My Favorite Art Supplies
Over the years in my studio, some supplies have definitely moved to the favorites list. Here are some of the art supplies I return to time and time again!
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Wood Panels
Over the years I have learned that I love creating on wood panels. Painting on stretched canvas isn’t always my favorite. I prefer wood, especially in pieces that I am adding layers of collage and texture into. I’m also not against the wood grain showing through in a piece. I’ve even used a wood burning tool in order to add lines and pattern into the wood. There are a variety of brands to choose from, I’m not partial to one over the other at this point. But I do like buying unprimed wood panels.
It is best practice to prime the wood panels first. For that I use gesso… clear, white, or black.
Da Vinci Pro Birch Wood Painting Panels
Da Vinci Pro Ultra Smooth Gesso Panels
Catalyst Wedges & Blades by Princeton
There’s one reason you won’t see any brushes on this list - Catalyst Wedges and Blades by Princeton. They are my absolute favorite mark making tool. Sliding paint around with these two on wood panel, on a gel plate, in an art journal, mixing paint on a palette… the best! I know it’s hard to see up there because it’s covered in paint. But the mini blade is on the right hand side of that picture. ;)
Princeton Catalyst Wedge Tool - white
Princeton Catalyst Wedge Tool - angled grey
Princeton Catalyst Mini Blade Tool
Modeling Paste
I know it can feel so scary if you’re diving into the world of acrylic mediums for the first time, but please don’t let fear stop you! This is my favorite to mix with acrylic paint and create noticeable texture on my pieces. Start with this one and then branch out to explore others!
Molding Paste or Modeling Paste, same difference.
Liquitex Modeling Paste
Golden Molding Paste
Stencils
I have purchased a variety of stencils from different companies over the years. I can highly recommend Stencil Girl stencils and subscribing to their Stencil Club membership is really fun, too. I’m now even learning how to make my own stencils and masks with a Cricut cutting machine.
The Crafter’s Workshop Stencils
StencilGirl Products Stencils
Cricut Maker 3 and Mylar Sheets for making your own stencils.
Gel Plate
If you don’t have one of these yet, do yourself a favor and get one ASAP. I use a gel plate to create beautiful layered paintings and a variety of collage papers. It is by far my favorite tools to use when I’m warming up in the studio or when I need something to help me create those unexpected layers of paint. There are two big brands that top the list and I enjoy them both. Starting with a 6x6” or 8x10” is a great place to start!
I also have an online course where I teach you how to create layered landscape paintings with a gel plate. You can learn all about that course here. I’d love for you to join me!
Brayers
I use a a variety of different brayers in my painting process. Mostly, I use them to move the paint around on my gel plate. But, even in that process I have found many different ways to use brayers to create a variety of marks. I even have a YouTube video all about this process. Watch that here.
Budget friendly brayer 2-pack
Speedball soft rubber brayer
Acrylic Paints
So much to say about paint! I would dare to say that 90% of the time in my studio I am using acrylic paint. (I also love oil and cold wax… drool!) Depending on the day and project will depend which brand and type of acrylic paint I’m using. I just realized I will probably need to do a separate blog post for just talking about the favorites on this paint list. Here are some favorites for now:
Liquitex Professional Soft Body Acrylic Paint Set
Lukas CRYL Studio Artist Acrylic Paints
Golden Fluid Acrylic Paints
Charvin Extra-Fine Artists’ Acrylic Paints Basics Set
Nova Color Acrylic Paints
Recycled Materials & Cardboard
Do not underestimate the items around you that are FREE. This is an example of me playing around with paint techniques on cardboard. Since I am a texture fan, I like using my scraping tools on surfaces that will catch the paint in interesting ways, like the bumps of the cardboard! Even better if it has rough edges or part of it is torn.
You will also see me using cardboard and other recycled materials in my gel printing process.
Small Sketchbook
I have two current favorites. This one above is square when closed but then this nice landscape shape when opened. I like using this one to experiment with art materials and PLAY. The one I have is 5x5” and there are various sizes.
Arteza watercolor paper square sketchbook
Large Sketchbook
The other sketchbook I like is the Canson XL Mix Media Paper Pad. This is the sketchbook that I always have next to me while painting with a gel plate. I roll off excess paint from my brayer into this sketchbook to create these beautiful pages. I am in the process of filling this sketchbook up and love flipping through the pages to see the different color stories. Certain pages can actually take me back to specific paintings when I look at them.
Canson XL Mix Media Paper Pad
Silicone Brush
Another favorite mark making tool with no bristles… a silicone brush! This painting was created using only this tool. Much like the Catalyst mini blade tool, I love using these to move and scrape paint around.
2 piece Silicone Paint Brush Shaper Tool
Linen Canvas
These linen canvas pieces come in a pad of 10 sheets and they are already primed and ready to paint on. The primer is clear, so I like to paint with some of the linen still showing through. Especially these drippy floral paintings!
Senso Clear Primed Linen Canvas Pads
Now, let’s go create!
I hope this list has inspired you to try something new! Please let me know if you have any questions or if you’d like to see more posts/videos with other details. I’m happy to share!