My Favorite
Acrylic Painting Supplies
If you’ve ever wondered what acrylic paints, canvases, brushes, and palette I use in my own artwork, they’re all here!
These are the products I currently recommend based on my own experience using them for realistic acrylic paintings.
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THE ACRYLIC PAINTS I USE
Liquitex Basics
This is my everyday go-to paint, not because it’s more budget friendly, but because it dries almost matte, is a bit thinner than the others I use making it perfect for glazing, and doesn’t dry as fast as other acrylics. It just works perfectly for the techniques I use in realism.
Liquitex Heavy Body
The only time I use this paint is when I want to leave heavier brush strokes more visible in a more impressionistic style or for anything more abstract. I don’t like this paint for my realism techniques, but when I need something more opaque and heavy, this is a great option.
Liquitex Soft Body
I only use this paint for my acrylic pours. It is highly pigmented so perfect for that technique, but like the Heavy Body these dry glossy so the white charcoal pencil I use to draw my subjects doesn’t stick well to it and they dry faster than the Liquitex Basics.
Golden High Flow
This is the paint I use for airbrushing. It is highly pigmented, they have a TON of colors to choose from and I find my airbrush clogs less with this than other paints I’ve used.
Best Classic Santa Fe II Easel
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Large Double-Mast H-Frame Oak easel
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Adjustable settings and angles allow for both sitting & standing
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Built for holding large canvas up to 300 pounds
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Raises and lowers easily by a winch
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Made in the USA
Easels
The photo shows my personal easel. It’s huge, heavy, and has a fancy tray with cups that you could use for your brush water. In reality, they’ve become the junk drawers of my easel. You don’t need one this extra, but I can say I LOOOOVE this thing!
There are many awesome easels that are much more budget friendly that won’t require you to save up for 84 years like I did. My biggest recommendation is to get a heavy H-frame easel. Lightweight A-frame easels may be cheaper, but they can slide backward when you put pressure on your brush or, even worse, tip over. A good, heavy H-frame will last for decades, so this is one place I think it’s worth spending a little extra. You don’t need anything as massive as mine (or with built-in brush junk cups) but heavy and sturdy are the priorities.
Tabletop easels are fine for smaller canvases, but they limit the size you can work on. If you have the space, I’d go straight for a sturdy floor model.
I don’t personally own either of these easels, but I wanted to include a couple of options that won’t require you to save for 84 years to afford. They’re from a company I’ve purchased other products from, and I’ve been happy with the quality.
THE CANVAS I USE FOR ACRYLIC PAINTING
I avoid all generic canvas after having so many warp in a short amount of time.
Sometimes they would last years, sometimes totally warped in 8 months. I don’t risk it now.
Fredrix Watercolor Canvas Pad
These come in a pad but are actual canvas. While listed as “watercolor” I love them for acrylics. They are super smooth so great for soft blending and fine details. I tape them to a board to paint on. They are a perfect budget friendly alternative to more expensive stretched canvas.
Fredrix Watercolor Canvas Board
Unlike generic canvas boards I’ve used, these hold their shape better. They are listed as “watercolor” canvas, they are perfect for acrylics & smooth blending with fine details. Besides being more budget friendly, they’re also great because if you paint a lot, they don’t take up much space, even if you have a huge stack of them!
Fredrix Blue Label Canvas
his 3/4 inch thick stretched canvas is super smooth. This is one of the most common stretched canvases I use. It’s double primed making it the perfect surface for smooth blending and fine details that I need for my photorealistic work. They are gallery wrapped so you can paint the edges and hang with or without a frame.
Fredrix Belgian Linen Canvas
When I want to be extra fancy, I go with this one. The paint glides beautifully on this surface great for soft blending and fine details. This is pricier so not the best type for practice, but instead for a project you’re going to put extra work into! If you’re new to painting I don’t think you will notice a huge difference between the Blue Label and the Belgian Linen.
Fredrix Convexo Canvas
These canvases make a statement all on their own! They come in round and oval shapes with a 1 1/2 inch beveled edge, so there’s no need for a frame. They do have a bit more tooth than I prefer, so I apply 2-3 coats of gesso and lightly sand the surface smooth. This gives me the finish I need for soft blending and the fine details in my photorealistic paintings.
Easel Lamp
Most important in our supplies, we need to be able to see without straining our eyes! This lamp clamps right onto my easel, but they also have table top and floor type lamps depending on what works for your space.
PAINT BRUSHES
Artify Brush Set of 18
When it comes to acrylic paint, I don’t invest in expensive brushes. Most nylon brushes are just fine. This budget friendly set has a great selection, and the brushes work really well. The round is my absolute favorite brush for fine details! You will still need other brushes for my techniques but this is a great set!!
Artify Brush Set of 25
Want a larger set? This set of 25 brushes works really well for acrylics and gives you a great variety of sizes and shapes. My only complaint with both the 18 and 25 piece sets is that I occasionally have to glue a handle back onto the bristle section. For the price and performance though, that’s a trade-off I’m totally willing to make!
Mop Brush
Save your money and skip the art mop brushes, get this makeup powder brush instead! Its cheaper and doesn’t shed like the art versions. This brush is for blending wet into wet but only works right when dry, this means you will likely want several so when one picks up too much paint while blending, you can quickly swap to a clean/dry one!
