Acrylic Painting Supplies: A Beginners Shopping List

Knowing the correct acrylic painting supplies you’ll need can be overwhelming, especially if you’re a beginner. There’s so many options to choose from now a days so its hard to know what supplies are necessary and ones that aren’t.

That’s where we come in to give you a guided hand of what you’ll all need to start painting. We’ll go over every thing you will need to get started painting in the comfort of your own home, or any where else for that matter, specially if you are painting with us for one of our Online Painting Painting Classes! This page provides a list of essential acrylic art supplies that you’ll need to get started painting with acrylics.

Acrylic Painting Supplies Check List:

Where to get your acrylic painting supplies from?

First things first, is to figure out where the heck you want to get your supplies from.

There’s other options like Amazon where you can even find complete painting kits that will come in handy, if you don’t feel like buying everything separately.

If you don’t mind paying a little more you can always support your local art store. They normally have good quality supplies and you’ll be supporting a small business, in the process.  Now that you know where to purchase your acrylic painting supplies it’s time to go over what you all need to get creating, yay!

Acrylic Paint

If you are starting out, and painting for the first time or just painting for fun you can get by with just the Level 1: Student Grade Acrylic Paint. Or even craft paint does the job. You don’t need the most fancy, most professional paint. It’s more expensive and not necessary. To be honest our artist Chelz, who paints for a living still uses a lot of the student grade paint. You really don’t notice a difference, other than the transparency of the paint. *Tip: A quick fix for that is having multiple layers or mixing different colors together.

Paint Colors

The colors you are going to need truly depends on you and what colors you’re envisioning for your artwork. If you are signing up for one of our Online Painting Classes you can normally just look at the painting and see what the main colors are used in that particular painting. If you love blending you can get by with just the *primary colors + white and black. For those of you who hate blending and rather play it safe you can get some of the *secondary colors

Paint Brushes

Paint Brush Sizes: This is where it really gets into preference. Every person is different, therefor every person paints differently. We recommend at least three different brushes: a large, medium, and small brush. The large brush should be big enough to paint a background with or you’ll be stuck painting it for awhile. It could either be a square or round brush. A small brush should be small and pointy enough to do any detail you might have in your painting. For everything else in between, a medium sized pointy brush is great to paint with to fill in larger areas where you wouldn’t want to use a large brush.

Type of Paint Brushes: Make sure what ever brushes you decide to buy are recommended for acrylic painting. Oil paint brushes and the majority of water color brushes won’t work with acrylic paints. You don’t need the most professional, master brushes. But since you’re only as good at the tools you use we suggest not getting the cheapest set of brushes but finding a good balance in between. Sometimes reading reviews or feeling the brushes bristols is a good indicator if it will be a good brush or not.

*Helpful Tip: Take good care of your brushes by rinsing them off with some dish soap once you’re done painting. This is very important because the better you take care of your brushes, the longer they will last.

Painting Surface, What to paint on

The most popular surface for painting with acrylics are gallery wrapped canvas, which is available in many sizes. Some more affordable alternatives can be used like canvas boards or even canvas paper. You can also paint on very thick paper, but it needs to be at least 300lb paper or else the paper will buckle. If you’re feeling fancy another option is wood panels, but they are harder to find and tend to be more on the pricier side. The list goes on and on but those are the main painting surfaces we recommend for our Online Painting classes.

Size Does-Not Matter

The painting surface you need truly depends on what you’re trying to paint. If you are wanting to do online painting classes certain sizes are recommended. We recommend larger canvases for adults and smaller canvases for kids to use.

Remaining Essential Painting Supplies

Plastic Paint Palette or Paper Plate: If you prefer using a paint palette make sure its plastic because when you’re done you can rinse it off and reuse it! However if you don’t want to spend the money and have an extra paper plater lying around you can use that too.

Water Cup: To keep your brushes in good condition, as well as rinsing them off in-between colors you are definitely going to need a water cup. You can use a plastic cup, old glass jar, or even an old can.

Paper Towel, Rag, or Cloth: You’re going to want something to dry your brush off. If you don’t want to waste paper towels an old rag or cloth works great.

Optional Painting Supplies to Consider

Table Easel

If you plan on painting a lot or can afford buying an easel I strongly recommend in getting a table easel. They make painting WAY easier! You can find a good one to start with between $10-20. Plus they are easy to story because they fold, score!

Apron or Old Shirt

This one is a given. Paint can get messy so its always better to be prepared instead of ruining any of your favorite clothes. You don’t really need an apron to start painting. If you start painting regularly then I would definitely invest in one. Otherwise you can use an old shirt or other old clothing you wouldn’t mind getting paint on. Or if you are like us here at The Paint Sesh you have your designated “painting clothes.”

The Remaining Optional Painting Supplies

Table Cloth/ Newspaper Back to painting can get messy, always make sure to cover your table or painting area with some sort of table cloth or even newspaper will suffice.

Pencil: Before you start painting your surface it’s a good idea to draw out your subject first. That way if you have a happy accident you can erase it with ease. A pencil works like a charm but you can also use chalk or pastels.

Painting Supplies Takeaway

When in doubt just go for it! It’s important to remember that you don’t need the best of everything to be a “good painter.”  Just as long as you’re having fun getting creative along the way, is all that matters. Once you have all your acrylic painting supplies ready and you want to start painting check out Acrylic Painting Tips: A Beginners Guide. Happy Painting!

-Chelz