Acrylic Painting Supply List

(These are the acrylic painting supplies that I personally use. For me, the airbrush is a must-have item for the type of acrylic painting that I use, so I will be including my airbrushing supplies on this list as well. I want to add that these are not the end all of painting supplies, they are just what I personally enjoy working with.

Paints

• Liquitex Basics – While these have the added bonus of being fairly inexpensive, the price has nothing to do with why I love them. These paints have a nearly matte finish, which allows for the airbrush paint to stick quite well to it, and it allows me to draw my next layers out with a white charcoal pencil, or use transfer paper if I’ve drawn my project out on another piece of paper. Glossier paints like the heavy bodied Liquitex don’t work great for this. These paints blend well for how I work. If you prefer a glossier finish (like I do), you can use a gloss varnish when you’re done to give you a more oil painting look. The set I linked are tiny little tubes that don’t last that long, but it’s a great start. You can purchase the larger tubes as you run out.
• Liquitex Heavy Bodied – While I rarely use these because of what I mentioned above, they are a nice paint. They dry faster than the Liquitex basics but they have some beautiful colors that just aren’t available in the Liquitex basics. The main two reasons I might choose to use this paint are 1) the pigment/consistency of certain colors. Some of the yellows, magentas, and oranges in the basics are almost gooey and don’t work well for some types of blending I need. In those cases, I switch to the heavy bodied paints. 2) If I am painting with texture. This paint is much thicker so if you want heavier brush strokes like you would see in impressionism or in a looser style of painting then this paint works better. You will want more colors than the 6 pack I’ve linked, but it’s a start!
• Liquitex Soft Body Paint  – I mainly use the soft bodied liquitex when I do acrylic pours. It’s more pigmented than the Liquitex basics and there are more color choices. If I want more opaque colors for any reason, these are the ones I go for. They have a higher gloss finish than the Liquitex basics which isn’t ideal for my methods, but they are a great paint.
• Golden High Flow Airbrush Paint  This is my  go to airbrush paint. It flows beautifully through the airbrush and the colors and lightfast ratings on most colors are wonderful!

Varnish

• Liquitex Gloss Varnish If you’re unfamiliar with varnishing your work, I show you how in this video!
• Krylon Matte Spray Depending on the situation, sometimes I find it best to spray this onto my canvas first to prevent smudging of the paint when applying the Liquitex Gloss Varnish.

Brushes

The brands aren’t as big of a deal for me with the brushes I use.  Many of my current favorites are the generic Masters Touch from Hobby Lobby. They go on sale for half price every few weeks so you can stock up then if you have a Hobby Lobby near you. The Hobby Lobby links are not affiliate links.

These are not the only brushes I use, but they are a great start!

You will want several sizes of each of these brushes.

•  Synthetic Hog Haired Liner Brush – I use my #1, #2, and #3 sizes the most. If you’re only going to get one size, go with the #2
•  Golden Taklon Filbert – The filberts are the brush I use more than any other. They have the rounded end so that the brush stroke start/end is softer than what you will get on a flat brush. 
• Golden Taklon Flat – I don’t use these as often, but they are great for getting straight edges.
• Golden Taklon Round– multiple sizes
• Mop Brush – My favorite mop brush isn’t a paint brush, it’s a powder brush (for makeup). These don’t shed like paint brushes do. When shopping for a powder brush, you want a long, light weight handle for it to work well as a mop brush. A short or heavy handled brush won’t give you the freedom of motion you need for this brush.

Canvas

After a lot of bad experiences with generic canvases (most big chain art stores now only carry their own generic canvases and they are absolute crap, warping stretcher bars, badly primed etc), I only use Fredrix canvases now. If you are in North Texas, check out Asel art supplies. They have Fredrix canvases in their stores for half price all the time. This is where I purchase my canvases.  You can purchase them through their website too. This is definitely worth it if you’re placing a large order

• Fredrix Blue Label Ultra Smooth
• Fredrix Pro Series Belgian Linen  
• Fredrix canvas pads – if you’re just practicing you can tape these to a board to paint.
• Fredrix Convexo Canvases –  These are the round ones you see me paint on that have the curved edges. While I prefer the smoother surface of the blue label and Belgian linen listed above, you can add a coat of Liquitex Gesso then sand it down when dry for a smooth painting surface.
• Fredrix watercolor canvas boards – Not just for watercolor, these have a super smooth surface that is great for painting in acrylics.
• Fredrix Belgian Linen Nature Core Paint Board – These paint boards are 3/4″ thick so they are similar looking to a stretched canvas, but solid. They are very very smooth, great for detail work. The Belgian Linen has a slicker surface, I like it for effects where I’m lifting some of the paint back off the canvas.
• Fredrix Mixed Media Nature Core Paint Board – The mixed media paint board is one of my favorites when I’m airbrushing backgrounds. It is REALLY smooth. It doesn’t have the slick feel of the Belgian Linen paint Board.

Miscellaneous 

• Water well – To clean your brushes. I also use the Paint Puck water well. Either will work.
• Masterson Art Palette  This is like a giant Tupperware that my glass palette sets inside. It keeps the paint wet if I put a damp paper towel inside with the palette. 
• New Wave Glass Palette This is the palette I put inside the Masterson listed above. 
• White Charcoal Pencil
• Water Soluble Graphite Pencil – If you like to draw things onto your canvas before you paint (which I don’t recommend in most cases with acrylics given how fast it dries. I like to paint from my background and work forward drawing/painting in the subjects as I go with the white charcoal pencil or transfer paper), use a water-soluble graphite pencil. This way you don’t end up with graphite lines you can’t cover up later on.
• Tracing Paper – If you want to keep your work really clean, draw your subject onto tracing paper first, then use transfer paper to transfer it onto the canvas after you paint your background.
• White Transfer Paper – Loew Cornell – Use white on dark backgrounds. Your tracing paper needs to be as big as your canvas, but the transfer paper does not, you can move smaller pieces around as you trace it out.
• Grey Transfer Paper – Loew Cornell – Use grey for lighter backgrounds
• Badger Single Action Airbrush – This one is a single action which means you have no control over how thin or thick your lines are. I only use it for misting water for wet into wet blending. You will need a can of air to go with this.
• The Masters Brush Cleaner
• Liquitex Glazing Medium   Usually I just use water to thin my paints, but depending on certain factors I will sometimes use a glazing medium. This is my go-to brand! You can see how I use it in this video!

Airbrush

If you’re going to go farther into using the airbrush, then these are some of the supplies I use:

• FX Texture airbrush stencil – This is the one you see me use for my space backgrounds
• Grex Airbrush Kit – This is the kit I’m currently using. It comes with the air compressor and airbrush.
• Grex 0.2mm needle kit
• Grex Airbrush Holder 
• Airbrush Flow Improver
• Airbrush Cleaning Pot 
• Iwata Airbrush Cleaner (I buy the 32oz one) 
• Grex Airbrush Cleaning Tools 
• Paasche Airbrush Lube 

The links on this page (besides Hobby Lobby) are my Amazon affiliate links.