Liner Brush Set
For fine details I use liner brushes or pointy rounds. In either case I usually use taklon bristled brushes. You want to pick one with longer bristles. The ones with short bristles won’t last long and don’t hold much paint for long fine lines (like whiskers). Another cheapy set but they work so I will glue them back together if needed!
Hog Hair Set of 18
These brushes will likely have to have the handle glued back on occasionally, but for this price, I will take it! I use the round brushes from this set to create moss, bushes, and trees. The more damaged and used these brushes are the better they get! I mean, besides gluing the handle back on.
Rake Brushes
These brushes are great for painting fur or grass. Think of multiple line brushes together in one brush stroke. I prefer taklon bristled filbert types. The flat ones give you a more unnatural look which isn’t ideal for nature.
High Gloss Varnish
This is the Liquitex High Gloss Varnish. The Liquitex basics dry pretty matte so the colors can look dull. This varnish will bring all the richness of the color back just like it looked when it was wet.
Gesso
The canvases I use come pre-primed so I don’t NEED this, but if a canvas has more tooth than you like, you can add 2-3 coats of this, let it dry then lightly sand it with a 320 grit sandpaper so that you have a smooth surface to paint on.
Glazing Medium
I rarely use glazing medium. I prefer to glaze with water. Glazing medium changes the feel of the paint in a way I typically don’t like, but very rarely (like when painting grapes) it creates a better translucent layer. I don’t use it often, but when I do, it’s this one.
Pouring Medium
This is what I mix with Liquitex Soft Bodied acrylics when I do acrylic pours for my background. It can create an amazing and unique background for your more realistic subjects.
THE OTHER STUFF YOU'LL NEED
Water Basin
This is what I use to clean my brushes. Remember, never leave your brushes sitting in the water. Rinse them then lay them flat to dry. If you leave them sitting in water you will damage the tip of the bristles. It’s crazy just how quickly this can start to damage softer brushes.
Palette
The Masterson palette works like a big tupperware sealing out air. Inside that I use a New Wave glass palette. I keep a wet paper towel folded inside for humidity. This will keep the larger piles of paint wet for weeks when it’s closed up. Anywhere where I’ve mixed paint and it’s dried, I use a glass scraper to scrape away the paint.
Fine Mist Sprayer
Acrylic paints dry fast on the canvas. You can keep them wet as long as you need, hours if you wanted, by misting with a fine mist sprayer. You can’t use a regular spray bottle because the droplets would be too large, this is the perfect solution!
Brush Cleaner
This is a photo of my jumbo size, but the smaller one I have linked will last you a decent amount of time. This cleaner is amazing at cleaning your brushes and keeping them conditioned. Just lather them up in water with this soap then rinse. You can also let it dry on your bristles to help reshape them.
Tracing, Transfer and Charcoal
These are the tools I use to get my images onto my canvas. I can use tracing and transfer paper or use a white charcoal to freehand directly onto my background.
THE AIRBRUSH TOOLS I USE
I do not recommend the cheap airbrushes you may find online. They usually break after a few uses (after people have left positive reviews) and you can’t get replacement parts. Stick with a brand that’s been around for a while and that sells replacement parts no matter which brand you choose. The $100 you may spend on a cheap set would be better put toward saving for a quality set.
Grex AirBrush
This airbrush comes with a .3 needle. The great thing about this unit is you can change the needle size without having to buy a whole new airbrush for each needle size. I also have a .2 needle kit and a .5 needle kit for mine depending on the detail level I want.
Grex Air Compressor
This little air compressor is perfect for use indoors. It’s not super loud and is lightweight. It comes with a coil hose to connect to your airbrush, but I prefer this green one. I get the coil type caught on EVERYTHING.
Airbrush Holder
This is what I use to hold my airbrush on my easel. It clamps onto the easel tray and I can just set my airbrush right on it. You don’t NEED this, but it really does make things more convenient.
Airbrush Cleaner
You will still need to do a deeper cleaning, but between colors I like to run this through the gun to clean some of the paint out easier. Any brand works fine, I always go with whatever is cheaper at the time, I can’t tell a difference between any of them.
Flow Improver
Airbrushes clog. This will reduce that amount while you’re working. I put two drops in every time I change colors. I add this before I add the paint. It makes a HUGE difference in how often I have to pick dried paint off the needle. An absolute must have!
AirBrush Lube
Use this for lubricating your trigger and needle for a smoother action. When I pull the whole airbrush apart, I add this to the needle before putting it back in place. This 2oz bottle will last a crazy long time!
Cleaning Tools
These tools are another must have for cleaning your airbrush. This specific kit is the one I use most often.
Art Tool Box
All these little tools get lost easily. There are a lot of tiny parts, so this ArtBin toolbox is great for keeping them in one place and organized. This is the one I have but any fishing tackle box type thing works great too!
Frisket Film
This is what I use to mask out my subject when airbrushing a background. I mainly use this when creating an airbrushed background for a colored pencil subject. In those cases I need the white paper to stay white.
Cleaning Pot
This pot is to contain overspray and solvents when cleaning your airbrush. Just spray it right into the hole to minimize how much gets into the air of your studio.
Want to learn how I use all this stuff?
Supplies are just the beginning! Learn how to layer, blend, and use them together in my full-length acrylic lessons.
