This is a rundown of the most useful art supplies I have found for serious artists to get the best results for their efforts.
We supply art supplies for students to complete projects, but often students want to work at home and want the art supplies to do that.
Due to the closing of our teacher warehouse, we no longer have access to donated supplies from our community. Art supplies are expensive and our budget is not big. So please feel free to donate supplies and ask businesses to donate to our school so students can have the best opportunities to create.
Thank you for caring about our children's creative opportunities! Art, creativity, & self expression is excellent for our emotional & mental health, our brain growth, and encourages developing high skill levels & career opportunities. Creativity is making connections to seemingly disconnected things, developing keen observation skills, and developing the courage to make enough mistakes to finally create something that works. All of this is critical to developing a fully self actualized and mentally flexible adult that embraces learning at all levels of ones life.
I will provide the brand names of what I find is best, but please know that I do NOT get any commission from these things; I am sure that would be illegal. I welcome all feedback and would love to know if you find something better for less. I seem to find the best deals on Amazon or Blick when the semester starts as Blick gives student discounts around then.
We use a 6B to 9B pencils. They are soft and provide a wide range of value so we can easily blend and get high contrast drawings.
We use blending sticks so we can blend. Having several sizes especially the big ones, can be helpful.
We use General's Factis Plastic Eraser. This plastic eraser is designed to remove graphite from tracing papers and films. A non-abrasive and self cleaning eraser, it removes graphite lines without ghosting. A normal red eraser will not work for our purposes.
Students also love to use battery operated erasers that are fantastic for tiny bright highlights.
I buy Prismacolor or BLICK brand colored pencils as they blend well. Other brands of colored pencils do not blend as well as the Blick or the Prismacolor.
For portraiture, students like using Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils Portrait Set Soft Core Adult Coloring 24 Pack
Here is a link to the Blick Brand which is much less than the Prismacolor brand:
My very favorite watercolors are Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI Watercolor Paint Set, 48 Colors, Professional-quality for artists and crafters, for kids, adult, Made in Japan. They are expensive but often go on sale. The color is highly pigmented so they remain bright after drying.
A less expensive alternative is Prang Half Pan Watercolor Paint Set with Brush and Lid, Refillable, 16 Assorted Colors, (01600), 18 Piece Set. The colors will lighten as they dry but these pan colors, when moist, are nicely pigmented for the money.
Remember that watercolors work best on watercolor paper so that they can flow across it. I prefer Arches Watercolor Pads or Canson XL Watercolor Pads.
BLICK student grade paint is fine for learning or Golden or Liquitex, but BEWARE! The basic student sets do not come with the right colors you need for mixing clear hues. You need Cyan, Primary Magenta, and Primary Yellow to mix the secondary colors. It is odd that they package the wrong colors and list them as "basics," when they are not the basics at all.
For example: When you buy ink, you buy cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. You need the same colors with paint except you also need titanium white and I also like to add the liquitex unbleached titanium as well.
An Ultramarine blue is NOT a primary blue! It is a lovely color, but it is a warm blue that is more of a secondary color.
These are the colors I like to have when I paint: Primary Cyan, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue, Primary Magenta, Cadmium Red, Dioxazine Purple, Primary Yellow, Titanium White, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Cobalt Turquoise, Unbleached Titanium, and Paynes Grey. Please note that Cobalt is toxic if ingested so these paints are NOT for small children. and there are paints that look like cobalt but are non-toxic and are listed as such on the label.
I make my own black so it has more depth than a flat black. One of many ways to get black is to mix Phthalo Blue with Burnt Umber to get a great black. I don't even give the students black so they learn to mix their own. Black can be the death of color if over used when mixing.
Students also love to use Acrylic Paint Markers, but they are expensive and you can make richer colors yourself with acrylic paint and using a bottle. We get Needle Tip Squeeze Bottles and mix our own vibrant colors for fine lines and dots.
If you must get the paint markers there are some good ones on the market, I like the Arteza Acrylic Paint Markers, I am testing IVSUN Acrylic Paint Pens, and kids love the Posca markers although I prefer the wider color range of the Arteza.
There are many lovely ink supplies but the basics that we will be using are:
Sakura Pigma Micron Pens
A jumbo 10 mm tip acrylic marker
Kids love to sketch with Copic Sketch Markers however, they will fade over time if exposed to light. They are used extensively by designers for mockups.