Favorite art supplies

Here I'm sharing a few of my favorite art supplies and tools (favorite colors and all!). I have included links so you can order directly from Amazon (affiliate links): whenever possible, these are the exact products and brands that I use (tried and tested!) or the closest replacement I could find available outside of France. And I encourage you to sign up for my FREE “Mixed Media Art Supplies 101” video workshop! Find out more below:

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setting up your space

I really encourage you to go on a scavenger hunt around your home and collect any tools and materials that you could (safely!) experiment with. It's the beauty of mixed media and it is exactly how it all started for me, and how I came up with some of my favorite techniques!

A palette (or a simple white plate). Nowadays I often use a whole lot of small, round, stackable ceramic palettes. As an alternative you can use white or transparent plastic lids. Petri dishes are another good option and often have a lid to prevent paint leftovers from drying.
Small Heat Gun: to speed up drying and for encaustic.
Water + Spray bottle: I prefer a small, colorful one so it's easy to find in the chaos of my art table!
Rags (old t-shirts are my favorites)

A good pair of scissors
Ideally, a table and/or easel where you can leave your work to dry. I have a reclining easel that allows me to paint horizontally, it’s like an easel and table all in one! But many of us start on our kitchen table and that’s fine too.
Something to protect your surface (old towel, table-cloth...) + something to protect your clothes (apron, old shirt...)

Ceramic palettes

Spray bottle

Scissors

Small heat gun

My favorite, reclining easel

Basic painting supplies & tools

White gesso
Matte acrylic gel medium: for collage and my "encaustic effect" technique. My favorite is one by Liquitex (I like that it’s local to me as it’s made in France not far from where I live, which is better for the planet!).

Painting tools

Your fingers!
Your choice of paintbrushes (one or two can be enough at the beginning)
An old plastic card, palette knives and/or a soft “squeegee” like a Catalyst wedge.

White Gesso

Matte Gel Medium by Liquitex

Assorted Paintbrushes

Large Flat Brushes

My favorite giant flat brush!

Giant Round Brush

Plastic Palette Knives

Catalyst blade

Substrates

There are so many options here! Experiment to find what you enjoy working on the most:

Gallery-wrapped stretched canvases
Wood panels: primed or unprimed, cradled or not... (NB: wood & MDF left-overs from your DIY store are a great, inexpensive option!)
An art journal (for a tutorial on how to make your own from a watercolor paper pad, go to THIS PAGE)
Heavy (300gsm) watercolor paper
Free options: Card-stock, cardboard, cereal boxes, old mailers...

Stretched Canvases

Unprimed Wood Panels

Primed Cradled Artist Panels

Heavy Watercolor Paper

Dylusions Art Journal (really good)

Watercolor paints

Acrylic paints

Basic Neutrals

Golden Fluid Raw Umber

Titanium White

Buff Titanium

Neutral Grey

A few favorite soft colors

Turquoise Green

Light Sky Blue

Naples Yellow

Naples Yellow red

Portrait Pink

Persian Rose

A few favorite intense colors

Sap Green

Payne’s Grey

Green Gold

Quin. Magenta

Nickel Azo Gold

Yellow Ochre

All about Inks!

Black & Permanent

Black India Ink

Stazon Ink Pad

Acrylic inks

Raw Umber

Turquoise

Magenta

Olive Green

Payne’s Grey

Alcohol inks

Lakeshore Set

Assorted Browns

Wildflowers Set

Lettuce

Butterscotch

Pebble

Distress Ink Pads

For color accents and shading portraits in an art journal. These are really fun but unfortunately not light-fast enough for a painting.

Walnut Stain

Antique Linen

Tattered Rose

Weathered Wood

Tea Dye

Pumice Stone

Pitt artist brush-tip pens

These are wonderful India ink pens, great for all kinds of finishing touches!

crayons & chunky sticks

Neocolor Watersoluble Crayons

Stabilo Woody

Neocolor I Permanent Crayons

Graphite Blocks

Shiva Oil Sticks

Charcoal Blocks

Drawing, sketching & Journaling

Pencils:

Regular HB to 4B pencils
Stabilo All Black Water-soluble pencil (seriously awesome, SO black!). The Derwent Inktense pencil in Chinese Ink or a black Neocolor II crayon are both good alternatives.
Graphite Water-soluble Pencil
Charcoal pencil

Pens:

Black, fine-tip permanent pen: Pigma Micron, Staedler Pigment Liner, Pitt Artist pen or Posca.
White Posca pens in different sizes, from fine tip to medium (love these!!)

Graphite Pencils

Stabilo All Black Pencil

Charcoal

Lyra Water-soluble Graphite Pencil

Black Pitt Artist Pens

Black & White Posca

White Posca Pen (fine)

Black Posca Pen (Fine)

Stamping & mark-making

I love to have a variety of materials around to stamp and make marks with. Look around you and use your imagination! Some of my favorites are:

bubble-wrap
shelf-liner
plastic mesh
textured wallpaper
doilies
corrugated cardboard
wood skewers and coffee stirrers

feathers
plastic cards & business cards
Catalyst tools
brayers
scrapbooking and homemade stamps and stencils
Gelli plate

Gelli Plate

Mini Brayer

Shelf Liner

Catalyst Painting Tools

A few stencils & stamps (choose basic designs you'll never get tired of)

collage & transfers

Old magazines with images that you love (libraries will often happily give away outdated issues)
A variety of papers in neutral tones: tissue paper, packing paper, bookpages (preferably from a book that inspires you), sheet music, dried, empty tea bags, sewing pattern paper...
Vintage photos, postcards and greeting cards
Some pieces of fiber: old clothes, cheesecloth, ribbon, lace...*

Ask around to friends and family!

Flat Brush