Today I wanted to talk a little bit about supplies. Universally art supplies come in 3 grades, student artist and professional. Art is to personal to justify saying one grade is the best to use. Factors such as financial situation or availability can also play a huge role in which you decide to you. There are 5 things you will need to paint canvas, easel, paints and solvent, brushes, and pallet.
Options for canvas are in plenty, but why are some $2 while others of the same size $50? Most pre stretched canvas comes as "double primed". The process of priming a canvas is done for several reasons.
First is made of either cotton or linen, both fibers being super absorbent. If you attempted to paint on raw canvas it will dry out the paint and eventually crumble.
Second these cloth fibers create a texture, depending on the style your going for these textures are either good or bad. The more you prime it the less texture you will see on the final piece.
Third over time exposure to oxygen will cause paint to fade. The primer behind and the varnish over top seals the paint in for lasting vibrancy.
The quality each company puts into these things will greatly affect the price. Usually the lower end canvas gets very cheap primer, but is still worth consideration that good primer is still cheap. With a little elbow grease a cheap canvas can be made better.
My personal opinion 99% of all store bought easels are complete crap. I picked this one up for $20 as a quick fix to not having one. It wabbled so much I decided to screw it down to the table. The pieces are not a perfect fix and it shakes a lot. Spend $20 or spend $1000 your still at risk of these issues. Your best bet is to head to a hardware store and build one yourself. Not only can you customize your size needs but you can insure the quality is high. This projects cost will be affected by your choices, but even top dollar will cost you far less than what you'll spend at an art store.
Student grade paint is mostly filler, it's cheap and it should only be used to practice.
Arist grade paint is a cheap alternative to professional paints. You will see most working artists using these as there pigments are still strong and the quality is still acceptable.
To understand why some of the more professional quality paints are so expensive you have to understand how oil paints are made. All oil paints consist of, pigment (a powdered form of the desired hue) usually extracted various sources, oil (typically linseed or walnut oil), and various fillers. The powered pigment is ground into the oil infusing the two together, and the fillers are added to help keep the color pure and free from distortion. Some of the cheaper paints also contain filler because the company is trying to get as much product out of as little pigment as possible, the higher qualities only contain those fillers that are absolutely vital.
Your choices in solvent is a matter of preference, they all do the job. I would suggest you pick one that is odorless and environmentally friendly.
DONT SKIMP ON YOUR BRUSHES!!! Buy the best ones you can afford. A bad brush will surely break down, but with proper care a good brush will last a lifetime. I allow mine to hang upside-down to dry.
Your pallet could be anything. I use a clear plastic one so that I can change the color depending on the color of canvas I plan to use.
Thanks for reading!!! If you enjoyed smash that upvote button and don't forget to let me know in the comments.
