Painting Supplies List

For your convenience, I've compiled a list of painting supplies that I regularly use. I hope this helps save you time and money! Each of these products links to whoever has the lowest price. (Please note that this page contains affiliate links. Click here to see my affiliate link disclosure.)

Supports

$ Best of the Affordable Canvases

Every teacher and professional artist I know will tell you the same thing: buy the best quality supplies that you can afford. These cotton canvases made by Blick have some texture and are great for acrylic paint, heavier applications of mediums, and abstract pieces. The canvases are back-stapled to the frames, which makes it easy to remove if re-framing is ever needed in the future.

Specs: cotton, 10 oz primed, variety of depths, acid free.

Note: if you are looking for something even sturdier and with a smoother surface ideal for realistic work, check out the Masterpiece Tahoe and Elite Heavyweight canvases also listed here.

$$ Best of the Middle Priced Canvases

Masterpiece canvases are built to last. The Tahoe canvases have a supple and smooth finish, which is great for more detailed paintings. The construction of these canvases is extremely sturdy and like the Blick Premier canvases, the Tahoe canvases are back-stapled to the frames.

Specs: cotton, 14.6 oz primed, 1.5 inches deep, archival and acid free.

Note: these canvases are about 2-3 times the price of the Blick Premier canvases. They are definitely worth the money depending on what you are working on and where your painting might end up. If you aren't sure what canvas is the best fit for what you are trying to accomplish, go to a speciality art store and talk to someone there and tell them what you want to do. Take canvases off of the shelves and compare them, see how they are constructed and how the different surfaces feel.

Masterpiece Elite Heavyweight Oil Primed Linen Canvas review.

$$$ Best of the Expensive Canvases

Masterpiece Elite Heavyweight Oil Primed Linen canvases are similarly constructed to the Tahoe canvases but are made with linen rather than cotton. Linen - especially Belgian linen - is more expensive than cotton and some artists prefer linen for its greater historical durability. Linen is made from flax fibers, which are longer, stronger, and more flexible than cotton fibers and have more natural oil in them, making them less prone to damage from humidity.

The Elite canvases are about twice the price of the Tahoe canvases. If you are looking for a very smooth linen canvas surface of the highest quality, go with the Masterpiece Elite Portrait Smooth Linen canvases.

Specs: linen, 18.3 oz primed, 1.5 inches deep, archival and acid free. Suitable for oils and water mixable oils.

Note that there is also an acrylic primed version of this canvas, which is suitable for both acrylic and oil paint.

Masterpiece Ventura Hardcore Pro Canvas Panels review.

Best Oil Primed Linen Panels - Masterpiece Ventura Hardcore Pro Canvas Panels

These linen canvas panels are smooth with a slightly uneven texture due to the nature of the linen fibers. The linen benefits from the rigid stability of the support and the 1/8th inch thickness makes these panels easily frame-able. Sizes only go up to 20 x 24 inches.

Notes: This linen is alkyd-oil primed, so is only suitable for oil based paints. The linen offers more "tooth" than plain hardwood and hardboard alone.

Masterpiece offers canvas panel options. The Malibu, Ventura, Poiters Artfix, and Pau Artfix panels all have a lovely smooth finish. If you would like a medium texture, try the Santa Cruz panels. Be sure to choose the correct ground (i.e. acrylic primed or oil primed) based on the medium or mediums that you intend to use.

A note on grounds: Virgil Elliott, author of Traditional Oil Painting, remarked, "The alkyd-based grounds show every indication of outperforming even the highly permanent traditional ground of white lead in linseed oil." Read more here: https://artrenewal.org/Article/Title/technical-column-virgil-elliott

Artefex Lead Oil Primed Allinpanels are superb surfaces for oil painting, made with aluminum composite (ACM) panels laminated to a polyethylene core.

