightweight, durable, portable and well made and thought out. Plus, its supporting a small business! These can also hold an incredible amount of paint. They’re an extremely efficient and convenient way to store paints-watercolor or gouache.
BRUSHES
I use Fuumuui travel brushes. They’re well made, sturdy, and affordable, so I highly recommend them. I personally hate water brushes, so they don’t have a place in my travel setup. I recently also added some Natura Illustration Craftamo travel brushes to my arsenal, and I love them too.
Three of my ongoing sketchbooks.
PAPER/SKETCHBOOKS
This frequently changes as I’m on the hunt for the best large watercolor/mixed media sketchbook for my taste, but I’m currently using two different sketchbooks.
My first is for just pencil sketching, and it’s an Etched sketchbook, which is paper made from stone. Im not sure if I’d recommend this one, as its very difficult to work with, but its decent for not so great sketch work.
My second is a U.S. Art Supply landscape watercolor sketchbook. I generally don’t like landscape oriented sketchbooks, but I like the size and paper of this book well enough to enjoy working with it.
ETC SUPPLIES
I have a bunch of little extra supplies I bring with me as well. This includes a water jar, portable scissors, eraser, tape, masking fluid pen, sponge, clips, and double-sided tape, all in a large makeup bag.
My wonderful travel bag, lovingly dubbed “Da Bag”.
BAG
I got my current bag at a snowboarding shop in Montana and haven’t looked back. It’s the most durable and convenient, large bag I’ve ever had… and it came with a hefty price tag (in my opinion, at least). The brand is Herschel Supply Co., though I’m not sure the model. It’s a fantastic all-use case bag.
In Conclusion…
That’s the majority of what I currently use to make my art! I have some other random or rarely used supplies too, but they’re just not important enough to make the cut of this post. I hope this was enjoyable and/or helpful!