Paints
I recommend the following colours, but you are free to bring others if you like working with them.
- Titanium White
- Cadmium Lemon Yellow
- Cadmium Yellow
- Cadmium Yellow Deep and/or Cadmium Orange (both optional)
- Cadmium Red Light and/or Cadmium Red
- Alizarin Crimson
- Quinacridone Rose
- Ultramarine Blue
- Phthalocyanine Blue Lake and/or Cerulean (see note below*)
- Cobalt Teal (optional)
- Burnt or Raw Umber
*Phthalocyanine is a series 1 colour, so very affordable but very intense so some like to use the more expensive and subtle Cerulean. The cheaper “Hue” version of Cerulean is made from a mix of other pigments.
If you can, buy Artist’s Quality Paints. It will cost more but it will go further and the range of colour you can achieve will be far greater. Be aware the student paints, where the name is suffixed by the word “hue” as in “cadmium yellow hue” are made from a different pigment, in this case arylide yellow, and so can operate very differently to the genuine pigment. In this example, the paint is less opaque and has less pigmentation. If you are on a tight budget and can only get one genuine cadmium go with Cadmium Yellow Pale which is in between Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Lemon Yellow on the Spectrum.
Palette Knife: flexible, metal, not to small! I like the RGM knives: click here for examples: drop handle or flat
Canvases/Boards: 1 small to medium canvas/acrylic primed boards (mdf or thin plywood) about 12” x 16” recommended, but if you enjoy and tend to work a bit bigger, that is fine too. In addition: primed paper, a smaller extra canvas, small piece of unstretched canvas or tear off oil painting pad.
Masking Tape
Palette (white or grey is recommended but not essential) – At least A3. There is nothing like too small a palette to hinder our painting. New Wave tear-off palettes are good. NEW WAVE TEAR-OFF
Dipper: x 2 (for solvents)
Medium: Zest it or low odour solvent (eg: ShellSol T)
Empty Jam Jar or small glass bottle
Rags or Kitchen Paper
Drawing Equipment:
- Sketchbook
- 2B Pencil
- Rubber
Viewfinder: I recommend this one: Viewcatcher (or two 90 degree corners of white or grey card and a bulldog clip, but the Viewcatcher is definitely worth the £8 outlay)
Brushes – A mix of Filbert and round Hog, Synthetic or a Hog synthetic mix*: Sizes 2, 4, 6, 12. A couple of round brushes that come to a good point are useful too. A couple of Large Brushes are important because they help us keep the painting simple.
I recommend Rosemary and Co. online but be sure to tick THE LONG HANDLE OPTION.
* the rosemary and co. hog synthetic mix is called the Classic. Their Evergreen Synthetic is also a good brush.
nb – no affiliate links, just recommendations.