Best Lead Oil Primed Linen Panels - Artefex Allinpanels

Artefex's Lead Oil Primed Extra Fine Linen Allinpanels are made with very sturdy aluminum composite (ACM) panels laminated to a polyethylene core. Canvas is adhered to the panels with BEVA 371 film (a removable archival glue). There are a variety of canvas options to choose from, including acrylic primed linen and titanium white oil primed linen. My personal preference for oil painting is the lead white oil primed extra fine linen ACM panels; the texture of these panels is comparable to the Masterpiece Ventura linen. Allinpanels are available in standard sizes from 8 x 10 to 20 x 24 inches and Artefex is happy to make custom panels - even oversized ones - to your specifications. Be sure to choose the correct ground (i.e. acrylic primed or oil primed) based on the type of medium or mediums that you intend to use.

Artefex Copper Artists Panels

In addition to rigid canvas panels, Artefex also makes copper panels, which consist of a copper sheet and an aluminum sheet laminated to a polyethylene core.

Although relatively uncommon, artists throughout history have used copper panels for oil painting with great success thanks to their durability as a rigid support and low response to environmental changes, such as relative humidity (RH) and temperature.

Oil paint can be directly applied to these panels or they may be partially or completely primed (preferably with a lead alkyd ground). You may also use 300 gsm sandpaper or higher to sand these panels. Sanding is not necessary but if you want to reduce the shine, this is one way to do it, as well as create a little “tooth” if you don’t want a completely smooth surface.

Golden Gesso

I use additional layers of gesso on canvases when I'm looking for a smoother surface to paint on and to prime hardwoods and hardboards prior to painting. I'm a big fan of Golden products and especially recommend their gesso and heavy body acrylic paint. If you're going to buy this you will also want to buy the assorted sandpaper pack to ensure an even surface after gessoing.

Note for those using unprimed hardwood or hardboard panels, apply sealer (Golden Gloss Medium) prior to applying gesso. Learn more here: https://ampersandart.com/full/priming-wood-panels-with-acrylic-gesso-or-oil-grounds

Note for those planning to paint with oils on top of acrylic gesso: over time oil paint becomes more brittle and less flexible than acrylic paint. If you are painting on a non-rigid support like a canvas the difference in flexibility may cause the oil paint layer to separate. This tends to be less of an issue with rigid supports such as hardboard. Golden maintains that their acrylic gesso is a perfectly fine foundation for oil painting and suggests applying at least three coats of gesso to control the penetration of oil paint.

Learn more here:
https://education.goldenpaints.com/technicalinfo_oil_over_acrylic

And here:
https://www.goldenpaints.com/technicalinfo/technicalinfo_gesso

Golden Gesso does not contain Zinc White, only Titanium White: https://goldenartistcolors.com/resources/black-and-white-gesso

Brushes & Mediums

Below are the staple colors currently on my palette. You can view and download these colors as a PDF or click on the individual paints below:

- Bone Black (PBk9)

- Titanium White (PW6) - PW6 is brighter, cooler, and more opaque than PW1; I often use PW6 on its own

- Lead White #1 (PW1) - PW1 is my primary white for blending as it does not overwhelm other colors

- Cadmium Yellow Light (PY35)

- Mars Yellow (PY42)

- Transparent Oxide Yellow (PY42)

- Cadmium Orange (PO20)

- Ercolano Red (PR102)

- Cadmium Red Deep (PR108)

- Magenta (PR122)

- Phthalo Blue Lake (PB15:3)

- Cobalt Teal (PG50)

- Green Gold (PY129)

If you're new to oil painting and feel overwhelmed, try the limited palette example below, which has just 5 colors - also available as a PDF:

- Titanium White (PW6)

- Cadmium Yellow Lemon (PY35)

- Cadmium Red (PR108)

- Ultramarine Blue (PB29)

- Burnt Umber (PBr6)

I have also created a list of what I consider to be the best pigments available if you'd like to create your own unique color palette. You can access that chart and download it as a PDF here.

Below are the brushes, paints, and mediums that I recommend:

Art Studio Essentials

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