Acrylic paint and all art supplies I use

I've been using the same kinda art supplies and materials for years.

I always use a piece of cardboard as a palette, it's recyclable, free and so nice to use. I don't have to clean the palette after painting, which is great. Also a perfect palette for Plein airs and painting outside or while traveling.

To produce high quality art you don't need a lot, just a few great tubes of paint and brushes that work, that's it. I think that it's always better to start with minimum art supplies and add something to the kit only if you feel like you really need it. Otherwise these unnecessary tools can become a distraction and just a waste of product and money.

ACRYLIC PAINT

Mostly Amsterdam and sometimes Liquitex

I don't see the difference between these brands when I use them, I buy Amsterdam because it's easier to get here in Finland. Both brands are great and I would 100% recommend all their products.

Amsterdam Standard series

Colors I always use:

Prussian blue phtalo 566

Olive green deep 622

Azo yellow medium 269

Primary cyan 572

Pyrrole red 315

Titanium white I use both Liquitex and Amsterdam, they are the same to me.

Amsterdam Expert Series (heavy body)

Colors I always use:

Burnt sienna 411

Cadmium red light 303

Permanent orange 266

Permanent yellow med. 284

Cobalt blue dp. 518

Acrylic metallic inks

I mostly use gold, but inks are overall very fun to work with and they add such an incredible dimension to the painting. Especially I like adding gold ink to abstract paintings and florals.

Brushes and knives

I love having different kinds of brushes, some of them are soft, some are with stiff bristles and I often use flat brushes. I love to have a variety of sizes, stiffness and form, that way it's really enjoyable to work with these brushes. For palette knifes I have the same rule, they have to be different in size and shape.

I use a lot of Panartglobal brushes, love the quality of them

Windsor & Newton brush sets are super affordable and last a long time

Brand doesn't really matter, what matters is the quality of the tool/paint and if its suitable for my work. Sometimes I paint with dollar store brushes and they are great or I use an expensive ones, as long as it works I don't care what the brand is. For example brushes on the photo above came in a set and were very cheap, I’ve been using them for years and these are the brushes I use every single time I paint.

I also buy random brands every now and then but it's less than 10% of the art supplies I actually use.

Canvas and paper

I usually buy canvases from my local store or order them online if they’re large. For canvas I prefer cotton and just plain primed good quality canvas, deep edge is better but I usually buy it only with large sizes.

Sometimes I buy unstretched canvas and stretch it over a wall, just a regular cotton canvas works.

I love Rembrandt acrylic paper 400gsm from Royaltalens, so far it's my favourite type of paper for acrylics. I also used Arteza acrylic pad for a while and it works great with acrylics too.

Varnish

To protect paintings I use Liquitex Satin varnish, it works great, I usually use 1-2 coats.

I hope you enjoyed reding this blog post, let me know if you have any questions.

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