Choosing the right supplies for your artwork.

I am going to share what art supplies I use and what should be ideal for you if you are a beginner.

The basic supplies required before starting your painting are:

• paper

• paints

• brushes

• water and a piece of cloth

• tape

Now, we will discuss about all the supplies in brief.

1. Paper

Make sure to use a watercolor paper. The difference between a regular drawing sheet and a watercolor paper is that of thickness and its tetured surface. There are 3 kinds of paper - Hot pressed, cold pressed and rough. hot pressed paper doesn't have any texture on it and is ideal for smooth paintings like food illustrations. Cold pressed paper has a little texture as it is pressed under a machine and is the most used paper because it can be used for any kind of watercolor painting. At last rough paper is highly textured and will produce beautiful textured strokes.

after you have decided the paper you need to work with, next comes the thickness and paper Quality. Minimum thickness of the paper for achieving a good result is 300gsm . You can also use the one with 200gsm thickness , but if you're doing wet-on-wet technique, then most probably the paper will create wrinkles and can tear(which absolutely you don't want.) 200gsm paper is good for achieving wet on dry technique. Make sure to use a 100% cotton paper as it absorbs water and keeps the surface wet for a longer duration. some of the affordable watercolor papers for beginners are : chitrapat, brustro, canson, baohong, fabriano . If you're on a higher budget then spend on strathmore and hahnehmule

2. Paints

We are only gonna talk about watercolor and gouache paint in this blog and will discuss acrylic colors later on. Gouache paints are opaque and are highly pigmented. Water colors on the other hand are less pigmented and give a more translucent effect. some great watercolors to start out with are : camlin, brustro, sennelier, white nights, art philosophy and daler rowney.

3. Brushes

There are a loads of variety of brushes available in the market ranging from round, flat, bright, fan , filbert, angle and so and so.....I'm not gonna bore you with the details because you should choose what you are comfortable working with (although if you want, you can go to Wikipedia and search for 'paint brushes' for details). I personally work with round, flat and rigger brushes only. Flat brush helps me spread color across the sheet faster. Round brush , i use for making the main objects and the rigger brush is used for the detailing at the end. Again, if you are a beginner then try going with the basic supplies first so I recommend choosing round and flat brushes first. Best brushes for beginners are artyshils art brushes. They are super affordable and work like a charm. A must try!

4. Water and cloth

Always! I repeat always, keep a cloth with you while painting or you're gonna end up messing your clothes with colors. I always forget to take a cloth to wipe off my brush and start cleaning the brush with my clothes and then my mother scolds me and gives me the cloth. So , always keep it with you. Also, place the water at an appropriate distance from your art so that you don't spill it all. You can know more about cleaning your workspace in my previous blog.

5. Tape

This is totally an optional choice. I use tape for achieving clean boundaries. You just have to tape your sheet on a plain surface so that it doesn't move while you are working on very small details. It also gives a clean boundary after peeling it off. This is totally optional , I use this technique because i paint very fast and it is impossible for me to create that effect without the tape. But if you're good with painting within the boundaries, then you're good to go!

So, these were the basic supplies that you must use if you are a beginner. If you think this is too much then start practicing on a regular drawing sheet and when you think you're confident enough then you can move on to these supplies.

I hope I was clear and that I helped you if you're a beginner. Please share this post with your friends and acquaintances and click on the heart button if you like it . Also, I am totally willing to help you with your queries . You can ask your questions in the comment section below. Thank you.