Investing in the best art supplies can help your art to get better and save you money in the long term. Poor-quality kit is likely to perform worse, look worse and last less time. Whether it's chalky, lifeless paints or paintbrushes with the wrong textures, you notice the difference in myriad ways.
There's such a wide array of art supplies out there that it can be hard to choose, but our reviewers have tried and tested hundreds of different products by using them in the course of their own practice and work, allowing us to compile a list of the best art supplies that we've used, helping you to avoid the trial and error that comes with having to find the right tools.
Looking for something specific? Head over to our best oil paints for artists, and best paintbrushes for oils guides. And if you need an easel, pick one of the models from our best easel for painting guide.
The best art supplies available now
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+ Uses best pigments
+ Lovely buttery constancy
- No student range
Top of our list of the best art supplies are these gorgeous oil paints, available in various presentations. Michael Harding started making oil paints in 1982 when studying fine art. Inspired by the glorious colours in his favourite Rembrandt at London's National Gallery, he became a colour master, supplying paint across the world. These oil paints come in a comprehensive range with high pigment content and less filler to retain vivid colour and make them more light resistant. This quality comes at a price, but it’s a false economy to try to save with cheap paints that yield poor results when dry.
+ Cost effective
+ Great starter kit
- Limited shapes and sizes
Choosing your first set of brushes can be a daunting task. Confronted with myriad manufacturers, different brush shapes, handle lengths and brush sizes can be overwhelming to say the least. A great place to start can be a pre-selected brush set from one of the best-known names. The Winsor & Newton Foundation range encompasses brushes for oils, watercolours and acrylics, split into sets at very reasonable price points. Synthetic brushes have come on a long way in the past 20 years and are a great midpoint between the traditional qualities of hog and sable bristles.
+ Saves forgotten brushes
+ Conditions and reshapes brushes
- Not the nicest smell!
We’ve all been there. You return to your work and realise you forgot all about a paintbrush and now, the next day, it's dried and contorted. When your brushes are top-quality Rosemary & Co brushes this can be disastrous! Fear not though, there is a miracle saviour available that, although expensive to buy, is likely to soon pay for itself many times over. After cleaning brushes in a spirit, you can then use the Masters Brush Cleaner & Preserver soap to clear any remaining pigment from the bristles and reshape them back into their original form. We find it to be invaluable.
+ Cleans very well
+ Allows recycling of clean spirit
- No lockable seal
Keeping your brushes clean is vital for successful results and for saving money. The beauty of the metal brush washers such as this is the perforated insert that lets you clean the bristles without swilling up the bottom of the pot. This allows the pigment to sink to the bottom and helps keep the spirit cleaner for longer. The clean spirit can be decanted and any sediment dredged from the bottom and disposed of correctly. The sturdy design stops it toppling over and the handy brush holder allows you to soak brushes without them becoming misshapen.
+ Sturdy
+ Highly adjustable
- No wheels
There are many types of easels available on the market and each style is designed for a different use. Some are designed to be portable for plein-air painting and others are collapsable and best suited for limited space. This Mon Marte Tripod Easel is one of the best A-Frame easels around. It's handcrafted from seasoned beechwood, has quality steel fittings, and is durable and stable (a must). Holding a canvas up to 31 inches (79cm) high, the frame is adjustable and your paints and brushes can sit on the ledge.
+ Saves time and money
+ Very portable
- Could be bigger
It’s good to spend a lot of time identifying and analysing colour when mixing, so you don’t want to waste all that precious time allowing your mixes to dry out. A good option is airtight catering containers that are turned upside down and lined with glass so the lid becomes the mixing surface. Another, and perhaps easier, method is to invest in an airtight palette from Mijello. These cool little paint-savers allow you to keep mixes workable for weeks, which can be especially handy if you’re fitting painting in around a busy schedule.
+ Adds gloss
+ Extends drying time
- Could do with a better spout
When you’ve invested in top-quality paint, you don’t want to add inferior mediums to spoil it. Artist quality mediums can seem overly expensive next to their hardware cousins but the difference can be vast. Cold pressed linseed oil is produced specifically so the oil is of a higher quality and more suited for use with oil paints. As 99 per cent of artist's oil paints on the market use linseed oil as their binder, oil such as this Winsor & Newton linseed oil is a popular medium. Although alternatives like Safflower oil can help increase the drying time. You can save a lot of money by buying in bulk volume.
+ Retains body and colour of paint
+ Speeds up drying time
- Somewhat on the smelly side
One of the best qualities of oil paint, as opposed to acrylics or watercolours, is its slow drying time which gives you more time to push paint around. That said there are always instances where it would be advantageous for a layer of paint to be dry the next day and that’s where Liquin Original comes in. Liquin Original is designed to speed up the drying time of paint without affecting its body or colour. This drying medium is also available in a thicker Liquin Impasto for Impressionistic styles and a thinner Liquin Fine Detail for more camera-like techniques.
+ Good choice of shapes
+ Designed to last
- Can scratch glass palettes
Painting with palette knives can give some very expressive results but it's not a technique for the faint-hearted painter. Equally, a great set of palette knives such as MEEDEN set of five palette knives will serve you well while mixing your colours, although look out for metal tools scratching your glass-topped palette. The most important thing is the knife’s construction. There is a tendency, even with the top manufacturers, to go for the cheaper process of welding the blade onto the arm of the knife. In our experience, these welds nearly always snap so try and get the superior style where the blade and arm are made from a single piece of metal.
